With Every Drop of Blood: A Novel of the Civil War

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Summary: With Every Drop of Blood review
Review: Every Drop of Blood is about the Civil War. A young boy decides to join a wagon train but their is a risk it is in the middle of the war. A black soldier from the Union army ends up captureing him. Even though one of them is black and the other is white they both find out that they have a lot of similar things about them. Towards the end of the book they become really good friends. They end up saving each others lives. This book is really good.

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Summary: With Every Drop Of Blood
Review: I found this book very hard to put down! It is actually very interesting for a Civil War Novel. I had to read this for History/English class, and unlike many other books I have read, I found it quite interesting! The story is about a boy who decides to fight in the Civil war, and is caught by a Union soldier. He decides to trick the soldier into thinking he had befriended him so that he could escape. He never actually gets away, until the very end, because by that time, the war was over. I think I liked this book because of the dialogues between the characters. I think that this book is almost my favorite Civil War book, but it did get somewhat boring at times. Other than the few times that it slowed down to a crawl, it was a very good book, and I recommend it!

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Summary: With Every Drop of Blood review
Review: I would recommend this book to others because it is very good. It also taught me some Civil War facts. The only thing I didn't like was it used a few swear words. The author did this to illustrate the language soldiers used in the Civil War. Other than that, it was a very good book.

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Summary: With Every Drop of Blood Book Review
Review: Mallory Book Review!

I hurried outside. Ma had got the mules out of the harness and into the stalls.
"I'll do that, Ma. You go on in and tend to Pa."
"What did he want to tell you?"
"He made me promise to stay here and help with things."
"I figured that was it, " she said. "Did you promise?"
"Yes."
"I'm glad," she said. "It'd kill me to lose another one."

In the book With Every Drop of Blood by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier, 14-year-old, Johnny, finds out his father dies after fighting in the war for three years. Johnny has to find a way to help his family, but he goes to fight in the war without his mother knowing. A black Union soldier captures Johnny. Somehow these two must find a way to conquer their differences and try to get along. On the way, they form an unlikely friendship that keeps growing each minute.
I think this book is mostly for boys, but girls will like it, too. It is good for boys because it has a lot of action. It is good for girls because a friendship forms, as the story gets deeper and deeper into the plot. I think this is a good book for children 10 and older.

By Mallory

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Summary: A Great Book
Review: On his deathbed, Johnny's father made him promise not to go fight in the Civil War for the South but to take care of his mother and the little ones. Then, Johnny is offered 400 dollars to go on a mission to supply the Rebel troops with supplies. His family is suffering and he just can't say no. On the road, the wagon train is attacked and Johnny is captured by a black confederate soldier named Cush. Now he and Cush, though from different backgrounds, must become friends in order to get through the war. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was written in a way that I felt like I was there watching it happen. The plot was full of surprises, but easy to follow and to the point. The characters were realistic of the time period in the way that they talked and acted. The book included real places and events from the Civil War such as City Point and Appomattox. These elements made the book very historically accurate.

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Summary: With Every Drop of Blood Book Review
Review: this is a great civil war book for people of all ages.
it shows courage from men and boys on both sides.
highly recommended. it was hard to put down

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Summary: With Every Drop of Blood
Review: This was an interesting book to read. While a lot of war books I have read portrayed angry characters who couldn't wait for war, this book was different, because of the view the characters had.
Johnny, the protagonist, is a small farmer, who lives in the Shenanadoah Valley during the Civil War. When his Pa is wounded, he comes home to Johnny and the family. A few weeks later, Johnny's Pa dies. You can imagine that Johnny was mad about that. Like most people, fiction and realistic, Johnny wants to get even (you can't really blame him, he's only human.) When an offer to join a wagon train and take supplies to the Confederate Army goes by Johnny, he can't resist. It's a chance to get even with those Yanks for killing his Pa.
His mother is concerned about Johnny's safety, but Johnny lies to her so that he can go. She allows him to go and he starts out with the other wagon and teamsters.
A few days after they start out, some Union soldiers (who happen to be black) suprise the wagon train. Johnny tries to escape, but a soldier catches him.
Johnny doesn't like taking orders from Cush, who is a runaway slave. But if he doesn't, then he'll get shot.
Along the way, Johnny is told that if he wants a good meal, he'll have to teach Cush how to read. So he starts to teach Cush everything backwards. Cush asks Johnny to teach him how to read a newspaper clipping, "The Gettysburg Address." Cush acts like the speech is a sacred scripture. But to him it meant freedom, and that's what he liked about it.
A lot of things happen during the book. The characters feelings towards one another change and they become friends. There's one battle scene. The bond between the two grows stronger as they risk life and limb sometimes to help each other.
The book is historically accurate as far as I can tell, and there is an epilouge sort of thing explaining "How Much of this Book is True?" and "About how People Speak in this Book" and Lincoln's speech "The Gettysburg Address."
When I read the book, I felt like a lot of time had gone by. Really it was only about two weeks. Also, it was interesting to see how attached Johnny was to his mules. When he made an attempt to escape, he tried to run away with his wagon and mules. If I were him, I would have run on foot, or just taken one mule. A wagon is slower, because you have to haul it behind you. I knew that without his mules, if he ever had gotten home, his family wouldn't be able to harvest, plow, and plant crops and that they wouldn't be able to support themselves. But this is just one example of where Johnny could've been a tad bit smarter.
Overall, I enjoyed this book. I would suggest it to anyone who likes historical fiction. If you liked this book, then I would also recommend "Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry".