April Morning [Mass Market Paperback]

Howard Fast (Author)

Book Description

When you read this novel about April 19, 1775, you will see the British redcoats marching in a solid column through your town. Your hands will be sweating and you will shake a little as you grip your musket because never have you shot with the aim of killing a man. But you will shoot, and shoot again and again while your shoulder aches from your musket's kick and the tight, disciplined red column bleeds and wavers and breaks and you begin to shout at the top of your lungs because you are there, at the birth of freedom—you're a veteran of the Battle of Lexington, and you've helped whip the King's best soldiers...

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Invites comparison with Crane's Red Badge Of Courage... I think this is an even better book."—New York Times

From the Publisher

When you read this novel about April 19, 1775, you will see the British redcoats marching in a solid column through your town. Your hands will be sweating and you will shake a little as you grip your musket because never have you shot with the aim of killing a man. But you will shoot, and shoot again and again while your shoulder aches from your musket's kick and the tight, disciplined red column bleeds and wavers and breaks and you begin to shout at the top of your lungs because you are there, at the birth of freedom -- you're a veteran of the Battle of Lexington, and you've helped whip the King's best soldiers...

"Invites comparison with Crane's Red Badge Of Courage... I think this is an even better book." -- The New York Times

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Bantam (October 1, 1983)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553273221
• ISBN-13: 978-0553273229
• Product Dimensions: 4.2 x 0.6 x 6.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (125 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #53,972 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #34 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > War

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must have in your personal library..., December 4, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: April Morning (Mass Market Paperback)

This was probably one of the best books that I have read. It tells the story of a teenage boy named Adam Cooper, and his involement in the battle of Lexington. At first no one in the village of Lexington believes that the British are coming to fight. But when they kill Adam's father and many of his friends, he fleas. After he has gained control of himself, he goes out with his cousin and helps win one of the most famous battles during the American Revolution. This book was well writen, and it felt like you were right there in all of the action. I recommend this book to anyone.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, eye-opening, August 31, 2006

By 

Elizabeth Clare "author, To the Ends of the E... (Austin, TX) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: April Morning (Mass Market Paperback)

"A boy becomes a man" is been the theme of countless novels. April Morning, written in 1961, reveals what a skilled writer can do with a basic idea. The novel starts innocently with Adam Cooper, a 15-year-old Lexington boy, being scolded by his stern father for laziness in doing his afternoon chores. But today is no ordinary day. As the evening progresses, Adam's dad is called to a town committee meeting--it seems the British are marching out of Boston to seize the colonists' arsenal and put them back in their places.

April Morning is a short book, but it at first seems to unfold quite slowly. There is plenty of time to see Adam clash with his pompous dad, seek solace from his tart-tongued grandmother, argue with his little brother, and grab a furtive kiss with his young girlfriend. The modern reader, used to each book opening with an exploding helicopter, might be forgiven for wondering where Fast is going with all this.

Then something happens that is so shocking and so unexpected, that we, like Adam, are thrown forever out of the ordinary world and into the nightmarish beginning of war. In the course of the next hours, Adam is forced to confront the realities of a war he never asked for and a world that is forever changed.

23 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Teacher's Point of View, January 8, 2001

By 

D. Rizzo (United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: April Morning (Mass Market Paperback)

We use this book in our eighth grade language arts class, and while I agree with other reviewers that this isn't the Great American Novel, it does a terrific job with characterization (I don't know who back there thinks that Adam wasn't "described" enough, but his looks are irrelevant; his personality is clear, believable, and accurate from the context of his family and town). The story, which I agree can be a bit stale, takes place over 24 hours, which is a neat gimmick. The old fashioned attitudes and perspectives can put off some readers, but reading this book for the purpose of learning about the time period, the beginning of the American Revolution, and understanding that modern people aren't so very different from their forefathers does indeed save it.