On Blood Road (a Vietnam War novel)

Steve Watkins

Oct 2018 · Sold by Scholastic Inc.

About this ebook

A high-stakes, gripping survival novel from Steve Watkins, set during the Vietnam War.

The last place on earth Taylor Sorenson wants to be is in Saigon in the middle of the Vietnam War. His mom dragged him here to visit his dad, who's stationed at the US embassy, and Taylor is bored out of his skull. One night, during an embassy dinner, he decides to sneak out to see the Tet celebrations in the city. But before he makes it very far, fighting erupts across all of South Vietnam--and Taylor is captured by the North Vietnamese Army.Realizing he could be an important bargaining chip, the NVA decides to move Taylor to the North. The only way there is the Ho Chi Ming Trail, a series of dangerous paths that snake from South Vietnam through Laos and Cambodia before finally reaching North Vietnam. But thousands have died on the trail, and Taylor doesn't know what's waiting for him at the end.What follows is a harrowing journey during one of the most controversial wars in US history, where one boy is forced to confront the true cost of war, and what it really means to survive.

About the author

Steve Watkins is the author of the young adult novels On Blood Road, Juvie, What Comes After, Great Falls, as well as the middle-grade novels Down Sand Mountain, Sink or Swim, and the Ghosts of War series. A former professor of journalism, creative writing, and Vietnam War literature, Steve cofounded and helps a nonprofit yoga studio and works with an urban reforestation organization in his hometown of Fredericksburg, Virginia.