Soldier's Heart : Being the Story of the Enlistment and Due Service of the Boy Charley Goddard in the First Minnesota Volunteers

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Summary: Paulsen's best yet
Review: This is the best kind of historical novel. Charley Goddard was a real person. The only thing that makes this book a novel is that Charley Goddard did not fight at First Bull Run. I liked this book from the very first page. Paulsen carries the reader smoothly through the book. This book, unlike other books, lets you know what war really is.

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Summary: Couldn't put it down
Review: I liked this book from the very first page. It starts out slow, but gets better when the battles start. The story is about a 15-year-old boy name Charly signing up for the Civil War. My favorite part is when Charly and a doctor stacked up dead bodies to block the cold wind. I liked the ending, but I wished it lasted longer.

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Summary: Read this book
Review: I think Soldiers Heart is one of the best Civil War books that I have ever read. It's about a 15 year old boy named Charley who joins the Minnesota Volunteers. Charley is in four major battles in the war. He loves how the girls give him sweets, but he's not ready for what happens in the battle. This book is great for a class that is learning about the Civil War. Gary Paulsen, the author, gives about every detail. I hope you read this book because it is very exciting.

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Summary: Powerful!
Review: Soldier's Heart is a powerful story about 15 year old Charley Goodard and his experience as a soldier in the Civil War. A major theme throughout this novel is the horror of war. Gary Paulsen allows readers into this horror with the descriptive details that he provides--every moment, readers are able to see and feel what Charley is experiencing. Readers witness the traumatic changes Charley goes through during the war. When Charley leaves for war, he is excited and ready to fight. When he returns home he is in constant pain and looking forward to his own death. Gary Paulsen uses true events to help readers understand the brutality of war, which will assist junior high and high school students, who are studying the Civil War, to gain a vivid picture of the details of each battle. This is a novel that will not be forgotten!

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Summary: Prepare to be astounded and stunned by A Soldier's Heart.
Review: I wholeheartedly agree with earlier reviewer - this book should have won a Newbery Award. This is a book to be read in one sitting to truly feel the impact. It'll only take a hour or so, and it will live in your memory forever. Mr. Paulsen's research is, as usual, incredible and exacting. The fact that all of the events and incidences in the book are based upon truth makes this a must read for any class that is studying the Civil War. Thank you, Gary Paulsen, for caring enough about young readers, to turn your incredible storytelling gift into works such as A Soldier's Heart.

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Summary: ¿Soldier¿s Heart¿, a perfect example of Gary Paulsen¿s merit
Review: Although the amount of books based on Civil War is huge, very few books have talked about the life of simple soldiers in detail in order to know how the soldiers of the Civil War felt in the war. Gary Paulsen, a gifted writer, has filled up that absence quite successfully by only one book, named Soldier's Heart. Based on the Civil War experience of a real boy Charley, he brings the worst nightmare of the war into the pages of this book. Charley Goddard, a hard worker, soft hearted, adventure loving fifteen years boy has never been any place except his birthplace, Winona, Minnesota. When the war begins, the superficial images of the parade, uniform, pretty girls excite him and lead him to join in the Union army, lying about his age, since men under eighteen aren't allowed to go to fight. But as the harsh reality becomes clear, when he gets in the war, his all images vapor like heated camphor. He hasn't even thought about how terrible the war could be in reality. In his first battle his mind cries and prays to God, "I am not supposed to see these, GOD. No person supposes to see these. How can you let these happen?" But as the time passes Charley changes totally. He participates in all major battles of Civil War and finally gets wounded in the battle of Gettysburg. Gary Paulsen shows how a man's choice or mind changes when he participates in a war and uses Charley, as an example, who likes the shining revolver after war instead of other pretty things that he has liked before gets in the war. Paulsen's tiny details about battlefields help realizing how horrible the Civil War's battles were and also let the reader feel the way characters of the book have felt. Although this book is short and does not clearly describe some events, worth is beyond the price in currency. I have no doubt, if you start reading this book, you won't stop yourself until you reach to end and I, myself, am its great evidence. I highly recommend this book to those who are studying Civil War, especially the high school students, because some places of that story require better quality of understanding. The students who are new with English literature will be helped by this book to understand the easy level of written English.

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Summary: The Book Is Great
Review: This book Soldier¡¯s Heart is talking about how does Civil War can change a man at that time. Before the war, the young main character was a good young man. He had lots of passion for his life. He was exciting on the war. Actually he was exciting on every thing. However, after the war, his body, his mentality had gotten hurt. He fired on life. Everything happened during six years. At last he died. He was 22. Soldier¡¯s Heart has good balance between historical fact and fiction. Gary Paulsen didn¡¯t change much thing of facts. He just added some details and especially for the changing of character¡¯s emotion and minds. These details can really touch readers. Gary Paulsen is a good writer. He can use his words to control readers¡¯ mind very naturally. Soldier¡¯s Heart shows the process of the changing of a man¡¯s mentality. Usually we know a war can change a person, even the troop can make person change something. But we don¡¯t know how. Soldier¡¯s Heart writes down all of these changes very specifically. However, the book still leaves some questions to reader. For eample the end of the book that was really good and a kind of mystery, because Gary Paulsen doesn¡¯t tell reader the end of the character. Did he kill himself or not. He let reader to guess, to think about it. I have read the other book that is called Night John that is talking about slavery. I think Soldier¡¯s Heart is better than Night John, because in Night John he didn¡¯t write a lot of details that describe the emotion of characters. I think the reason is he is talking about slavery and black men, but he is not black and he is not slave still. So for him to imagine the details of slaves¡¯ mind is very difficult. However, for Soldier¡¯s Heart, he has some similar experience with the main character. So he can imagine lots of realistic details. Soldier¡¯s Heart is good for teenagers, because the character was teenager. When he joined the war, he was 15. So teenagers might think more about the young man and themselves, the differences and the similar minds. This book is also good for ESL students. Gary Paulsen¡¯s words are very clear and easy to understand. He likes to use the easy words to express the meaning. He wants reader to relish the book, to think about it. So it is good for ESL students.

