Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I think a lot of parents would not want their 14 year old (or younger) to read this book. I was hoping this would be a good selection for my son, who loves military books, to learn a little about the time period. The length, difficulty, title, and cover picture, not to mention that it appears to be published by a children's division of the publisher, made me think it was a kids' book, probably for kids around age 14. Yikes! Not really! At least, not for us!
I was startled early in the book by a scene of pederasty that immediately put me on guard and made me wonder if anything in the book would make it worth even keeping it. The pedophile in question is also a highly offensive character in that (other than that he rapes boys) his biggest flaw seems to be his obesity. "Fatso" (I kid you not; that's his nickname) is repulsive, and the author seems to relish describing his disgusting rolls of fat. Wonderful; as if we needed to encourage children to nurture a prejudice against heavy people.
Then, not much farther into the book, the 12-year-old hero is awakened in his bed to find the buxom farm hand Moira half-naked and straddling him, "moaning" with her "hot breath" in his ear. The scene doesn't, thankfully, play out as it might have but I think that some parents may choose to avoid such erotic scenes in their children's historical fiction!
Next to objections like these, some of my other problems with the book---like implausibility (e.g. he writes a letter home with perfect grammar and nearly perfect spelling, in spite of being a 12-year-old dropout from an illiterate family) or silly word choices (one point the translator had me rolling my eyes when she described a place where the boy used to "romp")---seem less important. Stilted writing, forced dialogue, and unrealistic elements are ultimately less of a showstopper for me when choosing historical fiction for my kids than simple appropriateness of the plot.
There are some good qualities to the book, such as the prevailing theme that war is not a game, and the subtle web that Patrick gets caught in as his lies multiply. An adult or older teen could enjoy this quick read and, yes, learn something about the time period. But parents looking to choose it for a child around "age 14" need to be aware that if it were a movie it would probably be rated R. Lots of R-rated books are awesome; this one is merely fair, so given that it seems to be presented as a children's book I have to say that I would NOT recommend it to kids at the age most likely to want to read it
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Age 14It is 1913, and twelve-year-old Patrick Condon wants to escape his unexciting life in Ireland. So he hatches a plan. Not wanting to wait until he is old enough to join the army, Patrick lies and says he seventeen years old, and that his name is John Condon. Assuming the identity of his older brother, Patrick enlists. John fits in quickly, though it is obvious that John is not 17, or even 16. That doesn't matter. John is strong, fast, and a hard worker. He loves military life. This man's world is just what John wanted. But when WWI begins in 1914, John gets all he has been looking for, and more he does not expect, as he is just a boy...
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