Harry Mazer Books In Order

A Boy At War

They rowed hard, away from the battleships and the bombs. Water sprayed over them. The rowboat pitched one way and then the other. Then, before his eyes, the Arizona lifted up out of the water. That enormous battleship bounced up in the air like a rubber ball and split apart. Fire burst out of the ship. A geyser of water shot into the air and came crashing down. Adam was almost thrown out of the rowboat. He clung to the seat as it swung around. He saw blue skies and the glittering city. The boat swung back again, and he saw black clouds, and the Arizona, his father’s ship, sinking beneath the water. from A Boy At War ‘He kept looking up, afraid the planes would come back. The sky was obscured by black smoke…
. It was all unreal: the battleships half sunk, the bullet holes in the boat, Davi and Martin in the water.’ December 7, 1941: On a quiet Sunday morning, while Adam and his friends are fishing near Honolulu, a surprise attack by Japanese bombers destroys the fleet at Pearl Harbor. Even as Adam struggles to survive the sudden chaos all around him, and as his friends endure the brunt of the attack, a greater concern hangs over his head: Adam’s father, a navy lieutenant, was stationed on the USS Arizona when the bombs fell. During the subsequent days Adam not yet a man, but no longer a boy is caught up in the war as he desperately tries to make sense of what happened to his friends and to find news of his father. Harry Mazer, whose autobiographical novel, The Last Mission, brought the European side of World War II to vivid life, now turns to the Pacific theater and how the impact of war can alter young lives forever.

A Boy No More

‘What about what they did to my father?…
The Japs killed him!’…
I shouldn’t have said ‘Jap,’ but Davi knew I didn’t mean him. It was the country where his parents were born. If his parents hadn’t come to Hawaii, Davi would have been born there too. I lay there looking up into the dark, thinking, yes, it could have been him on one of those planes.

After witnessing the USS Arizona sink in Pearl Harbor with his father aboard fifteen year old Adam Pelko, along with his mother and young sister, moves from Hawaii to California. Without his dad, facing a new school and new surroundings is hard enough, but then Adam’s best friend, Davi Mori, writes from Hawaii asking for help in finding his father. Davi and his family are Japanese American, and his father has been arrested and is imprisoned somewhere in the United States.

What is Adam to do? Can he risk traveling to Manzanar, a Japanese internment camp, and asking questions? At a time when the nation is threatened and all foreigners are viewed with suspicion, who can Adam trust?

In this riveting follow up to his acclaimed book A Boy at War, Harry Mazer explores questions of friendship and loyalty against the backdrop of World War II, a time when boys had to grow up fast.

Heroes Don’t Run

‘I WANTED TO SERVE, TO BE PART OF THIS THING MY FATHER HAD GIVEN HIS LIFE FOR. I DIDN’T WANT THE WAR TO END, AND ALL I’D BE ABLE TO SAY WAS, NO I DIDN’T SERVE, I WAS RIGHT HERE THE WHOLE WAR, SAFE IN BAKERSFIELD.’

Adam Pelko witnessed the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor that killed his father, a lieutenant on the USS Arizona. Even though Adam is underage, he defies his mother’s wishes and enlists in the Marines. Sent first to boot camp, then to Okinawa, he experiences the stark reality of war firsthand the camaraderie and the glory as well as the grueling regimen, the paralyzing fear, and death. And at every turn, Adam must confront memories of his father.

In the concluding volume of his World War II trilogy, Harry Mazer masterfully illustrates Adam’s journey as he navigates brutal circumstances that no boy should know.

Snow Bound

FOR USE IN SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES ONLY. Two emotionally immature, pampered teenagers are forced to come to grips with raw survival.

The Solid Gold Kid

Derek Chapman hitches a ride and later realizes he has unwittingly assisted in what he has dreaded and anticipated his own kidnapping.

The War On Villa Street

In 1944, as World War II is raging across Europe, fifteen year old Jack Raab dreams of being a hero. Leaving New York City, his family, and his boyhood behind, Jack uses a false I.D. and lies his way into the U.S. Air Force. From their base in England, he and his crew fly twenty four treacherous bombing missions over occupied Europe. The war is almost over and Hitler near defeat when they fly their last mission a mission destined for disaster. Shot down far behind enemy lines, Jack is taken prisoner and sent to a German POW camp, where his experiences are more terrifying than anything he’d ever imagined.