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Summary: This is a really good book for you...
Review: Do you want to know about the civil war? Do you want to know how were the soldiers in the war? Do you want to learn about how were the treatments that they had that during the war? If you interested in those things, you really need to read this book¡XSoldier¡¦s Heart. This book is about how the soldiers got the mental problems whenthey had seen the war, the terrible war. Charley was one of the Union soldier that fought in the war. This book talks about how did the soldiers excited about the war. They thirsted to joined in the war, because they never seen and never though about the war. Well, I think the balance between historical fact and fiction in Soldier¡¦s Heart is really good. The main character¡XCharley, he was the really a boy that disguise about his age to joined in the war. I knew that Gary Paulsen did search for Charley for about seven years. He did write most of the fact in this book. Sometimes that too many facts will make the readers feel bored, but Gary Paulsen got match the fact and the fiction perfectly. He used most of the fact, and then used some of the fiction to describe how the fact was. I think that is what Gary Paulsen good at. The most of the fact he used, the suitable characterization he added in. The other things that I think Gary Paulsen good at is he made the readers ¡§thing¡¨. I think even you are a lazy person that you don¡¦t want to think of any questions, but Soldier¡¦s Heart really make you think. He ended this book mystically. Charley, the main character, by the end of this book, Charley shown that he had the mind to suicide, but Gary Paulsen didn¡¦t tell Charley did kill himself or not, he made the readers argue about the ending, made readers speculate. The way to make the readers wondering about the questions are unanswered will make the readers not forgotten the did read this book. Still keep the questions in their mind. So this is the other things that he good at. I will recommend the non-native English speakers. I think the non-native English speakers will interested in this book. I know that to study the second language is really hard, but if you interested in what are you interested in, you will get easier to learn what you have to learn. What I mean is when you read this book, you will interested in this book, even there are some vocabulary words that you will don¡¦t understand, but that is the way to learn. When you interested what had happened, what will be next, then you will go find out the definitions of the words that you don¡¦t understand, and the words will stick in your brain. So if you read this book, you will get a chance to learn about the civil war, learn about the soldiers, and learn for the vocabulary word. And, you will find out more¡K

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Summary: One of the Best books!
Review: Soldier's Heart is a excited and realistic book that describe the life of a teenager soldier in the Civil War. This book does not contain fiction stanzas even though is a book, this book has the cruel story of a soldier of 15 years old who joined the Union army in the Civil War to fight against the Confederacy. The cruel and the excited contain of this book makes the book be one of the best of Gary Paulsen. This book is compared with NightJohn book because has similarties of cruel stories of war and of slavery. Those two books from the same author has and explain the true of what life is inside a war and inside slavery. Reading this book i have answered many questions that i had before read it. Questions that only in few good books like this one that contain the reality and not much fiction. In this book anyone can find many things and can find answers to questions about wars in life. In this book the author had a convination that makes reality and that makes the reader with wonders of the tomorrow's life. I really recomend this book to anyone does not matter the age, race, or nothing else, this book has words that makes people see in the mirror of the todays life. I think that the author, Gary Paulsen is good in describe the actions of his characters, he travel the readers to his way to make us to understand. He is a really good writter, he had showed his excellence with the NightJohn book. I really liked and enjoyned reading this book, i recoment to anyone! Is a really good book!

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Summary: Gary Paulsen is way overdue for a Newbery Award!
Review: Gary Paulsen is quite simply a very precious natural resource. In an era of cloying political correctness and stumblingly effluent multiculturalism, we've nearly lost a vital component of our literary landscape, the boy's novel. In years past, there were the books by committee like the Tom Swifties and the Hardy Boys and the pulpy adventures from Edgar Burroughs and Robert E. Howard. While Paulsen, perhaps best known for his Newbery honor books HATCHET, THE WINTER ROOM and DOGSONG, retains the delightfully testosteronic and page-turning intensity, to say nothing of their inherent maleness, of these past pleasures, he is always not only aware of the power and ardor of manly and boyish emotion. This short novel from 1998 reflects what we've come to expect and love from this author. Set in the Civil War and loosely based on documentation from the period, a young boy of fifteen enlists and is off to experience what he perceives as the "glories of war." Of course, he soon learns otherwise as does the reader through Paulsen's graphic realism that depicts with the accuracy of a camera lens, but without the weepy sentimentality of other "girlier" historical novels. There are certainly echoes here of Stephen Crane's classic RED BADGE OF COURAGE and Esther Forbes' JOHNNY TREMAIN, but Paulsen's voice, as ever, is clearly his own and that of many boys and men. Gary Paulsen's muscular prose is past due for full Newbery honors.