The Rifle

Rating:
Summary: The Rifle
Review: "The Rifle" opened promisingly. Gary Paulsen's detailed description of the fabrication of the weapon by a master gunsmith, the early owners and its historical parallels were interesting. Unfortunately this book ends up as an anti gun blurb. The NRA is portrayed through the action of one wacko member. (Indeed the NRA has a wonderful program for teaching gun safety and respect to young folks.) The later possessors of this heirloom are presented as unfortunate careless victims of "the killer gun," or as individuals who are so uninformed about guns they do not realize what a historical treasure they own. It was a real stretch to fabricate a freak situation where a person using a weapon improperly was not the cause of a gun accident.
I was disappointed by the book's later tone and implied message. Yes, young people need to learn about guns and how to use and respect them. They do not need such fiction as this to make them fear of handling or owning a legal firearm. I would not recommend this reading to any young person.

Rating:
Summary: The Rifle
Review: "The Rifle" opened promisingly. Gary Paulsen's detailed description of the fabrication of the weapon by a master gunsmith, the early owners and its historical parallels were interesting. Unfortunately this book ends up as an anti gun blurb. The NRA is portrayed through the action of one wacko member. (Indeed the NRA has a wonderful program for teaching gun safety and respect to young folks.) The later possessors of this heirloom are presented as unfortunate careless victims of "the killer gun," or as individuals who are so uninformed about guns they do not realize what a historical treasure they own. It was a real stretch to fabricate a freak situation where a person using a weapon improperly was not the cause of a gun accident.
I was disappointed by the book's later tone and implied message. Yes, young people need to learn about guns and how to use and respect them. They do not need such fiction as this to make them fear of handling or owning a legal firearm. I would not recommend this reading to any young person.

Rating:
Summary: A man who makes the perfect rifle
Review: A Review by Nick

The Rifle is a very well written book about a man who makes the perfect rifle. This rifle makes it through both world wars, and tracks up to present day. This book is basically saying that that if we didn't have any guns that we would be better off. I did enjoy reading this book but I do not agree with its contents. It has a very right wing consecutive view on guns

I really liked reading this book, it was easy to follow and well written. I like the way the author

followed the rifle through time as it was passed down from generation to generation Another thing I liked about this book is how easy it is to understand and follow. You can tell the author new what he was doing when he wrote this book. . I did not like the books view on guns, it basically says gun are the devil they should be destroyed.

I think anybody would like this book especially people who hate guns.

Rating:
Summary: A hard to follow but good book!
Review: A sweet rifle thats loaded and goes through tons of generations? Thats exactly right, and that reminds me a book where a little horse went through a ton of generations. I loved this book from begining to end!

Rating:
Summary: VERY GOOD BOOK
Review: A VERY EXCITNG,HEARTPOUNDING,IN YOUR FACE BOO

Rating:
Summary: It was pretty good!
Review: As a 13 year old, I thought The Rifle was a good book. It was difficult for me to read and understand because it had too many details. It was difficult for me to follow along because there was too many things happening at one time. The book taught me not to leave a gun loaded because accidents can happen. It also taught me all the different parts of the rifle. At the end of the book I was really shocked because I didn't expect it to end that way

Rating:
Summary: The Rifle
Review: At first I really disliked this book because the first 40-50 pages all they talked about was how this guy put a perfect rifle together. That part was really boring. Once he sold the rifle it got really exciting. He sold it to John Byam, and he went to war. I thought that was the best part in the book. Everyone was amazed at how well the rifle could shoot. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes guns because it has alot of good information about them.

Rating:
Summary: As powerful as a shot to the heart!
Review: Before I started working as a bookseller, I never bothered with young adult literature, after all, what did that have to do with me - an adult? But then I discovered writers like Gary Paulsen. This is among his most incredible works. The reader follows the 'life' of a lovingly crafted weapon, from before the days of the American Revolution when a rifle is 'born', to the present. The intersection of this rifle and one young boy is as real as the stories one reads in the paper everyday, and the description of what could have been completely takes the reader's breath away. If you haven't read any of Gary Paulsen's books, you have missed some absolutely incredible literature - try The Rifle, Nightjohn, A Soldier's Heart, Hatchet, or his wonderfully funny and poignant My Life In Dog Years. I have my fingers crossed that Mr. Paulsen will continue to provide readers with the gift of his stories for many years to come.

Rating:
Summary: Self-righteous Drivel
Review: Gary Paulsen has crafted a painstaking bit of propaganda that teachers will find very useful. This is predicated on the assumption that these teachers are completely ignorant of the reality of gun ownership, most likely never owning a gun themselves and wish to strike fear into the hearts of children with a tale of a nefarious inanimate object(wait, is that possible?)
The story is as follows: Man hand-crafts beautiful gun, gun takes a long, winding path into the hands of a gun dealer(who's description is so transparent and cliched I found myself chuckling) Through a series of events that defy probabilty the gun goes off on its own and kills a teenager. The moral is this children... wait...I'm thinking...Okay it could be one of the following: #1. Guns will kill you when you least expect it(?)
#2 Accidents should never happen, laws should be passed to outlaw any and all possibilties for death by any means other than abortions or quiet passings during sleep.
This book is ridiculous. Anyone with a liberal arts education who doesn't worship TV or glossy magazines an see it for the one-sided, patronizing, paranoia peice that it is.

Rating:
Summary: Paulsen has an axe to grind. . .
Review: He wants to show that guns kill, period. The first half of the book is beautifully detailed, but the second half is too stereotyped. Anyone who likes guns in the twentieth century is either an NRA Christian fanatic obsessed with Waco or an idot who reveres Elvis velvet paintings. As a high school English teacher who lives in a rural area where, on the first day of deer season, almost every male is out of school, I had hoped to find something to capture the interest of the boys who would rather hunt than read. I think this would do it, but I already know where the arguments would end.