In her thought-provoking sophomore novel for young adults, following The Prophet Calls, Melanie Sumrow once again takes on a familiar theme--a child trying to balance the desire to respect authority with standing up for what's right--in an unusual setting (in the case of The Inside Battle, from within a white supremacist, anti-government militia camp).
Thirteen-year-old Rebel Mercer wants two things: he wants to make it to the regionals in the school robotics competition and he wants to win his father's approval. Unfortunately, the two goals seem to be mutually exclusive. His dad is a Marine, "an actual American hero" who survived five deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan before being sent home with PTSD. Unable to settle into a productive life back in Amarillo, Tex., he has instead been re-creating battle scenes on a ping-pong table in the basement, listening to talk radio about the "evils of immigrants" and chatting online with a militia group called the Flag Bearers. He believes he's being cheated out of jobs by non-white people. Seeing his son reject football in favor of robotics (or "toys," as he dismisses his son's passion) disgusts him. When Rebel's mother died last year, the buffer between father and son was lost, although Rebel's Aunt Birdie does her best to help.
In a moment of rage after Rebel's best (but secret) friend Ajeet beats him in the robotics competition, Rebel begins to wonder if his father has a point: "They steal what belongs to us," his dad says. Rebel makes an impulsive, ruinous choice and in almost no time is driving into the mountains with his father, in search of the Flag Bearers compound. At first, Rebel believes what his father tells Aunt Birdie, that they're just getting away for a while, spending time together fishing and hiking. Once he's being told to shoot human-shaped targets with a semi-automatic rifle, though, he knows this is no holiday.
Sumrow takes on an incredibly fraught subject with care and restraint, remaining firmly within Rebel's point of view as a young teen who desperately longs for his macho father's esteem even as he wages an internal battle against his racist indoctrination. His transformation from a boy who believes he has no authority over his own life to a young man who ultimately rebels against flagrant immorality is both believable and inspiring, even if his circumstances are unimaginable for most readers. Entering Rebel's world will be an eye-opening, disturbing but rewarding experience for young readers. --Emilie Coulter, freelance writer and editor
Shelf Talker: In The Inside Battle, a 13-year-old trying to please his idolized father inadvertently joins a white supremacist militia.