The Last Mission

In 1944, as World War II is raging across Europe, fifteen year old Jack Raab dreams of being a hero. Leaving New York City, his family, and his boyhood behind, Jack uses a false I.D. and lies his way into the U.S. Air Force. From their base in England, he and his crew fly twenty four treacherous bombing missions over occupied Europe. The war is almost over and Hitler near defeat when they fly their last mission a mission destined for disaster. Shot down far behind enemy lines, Jack is taken prisoner and sent to a German POW camp, where his experiences are more terrifying than anything he’d ever imagined.

The Island Keeper

Unable to deal with her uncaring family, Cleo runs away to a deserted island in Canada where she hopes to prove herself. But when she finally decides to return home, her canoe has been destroyed, and she faces the ultimate challenge in surviving the Canadian winter. Reissue.

I Love You, Stupid!

High school senior Marcus Rosenbloom decides to cross the wall that divides childhood from adulthood, but finds it’s not the simple matter he thought it would be.

The Girl of His Dreams

Willis thinks he wants to fall in love but when Sophie comes into his life, and falls in love with him, he’s not sure if she really is The Girl of His Dreams.

Bright Days, Stupid Nights

When four teenagers from diverse backgrounds land summer internships at a prestigious newspaper, they each hope that the experience will change their lives. By the authors of The Solid Gold Kid.

The Wild Kid

‘Can I go home now?’ After his bike gets stolen, twelve year old Sammy gets lost in the woods near his home. He stumbles upon the makeshift hideaway of the ‘wild kid’ named Kevin, who has run away from reform school. Will this strongly independent tough let Sammy get home to his family? Can they both survive in the unforgiving wilderness?

My Brother Abe

Virtually nothing is known about Sarah Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln’s older sister. This novel will follow the few known facts of the Lincoln family’s early life, starting with the Lincolns’ move from Kentucky to Indiana when Sarah was nine. It will cover their years living in a log cabin, the death of Sarah and Abe’s mother when Sarah was eleven and Sarah’s new responsibilities as woman of the cabin, and will culminate in the arrival of a stepmother a year later. The details of Sarah’s character will be invented, but this novel will give us real insight into Abraham Lincoln’s childhood, as well as the role of women on the frontier.

Somebody, Please Tell Me Who I Am

A soldier returns home from Iraq forever changed in this poignant and pivotal novel from award winning authors one a veteran. Ben lives a charmed life effortlessly landing the lead in the high school musical, dating the prettiest girl in school. When he decides to enlist in the army, no one thinks he ll be in real danger. But his decision has devastating consequences: His convoy gets caught in an explosion, and Ben ends up in a coma for two months. When he wakes up, he doesn t know where he is or remember anything about his old life. His family and friends mourn what they see as a loss, but Ben perseveres. And as he triumphs, readers will relate to this timely novel that pairs the action and adventure of the best war stories with the emotional elements of struggle and transformation. As an underage soldier in WWII, Henry Mazer has firsthand experience of what it means to be a young man in the military.

The Dog in the Freezer

This trio of finely crafted novellas charts the emotional ties that bind a boy with a dog. 176 pp.

Twelve Shots

Guns. They are an undeniable part of contemporary life. Stories about their use and misuse spice the nightly news, the papers, and our favorite TV shows. Guns shape the course of history. They make us wild with excitement or red with anger, sick to our stomachs or convinced that we’re safe. Guns provoke extreme emotions in all of us. In this riveting collection of short fiction, twelve authors explore the emotion driven world of guns. Dealing with everything from a city kid’s desperation to a country boy’s first glimpse of manhood, from a girl’s struggle against helplessness to a teenage trio’s horrifying battle of wills, these original stories are as varied and exceptional as the authors themselves. Sometimes shocking, occasionally funny, and often intensely sad, these stories are all thought provoking and addictively readable. A superb anthology, passionate and hard hitting, Twelve Shots helps us understand our world and solidify our own beliefs.