But...What If?

 Author's Summary

Homecomings are wonderful reunions but they can be stressful at times. Will Daddy remember me? Will I remember him? Daddy is coming home, but he's been gone a long time. Will he recognize Bean? Will Bean be able to pick Daddy out in a sea of soldiers? Being deployed is a fact of life for soldiers of all military branches. Humanitarian efforts, Operations Other than War (OOW), peaceful or wartime missions - a soldier's duty is to be there. And, when it's time to come home, sometimes the unknown can be scary.

But... What if? is a loving description of the subtle insecurities a child of a returning male soldier may have.

MWSA Review

If you are not military this book will not touch you as deeply, but it is still relevant. It is difficult enough for adults to understand the feelings and emotions inflicted on them by forced separation, both in the leaving and returning of a spouse or family member. I know from returning from back to back deployments totaling almost two years that on the emotional scale Mount Everest pales in comparison.

To be a young child and have to go through these experiences is more than painful and will and does cause many tears to flow. The gamut of emotions a child experiences can be more than draining at such a young age. Ms. Linhart explains and deals with these insecurities in her book in a manner that children can understand and adults can share and together they can relate coherently to. 

Reviewed by: jim greenwald (2010)