This semi-autobiographical novel tells the story of the family of Bull Meecham, a Marine fighter pilot who runs his family with the strictness of a drill instructor shaping up a bunch of recruits. This book focuses mostly on the relationship between Bull and his eldest children. Ben, the first-born, is an athlete who can’t seem to please his father. Mary Ann, the second child, fights back against her father and the world with her biting sarcasm and charade of invincibility. This family illustrates many of the wrong ways to raise children, yet the love of the parents for their children is also evident. Many TCKs will identify with the four children’s varied responses to moving almost every year and having to repeatedly make friends in new schools.
Note: There are a lot of coarse jokes and sexual references in this book in the context of Marines or adolescent boys joking about these subjects.