We just finished this book as a read-aloud in my Honors classes during a unit on the Civil War. I'd never heard of it - although I have always loved Gary Paulsen's books - but I really loved this book. More importantly, my students loved this book. From the very first chapter, they were fully engrossed and involved in the plot and the fate of the main character. Even my girls, who I wouldn't typically think of as being interested in a book about a war, were hanging on every word and became just as attached to the main character, Charley, as my boys. The history teachers were doing a unit on the Civil War at the same time, and they came to us one day after school to say that their students who are reading the book with us couldn't stop talking about it, and were constantly making connections between the content they were learning in history class and what they had already learned from this novel. I highly recommend this one, although I do have a few words of warning/caution: there are a couple of swear words sprinkled throughout the book, which only becomes a problem if you're reading it aloud to your class first thing in the morning and you haven't previewed it beforehand (oops). There's also a lot of pretty shocking violence and bloody parts...certainly no more than they've seen before on TV but again, it becomes more of an issue when you're reading it aloud. It's just one of those where you may need to preview the kids beforehand to lessen the emotional blow. But overall, really great book.
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