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Slain 1st sgt. gives fatherly advice in book

Jordan Canedy is a lucky boy, if you can call a boy without a father lucky. But most children aren’t left a 200-page journal written by their dad. A man-to-man talk of sorts.

Not only that, Jordan’s mother is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who knows a good story when she sees one.

So she builds a book around the journal, giving her son an even richer portrait of a man who died when Jordan was only 7 months old.

“A Journal for Jordan” is a brutally honest look at Dana Canedy’s life with 1st Sgt. Charles Monroe King, who was killed in Iraq in October 2006.

King began writing his journal the year before, just in case he didn’t come home.

The book is part news story, part confessional.

Canedy, a senior editor at “The New York Times,” writes that she doesn’t know whether King was a hero or a fool to volunteer for the mission that killed him.

She says the two were an odd match and wonders why she resisted marrying him, leaving her the “unofficial” widow.

She also acknowledges she doesn’t have all the answers, although as a reporter, she doesn’t stop asking the questions.

Part of the team that won a Pulitzer Prize for national reporting in 2001, Canedy wasn’t satisfied with the Army’s official version of how King died. So she did her own reporting and discovered a few things about King she did not know.

The one thing she does know is that King loved his son, whom he met only once. The strength of the book lies in the simple excerpts from King’s journal that are sprinkled through the pages. His frequent advice brings the story back to him, a looming presence still:

“Son, you are an African American. Always be proud of who you are. You will be challenged because of your complexion and the color of your eyes. Let your character and deeds shine in everything you do.”

King conceded he wasn’t a writer. On the journal’s final page, he even apologizes for his poor handwriting and grammar, then bids his son well.

“Be strong, take care of your family and live life well.”

This book is a gift, and not only to Jordan.