Customer Reviews

April Morning

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(47)
3 star:		(27)
2 star:		(14)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

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.

"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.

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.

While it is true the plot can be described as "slow-paced", it is excusable, for the book takes place over a period of 24 hours. This gives the author the chance to expand on minute details of the day, giving you the sense that you ARE there, and every detail is absorbed. Granted, this does make for a slow read, but Fast makes up for that in characterization.

The main character, Adam Cooper, is a teenager--naturally rebellious and not the most respectful guy someone could meet. He and his father have a shaky relationship, and Adam's little brother, Levi, gets his share of verbal abuse as well. But come the redcoats and the battle of Lexington and Concord, Adam learns what it takes to be a man after his father is killed and he's shown quite harshly what reality is all about.

One highlight I'd have to make is the smokehouse scene. This takes place directly after the battle, and Adam has fled to a smokehouse to hide from the redcoats. He's alone and scared when Levi comes looking for him. Levi and the rest of the family have found their father's dead body, and Levi is in tears. Adam--the same Adam who called his brother names in the beginning of the story--takes the boy into his arms and comforts him. Character development has always been a major thing in books for me, and this I just adore--both characters learn to accept and love each other (and I can't help but say the whole thing is very, very cute).

In short, the book is slow-paced and hard to get through at some parts, but I adore it soley for the characters, which are well-developed and easy to relate to. I myself am 14, and I read this last year in 8th and simply adored it. Who says a teenager can't enjoy this book? =D

As for historical accuracy, it IS shaky, but the Lexington and Concord battle is not the main focus of the story. If I had to guess, I would say Howard Shore chose his setting as mere backup for his development of Adam in his boy-to-man journey.

I adore this book, especially Adam and Levi. If you're into character-driven books, this is for you.

Moses Cooper tried to negotiate with the British redcoats when they arrived at his town, but unfortunately, they shot him dead before he got to speak, which marked the beginning of the Battle of Lexington. All the men and boys who were with Moses ran away for their lives, even though they carried guns with them. Adam Cooper, Moses Cooper's fifteen year-old son, also ran away, but he met a group of men who were on their way to fight the British redcoats. He joined the group and shot at the redcoats all day long, turning noticeably from a boy into a man. He hid in bushes and in the smoke produced by the shooting of gunpowder while he shot at the redcoats who marched on the roads. At the end of the day, Adam Cooper went back home and showed how he had become a man by surviving through everything that had happened; the death of his father, his first time using a gun to shoot at people, seeing his friends and relatives being killed, worrying about his mom and his brother safety, etc. He had experienced enough to think and act like a grown-up. All these things happened on April 19, 1775.
I can say that this is the best historical fiction that I have ever read. In April Morning, I can clearly see how Adam got through all that has happened. He met many people on that day that each taught him a valuable lesson, which was very important for him to get through all that he had gotten through. He had been a part of many terrible things on April 19, 1775. As a result, he had grown tremendously on that day. Seeing Adam overcoming many obstacles and growing mature with an amazing pace is really an extraordinary experience.
The part that I liked best in this book is when Adam was shooting at the British redcoats. He was exhausted from all the running he had done and from losing his sleep the night before, so he fell asleep, right in the middle of a battle. That's not something you see everyday, it's very unusual. If there weren't any bushes or smoke covering him up, Adam would have been shot dead without knowing how he got killed. However, what touched me the most was how Adam's uncle and the Reverend reacted when they heard someone said that Adam was lying on the ground, motionless. They worried and cried and prayed for him just like his father would have done. This shows how a person can care so much for another person.

The first two battles of the American Revolution (Lexington and Concord) are brought to life with revolutionary excitiement and breathtaking detail in "April Morning." This will have any history buff and non-history buff excited and ready for more! Grade: A+

I read this book my freshman year of high school. Looking back, it was a slow book in my mind. However, that was mostly because we read it section by section and discussed each one. If I were to have read it on my own I would have been through it in about a day or two. While not everything in it is exactly accurate, the story of Adam is an inspiring one.

I feel that this is a book for a high school level reader and maybe at the least a mature high school reader. A lot of the events and ideas presented are not for those who do not take war and death seriously.

While a lot of people have said they read it and would never want to read it again, I have to differ. I would gladly read this book over and over. It sits on my shelf of classics that include A Separate Peace, The Great Gatsby, Les Miserables and the like.

April Morning, is a book that will make you jump out of your seat. It explains about a boy named Adam and his family who lived during the Revolutionary War in April of 1775.You will learn about Adam, his brother Levi, his mother Sarah, Granny, and his father Moses. Adam is 15 years old. He has many internal conflicts about becoming a man. He has many external conflicts with his father and his brother. One of the conflicts he had with his father was about superstition. His father whipped him seven times, but Adam said it was a superstitious number so he whipped him ten more times. During the war, Adam had to act like a man about seeing people being killed.Also, Adam was very emotional because he saw close friends killed.The book explains about the bloody battles of Lexington.I highly recomend this book to people who like learning and reading about war.

"April Morning" is a satisfactory book for several reasons. I enjoyed reading "April Morning" because it taught me quite a few things about the Revolutionary War. I loved the way Howard Fast described things such as the characters and the war itself. However I did think that some information was worthless and should of been left out of the story. For example, The author took up many pages of Adam's feelings toward Ruth "April Morning" has lots of action and surprising events that kept me in suspense. For instance, towards the middle of the book the people of the town are informed that the British are coming and then the war breaks out. It is a big surprise when Adam signs the muster book to get drafted into the war. That's when the book gets interesting and you start to think, " Who will survive? What will happen to the town?" I highly recommend this book if you enjoy reading action filled books; but, I do not recommend this book to you if you don't like to read books with cursing, gore and death. That is why I rate "April Morning" with four stars.

In class we read April Morning and it started out slow, but it surprised me. The book started getting good, and it was action-packed. It helped me learn alot and I had fun reading it too. Also, the ending was kind of boring and they should have had more battles. It was also kind of hard to read with all the old words and the religous words that were everywhere. For a book that I had to read in school, it ended up being one of the best.