To tell the story of the Creighton family, Hunt relied on family letters, records, and diaries as well as her own extensive research into the period. Like the protagonist Jethro, Hunt's grandfather was nine years old when the Civil War began.

Hunt based the book on the stories her grandfather told her about growing up in southern Illinois during the Civil War. Hunt explores the effect the war had on those family members that remained at home, shows the tensions that existed in the border states during the war, and examines how differing opinions about the war affected relationships between family members and their neighbors. The five Aprils referred to in the title are the five years during which the Civil War raged, beginning with the firing on Fort Sumter in April 1861 and ending with Confederate General Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House in April 1865. The novel tells the story of Jethro Creighton, a nine-year-old boy from a southern Illinois farm family who comes of age during the Civil War. Follet Award and the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award, and it became a Newbery Honor Book. The novel received a favorable review in the New York Times Book Review, earned a number of awards including the Charles W. This hundredth anniversary generated numerous books dealing with the conflict between the states, and Irene Hunt's first book garnered critical acclaim from the outset. Across Five Aprils was first released in the United States in 1964, during the country's five-year-long centennial to commemorate the Civil War.

Across five aprils book