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Read Wolves!
Welcome to WELL REaD, the reading blog of the Niles West High School IRC. We want to hear what our students and staff have to say about books. To comment about anything you read here, click on the comment link at the bottom of the post.
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18 comments:
This is a really good book!
i think this book is a really good book, BUT it's too short. this book is highly rated in violence by the reviewers but i don't think that there are many cruelty and violence involved. I found this book somehow funny, with all the soldier jokes and slang.
this book is filled with several characters who seem to need to find themselves.The main character Birdy seems to be caught in a struggle of what path he wants to take in life. he joined the military against his fathers wishes and is burdened by the fact that he has to work so hard to have his father write him. I also think his father is struggling with his own emotions because he is neglecting his sons letters and only reminding him of how he disappointed him by not attending college. with both Birdy and his father in need of finding their true feelings and paths in life i think birdy's father will come around and express the love he truly has for his son because he could be gone for good if he were to die in the war.
-Shawn A. Period 4
I agree with Shawn A. that most of these characters are lost and they need to find themselves. Robin "Birdy" Perry and the other soldiers are in civilian affairs and it's their job to help secure and help the civilians in Iraq. But actually I think they're just a squad to go and clean up the mess the marines made. For example, a U.S. plane accidentally bombed a school so civil affairs was sent in to give the Iraqi civilians money to cover for the damages. The civilians didn't really care about the money since the money would not bring back their children. The soldiers just don't understand that the Iraqi people want to be left alone.
-Paul C. Period 4
"Sunrise over Fallujah" has a surprising number of funny parts. A marine, Victor Rios, won a small monkey on ebay, and they shipped it to Iraq. He got it because it looked like the little one he got from his Grandmother for luck. When the package arrived, it was in a very large box. He opened it and there was a note. The note said that he was proud of what they were doing in Iraq, and he sent this one instead for them. It was a huge, four foot monkey that had been stuffed. He got angry and didn't want it, so Marla asked if First Squad could have him. Marla took the monkey and dressed him up in combat armor and a helmet, and she named him Sergeant Yossarian from the book Catch-22. The monkey rides in the Humvee with First Squad. Michael R. Period 9
i think the only part that seemed worth reading was the part he went into the war for the first time. other than that most of the book was an utter disappointment. the way birdy reacts to a child's death was sort of weird. i mean dont get me wrong if someone died in front of me i would probably be a little emotional, but i am a civilian. in the army they train you not to care about these sort of things. i think this book was poorly written.
Kevin Sanchez Period 4
This is a pretty good book. All of the characters seem to be struggling with the idea of war. Birdy is obviously affected by seeing the Marines in the truck get killed. I think that Marla is surprised by what she sees in the Hospital after the first time they are attacked. I think they all joined Civil Affairs because they wanted to help people, not just fight, so I think they have a harder time then the harcore Infantry guys. Not knowing who is enemy and who if friendly is also scaring them.
Adam P. Period 5
Even though this book is filled with a lot of emotional moments and violence, it captures the true feeling of a soldier in Iraq. Being very young, "Birdy" new it was his duty to fight for his country in these rough times. I totally am behind him on that point of view. But he didn't know the true repercussions of being in the army and going through all the horror and drama. I would not have the guts to go to Iraq and watch my own back every second of the day. Also just the thought of bombs and gunfire around me sends shivers down my spine. "Birdy" is one tough little Cookie and hopefully he will learn many life lessons from this war that will guide him through the rest of his life.
-Mahi 9th period
I do agree with both Shawn A., and Paul C. Civil Affairs is just the unit for the blamed. I think the reason that this unit were not up to the 442nd CA because they wanted something to take the blamed when the 3rd ID or 4th Marine did something wrong. Everything good things that went according to plan were well rewarded to the other unit, but for the bad things, all of the "missed" that went wrong, the Civil Affair took full responsibilities.
Almost everyone said that this book used a lot of violence but i don't think this book has a lot of it. I've read the book that filled with tension, and gruesome. (I cant remember the name of the book but it is about Vasily Zaytsev, WWII Soviet Sniper) This book offer the dynamic in relationship with each members in the squad, when the squad was hit by the IED that lead to Pendleton's Death and Rios' reattachment, the morale of the squad went away. When the squad was injected to the marshy area and to operate with the 5th SF., i thought the unit was special, but it turned out to be a decoy the lure the insurgent out of their hideout
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Jeff 9th Per.
I think the book is good at capturing the true experiences of soldiers from the civil affairs unit. Although there isn't much action and it jumps around a lot, it really paints a picture of what soldiers went through. It helps to understand the difficulty that Birdy has with pulling the trigger and seeing death all around him. Many of Birdy's fellow soldiers suffers the same feelings he does. What I enjoyed about the book was the details of the hardships Birdy went through. I wish the book was more exciting but there's only so much excitement in the Civil Affairs detachment. I think it's worth a read but only if there's nothing else to read.
-Mike Z. Period 4
I think this is a good book, but there are definitely better books out there. They left the ending very open. I think that all of the people from CA were just as scared of everything at the end as they were at the beginning because nobody understood what was happening yet. We don't get to see how Birdy resolves the fight with is dad. He changes from the beginning because he asks to see pictures of the guy's kids when they get back. IN the beginning he didn't even look at the other guys kids.
Adam P. Period 5
This book helps the public understand the realities of war, and is a good novel to read if you wish to know more. However, it is not as exciting as you expect it to be. I agree with Adam about the ending with his dad. I would've liked to learn what happened between them. What I really don't understand is why the author includes the letters in the book. He only includes the letters sent by Birdy but not the ones he recieves. It would be nice to know what the people were responding back to him but you never really find out.
-Mike Z. Period 4
This book allows people to understand what the soldiers go through in Iraq. Many people do not realize it's a war because it is not called one. But in reality there's only one word for it, War. The book was mediocre because it seemed like the author would jump all over the place. It didn't really seem organized but I felt the author just started writing whatever he felt like without really planning the story out. Also, it was hard to become close with the characters. There wasn't that much character development between the reader and the character.
-Paul C. Period 4
Overall I thought it was a very good book. I would not recommend it though to another person because at times the scenes seemed somewhat repetetive. I think they couldve emphasized the emotional part more and the thoughts running through the soldiers head a little bit less because that seemed a little repetetive too. It was also a very sad book when it came to the deaths of the two soldiers. Even though this book is fiction, this is the reality of a few soldiers in Iraq. One thumb up for this book.
-Mahi 9th
before you read this or if you have read this read Fallen Angels
GREAT READ from: NC
this is a late comment but who ever said that the military trains you to not care about death, that is not true. the military flat out tells you that "you will be very sad and very numb from all the death around you. you will never forget anything." have you ever heard a vietnam soldier talk about all the bad stuff that has happened. well thats why. they feel like crap for what they where involved with
This book is too long.
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