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.