Soldiers+Heart



[|Cover of Soldier's Heart]

Characters Charlie Goddard - is the main character in Soldier's Heart. Charlie is only 15 years old when he joins the union army, and is from Minnesota. He lives with his mom after his dad has died. Charlie writes letters to his mom and tells her how life is as being a soldier.

Nelson - Charlie's friend, who's first name Charlie did not know. Nelson was hit in the stomach, and was left to die. Charlie tended to Nelson for a couple of minutes, but had to leave, they both knew Nelson would die.

Summary In the first Chapter of the book, you read about a 16-year old farmer named Charlie Goddard who wants to become a man, so he goes in the army, and lies about his age. He the narrator really does do a good job at explaining the life of a solider in the 1800's, how the food was not too good, and how they didn't even have matching uniforms. In the first battle, Charlie experiences how a real war is, gory, heart-pounding, terror. They loose the battle and most of there men, but Charlie survives. The second battle was better for Charlie, they won, and Charlie was truly a man in this battle. But his friend which he just meant is shot in the stomach, and back then, doctors can't do any thing for that, so Nelson kills himself. The rest of the book is Charlie going into battles, seeing the terrors of it, and meeting different people, and at the ending of the book Charlie thinks about killing himself, but the author never gave a clear answer!

Authority - The author has written this book, by using many other Civil War books for research. Gary Paulsen also has written many other books, many of which were historical fiction.

Accuracy of the book. In the book a wall of dead bodies are put up to block the wind. Walls of dead bodies were actually built to block the wind during the real war. The book did do well at explaining the life of a soldier. Another fact the book tells us is that stomach wounds were always fatal. This is actually true. In the 1860s medical care was very poor and doctors couldn't help a soldier that had been shot in stomach.