Twenty-one steps : guarding the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier /

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

With every step, the Tomb Guards pay homage to America's fallen. Discover their story, and that of the unknown soldiers they honor, through resonant words and illustrations.

Keeping vigil at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, in Arlington National Cemetery, are the sentinel guards, whose every step, every turn, honors and remembers America's fallen. They protect fellow soldiers who have paid the ultimate sacrifice, making sure they are never alone. To stand there--with absolute precision, in every type of weather, at every moment of the day, one in a line uninterrupted since midnight July 2, 1937--is the ultimate privilege and the most difficult post to earn in the army. Everything these men and women do is in service to the Unknowns. Their standard is perfection.

Exactly how the unnamed men came to be entombed at Arlington, and exactly how their fellow soldiers have come to keep vigil over them, is a sobering and powerful tale, told by Jeff Gottesfeld and luminously illustrated by Matt Tavares--a tale that honors the soldiers who honor the fallen.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

School Library Journal Review

Gr 3--5--This title is a tribute to the nameless fallen soldiers and the sentinels who guard the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery. The poetic prose uses the collective first person to describe the deceased's imagined appreciation for the sentinels. The narrative begins with "The Sentinel's Creed," and concludes with a factual afterword. The main text provides a history and reverence for the dedication and exactitude of the guards who pace in precise intervals, every hour of every day. The somber and inclusive illustrations are drawn in pencil and painted digitally. The people who guard the tomb are depicted as strong, stoic men and women. Soldiers and family members include Black characters. Readers see the gleam of their highly polished shoes, the reflection in their mirrored sunglasses, and their perfectly pressed uniforms flecked in snow. The crowds visiting the tomb vary in age and race; one is shown with a head covering, one wears a yarmulke, one has a prosthetic leg, and one uses a wheelchair. The occasionally awkward first-person viewpoint combined with some difficult vocabulary may make it difficult for the youngest readers. VERDICT This book's message of selflessness is as clear as the click of the metal-studded heels of sentinels walking their appointed steps.--Lisa Taylor, Florida State Coll., Jacksonville

Horn Book Review

"In life we were our mothers' sons. / In death we are faded photos on the mantel, / empty chairs at Thanksgiving, / prayers in the dark before dawn. / We are known but to God." The remains of unidentified soldiers from World Wars I and II and the Korean War are interred in the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery, representing the "countless unknowns" buried in other cemeteries in the United States and around the world. Gottesfeld's poetic text is in the voice of the first Unknown Soldier, borne by a horse-drawn wagon to Arlington in 1921 and, after a twenty-one-gun salute, laid to rest on the eleventh day of the eleventh month, at the eleventh hour (the time the WWI armistice was signed in 1918). Tomb Guards, devoted to the "Sentinel's Creed" (the text of which opens the volume), guard the tomb around the clock every day. Published to coincide with the hundredth anniversary of the establishment of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, this book is a gorgeous and reverent tribute both to veterans and to the Tomb Guards. Tavares's illustrations, rendered in pencil and painted digitally, variously show battle scenes, views of Arlington National Cemetery and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and portraits of the Tomb Guards at work. A brief afterword adds more information. Dean Schneider March/April 2021 p.113(c) Copyright 2021. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Kirkus Book Review

An up-close look at the sentinels who protect and honor America's fallen. "I am an Unknown. I am one of many." Instantly personal, instantly heart-rending. The unnamed, unknown soldier in the tomb at Arlington National Cemetery tells this story. World War I took not only the lives of many, but, tragically, their identities as well. "Nameless and faceless" heroes were impossible to reunite with loved ones. Families were unable to properly mourn. In 1921, one soldier was chosen to represent the Unknowns. Gottesfeld's text, spare and shining, gently gives the backstory. But it is the unexpected footsteps--21 to be exact--of the soldier who stands guard and 21 seconds of silence that resound loudly and purely. "With each step, my war was over." Forearms are kept at 90-degree angles. Hat brims are two finger widths above the eye. The precision of dress and deliberate, smooth actions of the Tomb Guards emanate honor and respect, but the first-person narration shows a personal perspective. A 24-hour guard gives comfort and companionship. "From that moment, I have never been alone again." Tavares' magisterial art soars, awash in opposing forces: shadowed but luminous, soaked in both melancholy and reverence. All sentinels ("men and women of every race, religion, and creed") take this honor seriously, expressed in the "Sentinel's Creed" reproduced in the frontmatter. The fallen who have died nameless deserve the very best. This is it. Impeccably honors its subject. (afterword) (Informational picture book. 5-10) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Cherie Bennett and Jeff Gottesfeld, Cherie Bennett and her husband, Jeff Gottesfeld, often write on teen themes. This novel is for Berkley; they wrote the Trash series together, while Cherie authored the best-selling Berkley series Sunset Island. Cherie writes both paperback and hardcover fiction-"Life in the Fat Land, Zink"-while her Copley News Service syndicated column, "Hey, Cherie!" appears in papers coast to coast. She is also one of America's finest young playwrights and a back-to-back winner of the Kennedy Center's "New Visions/New Voices" playwriting award. Cherie and Jeff live in Nashville and Los Angeles.