My Brother Sam is Dead is a novel by James Lincoln Collier about a boy named Timothy Meeker living during the American Revolutionary War. Timothy's father is a loyalist and his patriot brother is forced to leave home, eventually joining the Continental Army. After his father dies and the family begins to fall apart, Timothy witnesses many horrors of the war and his brother is eventually killed. The novel is a coming of age story focusing on themes of loyalty and bravery and the tension between family and ideology.