CCBC (Cooperative Children's Book Center Choices 2009)
Jamie Dexter is “Army through and through.” Her dad is the Colonel, chief of staff at Fort Hood, Texas. Her older brother, TJ, has recently enlisted and is off to Vietnam. Jamie would go herself if she could. At twelve, she settles for working at the rec center on base, assisting Private Hollister, who’s in charge, with odd jobs when she isn’t engaging him in a spirited game of gin rummy. Jamie is fiercely proud of TJ and can’t imagine why the Colonel wanted him to wait until after college to enlist. Now she can’t wait to get his first letter. But when it comes, it’s written to her mom and dad and disappointingly spare. For Jamie, there is only a roll of exposed film with a request for her to develop it. Every subsequent letter from TJ has a roll of film for Jamie. She realizes that the pictures are his way of telling her about his life and the war in which he is serving, and that the photo of the moon he always includes bridges the distance between them. As Jamie’s skill in the darkroom grows, she is able to bring out greater detail and clarity in the prints, just as the photos themselves begin to reveal more of the tragedy that is war. At the same time, things in the rest of Jamie’s life grow increasingly unclear. Already puzzled by the Colonel’s lack of enthusiasm for TJ’s enlistment, she begins to wonder about the role her father plays in sending soldiers off to war, especially when Private Hollister announces he, too, may be headed for Vietnam. Frances O’Roark Dowell’s nuanced and finely told story features a cast of complex characters, at the center of which is a feisty, funny girl who finds so much of what she once knew to be true gradually shadowed by doubt. CCBC Category: Fiction for Children. 2008, Atheneum, 163 pages, $16.99. Ages 10-14.

Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, December 1, 2007 (Vol. 75, No. 23))
Having been raised in the Gospel According to the Colonel all her life, confirmed Army brat Jamie Dexter (who'll be 13 in December and therefore knows everything) is mystified when her father—the Colonel—seems less-than-delighted at her brother's choice to forego college for a tour in Vietnam. TJ does leave, however, and Jamie spends the summer volunteering at Fort Hood's rec center, playing endless games of gin with Private Hollister, her supervisor, and developing the rolls of film TJ sends her in lieu of real letters. Under the tutelage of Sgt. Byrd, stateside after a stint in Khe Sanh, she learns both how to develop and how to look at the pictures, which give her an intimate and terrifying glimpse into the reality of the war. Dowell works her narrative from both ends, interlacing the lead-up to TJ's departure into the story of Jamie's first summer without him, masterfully controlling both pacing and voice. It's a lovely, slim coming-of-age tale that uses TJ's pictures of the moon as a gorgeous and understated leitmotif to help guide Jamie's growth. Ineffably wise and picture-perfect. 2008, Atheneum, 176p, $16.99. Category: Fiction. Ages 10 to 14. Starred Review. © 2007 Kirkus Reviews/VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.

Claire Rosser (KLIATT Review, January 2008 (Vol. 42, No. 1))
Shooting the Moon has to do with photography, war, brothers and sisters. Jamie is the narrator, and she tells about her family and how they respond to her older brother T.J. enlisting in the Army to fight in the Vietnam War. Jamie is a 12-year-old who is smart but still has a childlike mind, believing exactly what she has been taught, not seeing nuance. By the end of the story, she is a different person. Her father is a colonel, who always has talked about the importance of the Army. So Jamie is astounded when he isn’t enthusiastic about T.J., his son, signing up for war. When T.J. leaves and sends home rolls of film for Jamie to develop, Jamie slowly sees the war with new eyes, T.J.’s eyes. The darkroom sessions and her new friends--one a soldier whose brother was killed in the war; another a soldier who is suffering from PTS disease after his experiences in Vietnam--mature Jamie as the months go by. Dowell is an experienced storyteller and she balances the serious nature of Shooting the Moon with the normal foibles of a 12-year-old. Category: Hardcover Fiction. KLIATT Codes: J--Recommended for junior high school students. 2008, Simon & Schuster, Atheneum, 163p., $16.99. Ages 12 to 15.

Elizabeth Bush (The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, February 2008 (Vol. 61, No. 6))
T. J. Dexter couldn’t wait to enlist in the Army at age eighteen, following his father, the Colonel, into a military career. His thirteen-year-old sister, Jamie, couldn’t be more proud—or more jealous—of his likely deployment to Vietnam. Both siblings are therefore surprised when the Colonel isn’t at all happy about his son’s decision and tries to dissuade him before the commitment locks in. After T. J. wins out, he’s sent overseas, and soon his mail begins arriving at the house—letters to his parents talking up the lousy food and good comradeship, and rolls of undeveloped film to his sister. Jamie uses her volunteer position in the base recreation center to learn to develop the film on her own, and each roll tells her a little more about his true circumstances than her parents’ letters reveal. Jamie begins to realize that her brother has had a harsh confrontation with reality, and the glamour of war loses its shine for her as well. With a clearer idea of what Vietnam service entails, Jamie importunes the Colonel to change the orders of her friend, Private Hollister, and leave him in a stateside posting, only to discover that her seemingly gung-ho father had, in fact, petitioned one of his superiors for the same consideration for T. J. and had been turned down. There is no shortage of children’s literature on wartime disillusionment, but Dowell approaches the discussion from a different angle, studying the complex emotions of the larger-than-life Colonel—his pride and dedication to the military and his country, his respect for his maturing son’s decisions, and his paternal instinct to keep his son from harm’s way. That the Colonel’s interior crisis is witnessed by his adoring daughter, who is experiencing a rude awakening of her own, makes the drama all the more poignant. There is comfort in an ending that assures readers that T. J. makes it home alive, but readers are left to ponder whether the next generation of the Dexter family will be quite so anxious to enlist Review Code: R -- Recommended. (c) Copyright 2006, The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. 2008, Atheneum, 176p.; Reviewed from galleys, $16.99. Grades 4-8.

Horn Book (The Horn Book Guide, Fall 2008)
In 1969, twelve-year-old Jamie's brother, TJ, enlists and is sent to Vietnam. He sends her film, which Jamie learns to develop. First it's touristy stuff, but troubling scenes start to appear. Dowell gets the details right in Jamie's first-person telling. The story arc is complicated and unpredictable--like war--and the climax packs a wallop. Category: Intermediate Fiction. 2008, Atheneum, 163pp, 16.99. Ages 9 to 12. Rating: 2: Superior, well above average.