My Brother Sam Is Dead
By James Lincoln Collier And Christopher Collier
Review by Blake A
I really liked this book. Although 99% of my classmates disagree, i think this book is very interesting. The title is a hook in itself. It starts off in the 1700’s during the revolutionary war, with Sam wanting to join the American Army. His dad, Life, supports the british and thinks the revolution is stupid. After a while, sam leaves and joins the army.

The amount of loss in this book is astonishing. After Sam leaves, his little brother Tim has to pick up the slack on the farm. Eventually, Life has to make a trip to sell and buy supplies. On the way there, they are ambushed by bandits. Luckily, they are saved by a couple of rangers. On the way back, they aren’t as lucky. Life goes to scout ahead to make sure there aren’t any bandits, and he doesn’t come back. He was kidnapped, and eventually killed. Tim had to drive the cattle home and become the man of the house. If thats not bad enough, it gets worse. When sam comes back from the army he gets framed for stealing cattle, and is executed. Those two events are probably the climax.
This book was very good to me, and i would definitely recommend it. Be warned that it will not interest everybody. Even though nothing goes right for Tim, it shows that not every story has a happy ending.