I picked up these two books by Bill Doyle for the students in my classes. I know have readers who are looking for something short and quick to read. Many of those same readers are fascinated by war, danger, and adventure. I expect these books in the Behind Enemy Lines series will be a hit with them. What I didn’t expect was these books to be such a hit with me, but I found them hard to put down. I came away amazed and inspired by the courage shown by each soldier, sailor, or airman featured.
Behind Enemy Lines: True Stories of Amazing Courage (Scholastic 2009)
These stories highlight deeds of derring-d0 from wars throughout our history, from Nathan Hale in the American Revolution to Green Berets in the Iraq War. One of my favorites is the story of Emma Edmonds, who pretended to be Private Frank Thompson in the Civil War. Not only did she pull of her disguise as a man in the Union army, but she also created multiple other disguises in her work as a Union spy. I had also never hear of Moe Berg, a Major League Baseball player, who used his talent for learning languages as a spy during World War II. There are eight inspiring stories in this collection, each one more exciting than the one before.
Behind Enemy Lines: Under Fire in the Middle East (Scholastic 2011)
These stories focus on more recent conflicts in Iraq (both Desert Storm and more recently) Pakistan, and Afghanistan. In addition to the courageous acts of military personnel in these wars, “Caught in the Crossfire” illustrates the devastation that war creates for civilians. A group of orphans, including two brothers, must flee across the war-torn country to escape the fighting that has taken their parents. “Duke’s Dogs” highlights the lifesaving actions of a trio of strays that accompanied one platoon in Iraq. Again and again, the men and women in these true stories (some names and details were changed to protect those involved) show courage under fire and sometimes receive help from unexpected places.
True confession: I haven’t actually read The Always War by Margaret Peterson Haddix yet. But yesterday, and again today, Austin M told me that I need to read it right now. It’s that good. I promise, I moved it to the top of my TBR pile. If I’m lucky, I’ll get it read before this post shows up. It certainly looks good.
I actually read Endangered over Christmas vacation. Even though it’s been awhile since I’ve read it, I can still picture scenes from the book vividly in my mind. I can see Sophie buying the bonobo, Otto, from the street vender in the middle of a traffic jam. I can see her fleeing with Otto to the bonobo enclosure and then escaping into the jungle. Even more than the vivid action that propels this story to its harrowing conclusion, I am still thinking about the ideas Eliot Schrefer explores. What does it mean to help save an animal when people are suffering, too? What does it mean to be trapped in the middle of a war with no clear winners and losers? What does it mean when your good intentions to help lead to greater harm? What does it mean to be human?
I can’t believe I waited so long to read Soldier’s Heart (Laurel Leaf Books 1998) by Gary Paulsen. I heard all the buzz when it first came out, but just never got around to it. Now some of my students chose to read this one for literature circles, so I figured I’d better get with it. I’m glad I did. Soldier’s Heart lived up to the good reviews that came with it.
As the Civil War begins, Charley Goddard is just fifteen, but he feels that he is a man and wants to act like a man. That means he signs up for the Minnesota volunteer regiment even though he’s not sure what the war is all about or what war is. At first, he waits and practices and waits some more. Eventually he boards a train to head south and take on the rebels. Charley is surprised by what he sees from the girls giving him baked goods (he’s sure he falls in love more than once) to the abject poverty of poor farms.
Nothing, though, could prepare Charley or the rest of the volunteers for the horror they found at Bull Run–the sounds of bullets and screams, the smoke from rifles and cannons, the stench of blood and death. After that first day, Charley is sure that he could never face battle again, but he does through battle after battle until Gettysburg. Charley learns to endure the tedium of camp life and the horror of battle, but it changes him in ways that we are still struggling to understand.
These stories highlight deeds of derring-d0 from wars throughout our history, from Nathan Hale in the American Revolution to Green Berets in the Iraq War. One of my favorites is the story of Emma Edmonds, who pretended to be Private Frank Thompson in the Civil War. Not only did she pull of her disguise as a man in the Union army, but she also created multiple other disguises in her work as a Union spy. I had also never hear of Moe Berg, a Major League Baseball player, who used his talent for learning languages as a spy during World War II. There are eight inspiring stories in this collection, each one more exciting than the one before.
These stories focus on more recent conflicts in Iraq (both Desert Storm and more recently) Pakistan, and Afghanistan. In addition to the courageous acts of military personnel in these wars, “Caught in the Crossfire” illustrates the devastation that war creates for civilians. A group of orphans, including two brothers, must flee across the war-torn country to escape the fighting that has taken their parents. “Duke’s Dogs” highlights the lifesaving actions of a trio of strays that accompanied one platoon in Iraq. Again and again, the men and women in these true stories (some names and details were changed to protect those involved) show courage under fire and sometimes receive help from unexpected places.