Twelve-year-old Ares Ramirez has a lot of responsibility on his plate as a major caretaker in the life of his younger brother Malcolm, who is mentally handicapped, and trying to live a normal life with his eccentric mother in their trailer by the Salton Sea. Set in the late 1970's after the end of the Vietnam War, but living in an area still being used by the military for weapons testing, Ares' life is full of contradictions and challenges; as he befriends a troubled teenage boy he gets in over his head, with disastrous results. The God of War is an excellent novel exploring the challenges of family and circumstance.

Recommended by Sherri