Stand Down by Zack Emerson

Publisher: Scholastic

Year: 1992

Pages: 323

See the previous book in this series, ‘Tis the Season.

I often like to tell the story of how I ended up paying $25 for this book (which cost, I think, $3.95 list price). This was the late-ish 90s, before used book stores had a significant online presence; I’d found one of the series at a brick-and-mortar store in Omaha, Nebraska; I had a copy of Hill 568 that was literally falling apart—the library had given it to me instead of trashing it—but couldn’t find any others. After getting ‘Tis the Season from some mom & pop seller online for a good price, I was stymied in finding Stand Down; the only seller that had it was some douchebag out of New York that wanted $25 dollars for it.

I remember emailing him and asking how he justified such an outlandish price. His—refreshingly honest—reply? “Have to pay for the books that don’t move.” Well, dammit; I bought the book.

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'Tis the Season by Zack Emerson

Publisher: Scholastic

Year: 1991

Pages: 254

See the previous book in this series, Hill 568.

If Zack Emerson had continued to write novels in the vein of Welcome to Vietnam and Hill 568, I imagine that the series could have quickly gotten old. In fact, when I first read the series, I read ‘Tis the Season (#3) second, since Hill 568 was not immediately available to me.

At the time, I was somewhat disappointed, I think: as a boy, I found the story of Rebecca the Army Nurse to be less thrilling than that of Michael the Infantry Grunt, hauling a machine gun around the jungle. She was, after all, a girl. On later readings, however, and—thank the lord—advancing age and maturity, I rediscovered ‘Tis the Season as the pivotal point in Emerson’s series.

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Hill 568 by Zack Emerson

Publisher: Scholastic

Year: 1991

Pages: 230

See the previous book in this series, Welcome to Vietnam

Most novels or series of novels about war inevitably come to the climactic moment where is illustrated the old saying, “War is Hell.” Hill 568 is the second novel in Zack Emerson’s (Ellen Emerson White’s) series about Vietnam, and it’s firmly by this point that the series has gone past its sit-com beginnings (mixed-race squad; all that’s missing is Archie Bunker as a lieutenant) and descended into the sort of implicit antiwar feeling that marks most books of its nature.

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Welcome to Vietnam by Zack Emerson

Publisher: Scholastic

Year: 1991

Pages: 208

I first read Welcome to Vietnam in the 6th grade. Being something of an overachiever, I usually finished assignments in half the allotted time and found myself looking for things to do. My teacher—bless her heart—usually sent me off to the library to find a book.

At the time, I had no particular interest in the Vietnam War (barely even knew what it was, actually, but flipped idly through it and noticed several curse words immediately. Imagine yourself as a young boy, given the opportunity to read a book from your school library that employed the phrase “typical Army bullshit” within the first few pages? You’d read it, wouldn’t you? I did.

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