Till Tomorrow

By John Donahue

Peer pressure among army brats. Terrence O'Brien -- O.B. -- son of an army officer, arrives at the American base in Meuse, France, during his twelfth summer, in 1961. Right away, O.B. is told there are two kinds of boys around, aces and deuces. Purportedly, the biggest deuce of all is a French boy from the village. Claude turns up at the baseball tryouts, and then it seems he turns up everywhere, even at O.B.'s house. O.B. is embarrassed by Claude's overtures of friendship, but he soon sees that the French boy is clever, talented, and funny. He also discovers, as Claude introduces him to the dangerous World War I battlefield at nearby Verdun, where live shells remain concealed, and to a site that O.B. later considers a possible safe haven during the Berlin crisis, that Claude may be his best friend. In the end, though, it is Claude's bravery -- and O.B.'s -- that makes him accepted by the boys at the base. John Donahue skillfully portrays the common adolescent struggle to fit in with the prevailing crowd and yet be true to oneself, in this unusual novel set near Verdun, against the backdrop of the Berlin crisis.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0374375801
• ISBN13: 9780374375805
• Release Date: September 2001
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
• Length: 176 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.8" x 0.8" x 6.0"
• Age Range: 8 to 12 years
• Grade Range: Grades 3 to 7

Customer Reviews

TILL TOMORROW is an enjoyable tale.

Terrence O'Brien, O. B. to his friends, finds himself caught in the middle of a rigid social scene in John Donahue's TILL TOMORROW. In 1961 he moves with him family to the American military base in Meuse, France, near the site of a famous and bloody World War I battle. He soon meets "Cannonball" Wall, who explains the social structure among the young people at the base. There are two categories --- aces and deuces. The aces are the cool guys; the deuces are to be avoided at all costs. O. B., of course, longs to be an ace, but soon develops a friendship with a French boy named Claude. "Claude the Clod," as he is called by the base aces, lacks athletic ability, dresses in French styles that the Americans consider weird and tells corny jokes. But he is also kind to O. B., especially after O. B. fails to make the base's baseball team. Claude teaches the new arrival much about France --- and friendship. O. B. is a very honest narrator, sharing his feelings of disappointment, confusion, loneliness, fright, and happiness with the reader. It is easy to sympathize with him as he tries to fit in at the base, so far away from his old home in the United States. By the novel's end, O. B. and the reader seem almost as close as O. B. and his friends in France. Much of the book is built around baseball --- a game that O. B. desperately wants to be good at so that he can make the team. Donahue takes his narrator from the depths of disappointment at an embarrassing tryout to the height of victory later in the book. Along the way, baseball practice provides a fine scene for O. B. and his father, a man with lots of responsibility who also always finds a way to spend important time with his wife and son. Donahue does a fine job writing about adult characters like O. B.'s father and Claude's grandfather as well as about the young people. The threat of war provides much of the book's late tension, but Donahue never loses track of his primary story --- the development of lasting friendships. TILL TOMORROW is an enjoyable tale of boys learning that there is more to friendship than being cool. --- Reviewed by Rob Cline (rjbcline@aol.com)