Customer Reviews

Men of Honor

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4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
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The author of this book really did a fantastic job in coveying the emotion, courage, and heartfelt struggle of the main character, Carl Brashear, who people should know is a real life person. Brashear is the first African American to achieve the rank of Master Diver, and even more incredibly, he earned the rank after a grueling retraining and retesting AFTER he had lost a leg. So not only did Carl have to overcome a debilitating injury in the face of overwhelming odds, but he had to deal with the racism and bigotry that tried to subvert his efforts throughout his career. Carl's story is simply amazing, and it is retold here in a way that truly leaps off the page. But even more incredibly, this novelization has a special foreword from both Carl Brashear, AND the director of the movie, George Tillman Jr! And if that wasn't enough, there is a whole interview section at the back where one can read Carl's story, in Carl's own words! Kudos to the publisher who included this fascinating excerpt, and to the author for a first-rate job with the novelization.

This is a very good book. This book is based on my uncle. This book is about how he went to the Navy. It is also about his struggle to come back and become the first black master chief petty officer. Again this book was very good beside the profanity. There was a lot of bad words in this book.

Men Of Honor, By David Robbins was a very well written book. An African American U.S. Navy Diver, Carl Brashear, who went through amuptation on his leg, and still wishes to remain a Navy Diver with the disability. His Captain is prejudice and wants him to fail. His Master Chief follows his orders in the beginning, but then ends up training him. Carl goes through many obstacles in fulfilling his dream of becoming Master Chief. Whether the obstacles be romantic, bureaucratic, or racial, he is still determined. Carl has to go through a series of tests to prove his worthiness and ability, and ends up in a court room to go through his last test, and show if he's able to be a Navy Diver anymore or not. I personally enjoyed it.

This is the story of Carl Brashear, the first African-American Master Chief Navy Diver. It is based on his real life and struggles growing up in the 1930s in rural Kentucky, his fight with racism and self defiance. After a successful completion of his struggles, he was honored with the Navy Hall of Fame. Both the film, and book, used commercial divers for accuracy and details for their retelling of Brashear's story.

Although the book's idea of overcoming racism and disability was fabulous and inspirational, it is surprisingly deceptive and I'm very sorry I bought it for my 8th grade class. David Robbins wrote the book in very simple English, implying a readability in the sixth or seventh grade range. However, once you are a few pages into the book, Mr. Robbins litters his writing with completely unnecessary profanities and vulgarities. The words are in complete opposition to the style he uses. I was extremely disappointed in the book, as were my students, once we blipped over his words. It's no surprise Hollywood rated the movie as an R with such language in the movie, but to write such a simply worded book and then just toss in foul language just to do so is ridiculous. The book had the potential to make a tremendous statement to my students, but all they remember is the unnecessary foul language. I do not recommend this book for school aged kids and I also do not recommend it for adults as the reading is far to mundane. A wonderful message, ruined by a careless writer.

I must say that "men of honor is one of the best books i have written in my lifetime. This is a great book about overcoming unsurmountable odds to achive what one realy wants to do in life. The main carictar in this book, Carl Brashire, is a very srong role model for just about anyone. I would also recomend this book for school summer reading because it is worth it and it is more exciting than most assigned reading. i would recomend it to anyone and to tell them to put it on the top of their "books to read" list.