Spring 2004 Review:

This book is fantastic and I encourage everyone to read it. The story is told through a journal written by a soldier. The journal is given to Jim as a birthday present from a great-grandparent. This journal is about another Jim and starts when he is a young boy. The country that Jim lives in enters WWI. Jim's father is drafted and Jim, interested in the war, keeps good records of positions and battles. When Jim finds out about his father's death he is eager to take his father's position. With all the bad news, Jim's mother passes from mental illness. Jim goes off to war and starts to write in his journal documenting his thoughts and feelings. Finally, when "the big push" disembarked, Jim, like everyone else, thought the Germans would be easily defeated. When the soldiers charged out of their bunkers, Jim saw lines of soldiers dropping like dominoes as the Germans fired. Jim, seeing all of his friends lying in pools of blood, started to walk away. He was headed toward home where he planned to meet his girlfriend to have a picnic. Later he was found and shot for desertion. This book was very interesting. It was suspenseful and also "action packed." Since it was historical fiction, you learn some facts from the war. This book is for seventh or eighth grade boys interested in action, suspense, and war. I recommend it even to girls because it has a love story. This is a well-rounded book for everyone and I encourage you to read it.

~Joe Strawinski, 8th grade, Boardman Center Middle School, Boardman, Ohio