Adventures in Librarianing

Almost Forever

Maria Testa

69 pages; published 2003

The four of us

gathered

with other families,

we all gathered

in a building

on the Army base,

all in a special room

set aside

for saying goodbye.

One year

is not

such a long time,

Daddy said,

kneeling on one knee

in front of me,

squeezing

my shoulders.

In one year, Baby

you'll be in

second grade,

not first,

and you'll be

seven years old,

not six,

and then

I'll be home.

One year

is not

such a long time.

I did not

tell Daddy

that he was wrong -

that second grade

was half a hallway

and a whole world

away from first,

that seven

was everything

six was not,

and that one year

was forever.

There are literally hundreds of war books told through the voice of the soldier. Almost Forever, however, speaks through the unique (to me at least) voice of the soldier's child.

The innocent, six-year-old narrator watches as her father, a doctor, goes off to fight in Vietnam. Far from the horrors her father is undoubtedly witnessing, his young daughter is dealing with the impact the war has had on her and her family back home: moving house, letters from her father, seeing her mother cry, and, worst of all, starting to forget what her father really looks like.

This book is told entirely through verse, short beautifully simple poems that convey both her sense of loss and hope to see her father again. 3/5

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