Good-bye, Billy Radish

Good-bye, Billy Radish

First edition
Author	Gloria Skurzynski
Language	English
Genre	Historical fiction
Publisher	Simon & Schuster
Publication date	1992
Publication place	United States
Media type	Print (hardback)
Pages	198
ISBN	0-02-782921-9
OCLC	35909001

Good-bye, Billy Radish is a prize-winning, historical, young-adult novel by the American writer Gloria Skurzynski.

It is set in 1917 in the fictional mill town of Canaan (a parallel to the author's hometown of Duquesne, Pennsylvania, just south of Pittsburgh on the Monongahela River). The book tells the story of two working-class boys, Hank Kerner, who considers himself all-American, and his best friend Bazyli Radichevych, a Ukrainian immigrant whom Hank nicknames Billy Radish. Both are scheduled to enter the steel mill when they turn 14. As they exit childhood, they must cope with the challenges of industrial life as America enters World War I.

In 1992 the novel was selected one of the year's "Best Books" by the School Library Journal.

"A steep wooden stairway descends from one Pittsburgh street to another, and, at its foot, two boys meet for the first time, bridging a gap of language and culture to extend the hand of friendship. With all the innocent arrogance of the second-generation American, Hank Kerner dubs Ukrainian Bazyli Radichevich 'Billy Radish', and Billy Radish he remains, to all but his family, until the end. Older and bigger than Hank, the boy has already graduated to long pants, will soon show an interest in girls, and looks forward to his 14th birthday when he can leave school and take a man's job (7 days a week, 12 hours a day) in the mill. Steel mill accidents and the war take their toll on the boys' world, but it's the Spanish influenza that strikes tragically and without warning. In this story permeated with the realities of life in World War I Pittsburgh, characters, time, and place spring vividly to life from the very first pages."

Marcia Hupp

External links

• The Gloria Skurzynki papers