A rather humdrum offering, The Summer of the Drums by T.V. Olsen is set in 1832 during the Black Hawk War. Telling the story of one pioneer family that becomes involved in the conflict, I found it to be a rather formulaic and predictable story. The father thinks that the Sauk Indians have been mistreated and driven from their lands by greedy whites and wants no part of the war. They are attacked anyway and lose their oldest son in the fight. The youngest son wounds a young brave and they take him into their home and nurse him back to health. He turns out to be Black Hawk’s grandson, and the two young men forge a life-long bond.

Along with the predictable storyline, the characters were not well drawn. The bad guys were almost cartoons in their villainy and the good guys were just too noble and upright to be believable. Summer of the Drums was a quick and easy read but really had nothing to add to my knowledge of the Black Hawk War. ( )