Moonshiner's Son

I thought that the book "Moonshiner's Son" was a really good piece of historical fiction. It had very good characters and a very good plot. It is based during the Prohibition period when the making and selling of alcohol was illegal. The main character, Tom, is proud to be a moonshiner, but his new friend Amy is changing the way he thinks about making alcohol.

Being twelve is hard but being twelve and making moonshine during the Prohibition period is even harder. That is what Tom Higgins has to deal with every day. He is the son of a moonshiner named June Higgins. They both live in what is known as Bad Camp Hollow, which is in the Virginia Blue Ridge Mountains. Then a preacher comes to talk about the evils of drink and then Tom
catches Amy, the preachers daughter, pouring salt on his father's mash which creates tension between Preacher Taylor and June. While avoiding all the revenuers and law enforcers that Preacher Taylor sent out, Tom and his father make and sell moonshine. Tom always thought that making moonshine was an art and he was proud of it until a drunk man caused a fire and almost killed Miz Brown. He had many doubts of whether or not he should make moonshine anymore until he came up with the decision to not make moonshine ever again. Then the day came when he had to tell his father. When he told his father Tom was beaten by his dad who regretted ever hurting the boy. At this point the father also made a vow to not make moonshine. Tom and his dad went on living making no more liquor. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to know how moonshiners felt about making their moonshine.

One thing about the book is that I can relate to this book in some ways. I am first of all about the same age as Tom. I have a father that is serious and I know how it feels like to be yelled at almost all the time. I try to make my father proud by doing stuff well like Tom.

A good element of the book is that it tells you the life of crime through a child's point of view. It tells how Tom felt about being proud of something his family has made for years. How he felt when being caught by the revenuers. He had also tricked a revenuer once.

It tells the danger of being a moonshiner and all the stuff they went through to make it. First they talk about how you should grow corn and then later grind it into stuff. They talk about how you should hide the still and how to hide it if a revenuer comes and inspects the houses. It also shows how when you get caught you have to pay a price.
I recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in the Prohibition period and wondered how people in the mountains lived during this time.
J. Trejo

The book is about a boy named Tom that is learning his family's trade, the art of making moonshine. All is going well until a preacher and his family move to the Virginia Blue Ridge Mountains to rid the area of the "evils of drink". Tom then has to find out who is ruining his father's moonshine. The book truly gets exciteing when the preacher sends revenuers to his father.

I liked this book a lot because it wasn't very hard to get into for it was full of excitement. I didn't like the book because it could have been longer. This book is the best I have ever read. I would recomend it to any who enjoy a good adventure.

I liked this book a lot. I'm 14 and I really would not recconmend it for kids my age. The whole book was about Tom who was trying to win favor in his father's eye (in other words trying to make his father proud of him), and making moonshine. Tom loves to help his father make it, but he's never seen it in action. Will he change his mind? Is it really worth it? What about making his father proud? I think kids 10-12 would like this book. I think 13 year olds might read it but won't enjoy it as much as the younger kids. This is a good book for boys too. Hope this review helped.

Moonshiner's Son is a great book with an excellent story line. Tom Higgings is a moonshiner's boy. His dad's name is June Higgins,which is short for Junior Higgins. Tom's mother left his father because she didn't endorse the idea of moonshining when prohibition had forbidded it. Tom wants to be a moonshiner when he grows up but when Preacher Taylor moves to the remote hills of Virginia to setup a mission, he wanted to rid the hills of the "evils of liquor." The preacher also brought his daugher, Amy. Amy has an influence on Tom, no just any influence, but one like the Sun rising in the morning, if it didn't rise most people wouldn't go to work. When Tom meets Amy spoiling the mash in his father's still he feels a slight sensation that was different than others. Tom knows that the girl had to be rich,even though she wasn't, he didn't know that. Without Amy, this book wouldn't be as exciting. Amy persuades Tom that he shouldn't be a moonshiner when he grows up, especially after seeing what happened to Widow Brown, a beloved friend to Tom and his father, after some folks in a corn shuckling burnt down the barn after they got drunk drinking his fathers apple brandy. But Tom had to stick up to his father who expected him to be next moonshiner in the Higgins family. This would be the hardest thing that Tom would ever do in his life. This is the climax, without this event there would be no point in reading this book. But Tom didn't know what he would do if he wasn't going to be a moonshiner. But he knew that his dad was excellent at making chairs. Tom wanted to start making chairs. At the still his dad told him to keep it going but Tom had a knife and a block of wood. He sticks up to his father who slapped him and abused him for a few minutes. But Tom's dad soon realizes that moonshining wouldn't be the family tradition anymoreif Tom would teach his kid. He teaches Tom how to make chairs. This is an excellent part of the book. The characters in this book make it very exciting. There are events in this book that make it even more intriguing. But when the book reaches its climax, it is very thrilling. For people who love historical fiction, this is one of the best historical fiction books that I have read. Clearly, there are plenty of reasons to read Moonshiner's Son. One, it is very exciting. It is exciting that it is history. Two, it has plenty of action. If one important event in thee book is happening, another equally important is also. Three, it has a great risk taking stand that is exciting when at the climax. I have given a brief reccommendation for this book which isn't even as great as the book itself. Moonshiner's Son is a great book for people who enjoy fiction with a touch of history. It has a great introduction and an unpredictable ending. I would like Carolyn Reeder to write a sequel to Moonshiner's Son because I would like to know how Tom and his dad make out making chairs and if the emotions felt by Tom and Amy urge them to marry. Once again, this is very,very good book.