Soldier's+Heart

[[image:soldier's_heart.jpg width="109" height="174" align="left"]]//Soldier's Heart// by Gary Paulsen []
Read by: Zach Bradshaw

Summary: __Soldier's Heart__ is a book about a 15 year-old boy from Minnesota named Charley Goddard who joins the Union army when the civil war breaks out in 1861. The book takes him through the brief pleasures of being a soldier with all the fame from passerby, to the evil and repulsive facts of the Civil War. Many people die next to Charley, and this takes his preconceptions of a "shooting war" and his expectations of the Southern forces, and drastically changes them. Throughout the course of the book, Charley changes from a young boy with no combat experience, to a battle hardened 21 year-old man. The book takes Charley through notable battles in history such as the Battle of Bull Run, and the Battle of Gettysburg. It shows how horrible and repulsive the fighting was. At one point, Charley meets a boy from the Southern army and talks to him and trades with him. Charley has many things in common with this boy and realizes how stupid it is to be fighting someone to the death when they aren't bad people.

My Comments: Everyone man should read __Soldier's Heart__. It's a story of a boy who grew up to be a man. This book helped me to better realize just how terrible the fighting in the Civil War was. As you read, you start to feel compassion for Charley. This translates into a compassion for all the real people who fought that war for freedom. The book is only 103 pages long, so it isn't a very long read, but the value of this book is measured in it's impact on the reader. And this book has had a very meaningful impact on it's reader.