Ellen Klages and Skila Brown are both writers of historical fiction. In both books, White Sands, Red Menace, and Caminar the authors write about teens but from different backgrounds. Though, they have different experiences with the army, and how they interact with them. Another point to notice is how a teenager has been affected by an armed conflict and teens’ point of view about that.
Ellen Klages’s story White Sands, Red Menace takes place in Alamogordo, New Mexico after the end of the Second World War, the book may have this name because in real life exists the ”White Sands Missile Range” that sets in Alamogordo the same place that the story occurs. However, the book Caminar has this name for the reason that the Mother of Carlos (the main character) says to him that if he listens to the sound of gunshots and screaming, he needs to go to the mountains and don’t look back. Still, the story sets in Guatemala, and in this country, they speak Spanish, and the word Caminar in English walks, so we can understand that he needs to walk and don’t look back.
in both stories there is some connection with the country’s army, however, this connection is very different in the two books in one he is ‘for the country’ in the other he is killing civilians.
in red menace, the American army defended the country in WWII and tried to protect its people as much as possible from the Germans, even going so far as to build a nuclear bomb. while the Guatemalan army carried out a ”hunt” for communists who are still in the population, the army said they were a threat to the country.
The Second World War ends in 1945 and Ellen Klages’s story occurs precisely at that time, Dewey is a girl that has only a father, and he dies in the war. She has been traumatized by the war, she cannot listen to a high sound like an explosion of fireworks, because she thinks that it is gunshots or real blasts. But the story sets at the end of the war. On the other hand, Caminar Carlos has only the mother, and the book doesn’t give any information about the father. The time that story passes in the 80 decades and is different from the other book, there is a civil war happening and Carlos has been very affected because when the army of Guatemala invades the village of Carlos and kills almost everybody including the mother, and he needs to walk many kilometers in the forest trying to escape from the army, this is a very hard assignment for an adult now think for a teen of 13 years. Although White sands, red menace, and Caminar are both historical fiction stories, in both stories there is a connection with the army. How it affects a teenager, it is more than clear that any type of armed conflict is harmful and this is intensified for young people, as they can carry this trauma for the rest of their lives. a little worse when your country’s armed forces are against the population because you feel that you can’t even trust your own army.
