Sunshine State Young Reader's Award
2001 · Grades 6-8 · Nominee
About This Book
IN JUNE 1861, when the Civil War began, Charley Goddard left his farm and enlisted in the First Minnesota Volunteers. He was fifteen. He didn't rightly know what a "shooting war" meant, or what he was fighting for. All he knew was that he didn't want to miss out on a great adventure.
The shooting war meant the horror of combat and the wild luck of survival. It meant knowing how it feels to cross a field toward the enemy, waiting for fire. Waiting for death. And Charley learned: This is how it's done.
When he entered the service he was a boy. When he came back he was different. He was only nineteen, but he was a man said to have "soldier's heart."
Battle by battle, Gary Paulsen shows one boy's war through one boy's eyes and one boy's heart, and gives a voice to all the anonymous young men who fought in the Civil War. Readers will finish this book and know: This is how it's done.
The shooting war meant the horror of combat and the wild luck of survival. It meant knowing how it feels to cross a field toward the enemy, waiting for fire. Waiting for death. And Charley learned: This is how it's done.
When he entered the service he was a boy. When he came back he was different. He was only nineteen, but he was a man said to have "soldier's heart."
Battle by battle, Gary Paulsen shows one boy's war through one boy's eyes and one boy's heart, and gives a voice to all the anonymous young men who fought in the Civil War. Readers will finish this book and know: This is how it's done.
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