Customer Reviews

No Man's Land

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

No Man's Land: A Young Soldier's Story, is a great book, especially for kids. It has the action to keep kids interested, but also at the same time teaches them about the Civil War. I currently have this on my favorites shelf, as well. I own this hardcover copy that I had signed by Susan Bartoletti. Great Book. *****

A twisted and mind boggeling war story will unfold befor your eyes! Its about a young kid named Thrasher Magee who is only fourteen and is way too young to enlist in the army. Thrasher sets out to the town church after being confrunted by his father on why he shouldn't enlist. When he gets there he sees a lot of men that he knows from the town waiting to enlist. As Thrasher closes on the church he starts to think to himself. What if someone i know sees me there to enlist? What will they tell me? To go home where i'm needed and let the men fight the war? But when he gets to the croud of people they just looked at him and nodded their head in approvel. From that point on Thrasher considered himself as a soldier. This book puts you right in the middle of the battle and with such realistic detail you can even smell the grass. This book is suited for all ages 10 and up. It gives you a bite out of history.

A young boy named Thrasher was kind to everybody. He always Helped his parents out. Pete one of his longago friends is always talling him that he is not worth any thing. He wanted to become a hero and prove that he is worth somenthing.He needs to enlist in the army but is not old enough to inlist. He knows what he has to do. This actoin packed book takes older men and women.Thrasher go's from killing gators to killing soldiers. As he runs through woods with bulletes ripping by. A total sequence of events. A
Complete
Five
Stars Zach Summerall

I really liked this book. You really can understand how the soldiers felt and how camp and battle life was for them. I learned a little about the civil war from this, too. This book has action, emotion and laughter all rolled into one. If you know every thing about the civil war or u know nothing, this is a good book. It sits on my 'Favorite Shelf' this second. A good read.

I think this book was a very good book because it had action and some sudden things like, A man getting shot in his bodey.
However It whould be good for someone in to the civlwar,or just looking for a book that has a lot of action.

The book was diffrent in a way because it showed the suffering that the men whent threw because of hunger.

Thrasher Magee is a 14 year old who lies about his age to join the Confedrerate Army during the Civil War. The book's basis is Thrasher's need to prove himself to his father as a man and while bringing that about he learns the true meaning of honor. I thought that it wasn't to graphic but then again it didn't make the war sound like a walk in the park. All in all an excellent book.

This is a wonderful book. Susan Bartoletti has done an excellent job of capturing the Civil War through the eyes of three young "boys". I couldn't put the book down. I enjoyed reading a book about the Civil War that focused on more than just the politics of the War. I think this should be a must read for every teenager!

This book is captivating. I enjoyed it from the very start. As an avid Civil War reader, I found this book to be different than the rest. I enjoyed reading from the Southern's point of view with all its twists and turns. Yet, it is not full of difficult vocabulary, nor is it very long. I wish it was longer, because I didn't want the story to end.

This book is definitely, without a doubt, the best book ever written. It is full of pop up surprises. If you even remotely like adventure or war novel this is definitely a book for you. Prepare for great friendship and actions in this unbelieveably great book.

ISBN 0590383736, ISBN 059038371X, ASIN B000Y96GE6 - Printed in the United States of America. Marked for ages 10 to 14, RL5. Books that appeal to boys are always favored by me. Boys are, generally, less likely to BE readers, so anything that influences that works for me.

Thrasher is fourteen years old and desperate to be the man his father wants him to be, but often finds himself struggling to live up to those expectations. After letting his father down in their attempt to kill a gator, Thrasher is feeling especially low. It's just the right moment for the war to come calling, and it does. Stonewall Jackson has put out a call for more men and this seems like the perfect chance to prove himself to Pap. Lying about his age, Thrasher joins up and says good-bye to his family, leaving for the adventure of his life. The adventure, it turns out, is far less adventuresome than he'd hoped and, for a long time, the Okefinokee Rifles have more confrontations with cows and turkeys than with any Yankees. During that time, friendships old and new become strong. When the battle is finally at hand for these men, the test will be whether they can do their duty and step over the bodies of their friends in order to fight on. Thrasher isn't at all sure he can do that and his uncertainty isn't helped by the surprising secret he's learned about his tentmate, Tim.

This is not an easy book to read. The horrors of war aren't glossed over, nor are the harsh realities of life during that time period. From killing a hog for the dinner table to tending to a wounded Rebel with his intestines exposed, there's quite a bit of realistic gruesome in this story. Squeamish readers will want to give this one a pass. Even Pap's treatment of his fourteen year old son might strike some modern-day parents as unforgivably heartless, even if it is historically accurate that a boy of that age was almost a man.

Historically, there's a great deal of accuracy. Women did serve by posing as men, and young boys did lie to get into the war. My problem with this accuracy is that, when you finish the story, there's a "To the Reader" note in the back. In it, author Susan Bartoletti refers to specific real-life details to bolster the realism of her fictional story. In those six pages, you will find virtually EVERY detail of the story you've just finished. I read it with a feeling that Bartoletti hadn't had to do much work at all, since her story varies very little from those details. It's nice that it's a mostly-accurate portrayal of the time and events, but a little more creativity would've been pleasant. Making up for Bartoletti's lack of imagination, the book ends with four pages of "Useful Sources," a great list of additional reading, though a lot of it is more appropriate to adults than to young readers.

- AnnaLovesBooks