Synopses & Reviews
Andi Davis is looking for an escape from her disorganized, dysfunctional home life, and West Point seems the only logical way out. Andi figures that given everything she has had to put up with at home, West Point will be a breeze. But nothing could have prepared her for the first six weeks of cadet training, better known as Beast.
Andi is screamed at, belittled, and worn down during the long, grueling training that is designed to break cadets and then rebuild them into soldiers. The upper class cadets bark orders so fast that her head spins, and the fact that she is one of only two girls in her platoon makes things even more difficult. But Andi decides that anything is better than going home, anything.
This first novel by Amy Efaw, a West Point Class of 1989 graduate, is a powerful and gripping look at an intensely privatecommunity with its own rules and regulations. It shows us the terrors and triumphs of those who want to belong to a team.
Books for the Teen Age 2001 (NYPL)
Review
“Each character is a distinctive amalgam of flaws, foibles and moral grit, at once fresh and credible.” Bulletin of the Center for Children & #8217;s Books
Review
“Anyone interested in a military academy should read Battle Dress. Everyone else should read it because its a great story.” Arkansas Democrat & #150;Gazette
Synopsis
As a newly arrived freshman at West Point, seventeen-year-old Andi finds herself gaining both confidence and self esteem as she struggles to get through the grueling six weeks of new cadet training known as the Beast.
Synopsis
New York Public Library Books for the Teen Age
About the Author
Amy Efaw graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1989. She is currently a Captain in the U.S. Army Reserves and a mother of four. She has moved all around the country with her attorney husband, who is an active-duty army officer in the Judge Advocate General's Corps. She lives with her family in Tacoma, Washington.