Book Review:A Boy at War

A Boy at War, by Harry Mazer, is about a boy named Adam, who's Dad is part of the navy. Because of the navy his family is forced to move to Hawaii. Adam lives a very strict and Navy like life, his Dad is gone a lot of the time. Adam tries to make friends in his new place. At school he meets a Japanese kid named Davi and they become friends. One afternoon Adam went for a bike ride to the beach, and finds a bunch of kids playing football. One of the kids is Davi, who asks him to play. After the game, Adam realizes that he must be home soon, and so Davi and Adam ride home together.On the ride home, Davi invites Adam to go fishing. The next morning Adam gets up early to go fishing. When he gets to the pier, he sees Davi and Martin, who is one of Davi's friends. To get to the beach you have to climb under a fence, and thats when Adam realized, that this was Pearl Harbor. They arrived at the beach to look for bait, instead they find a rowboat. They got in the row boat and started fishing. While they were fishing Pearl Harbor was attacked by Japanese planes. Bombs  dropped from the sky, and Adam watched his father's battleship break in half and sink. As he watched, Adam was grazed by a bullet, the boat was whipped around in the water, tearing it to pieces. The boys were thrown out of the boat. AS Adam was swimming back to the beach he couldn't see Davi or Martin anywhere. When the two boys finally popped to the surface, there was something wrong. Martin couldn't swim and he didn't look too well. On shore they were asking around for a car to take Martin to the hospital. People were frantic, one noticed Davi was Japanese and knocked him out. Adam got separated from his friends and grouped with a bunch of Navy men. The Navy needed men, Adam was given a gun and uniform. Now, a soldier, Adam needed to get away. He was trying to get back home to see his Mom and Sister . When he got home he and his Mom waited for news of his Dad. Finally after two weeks of waiting they got a letter saying he was lost in battle. So from there they sailed home on a troop ship.
   One of the main themes in the book is courage. An example of how this theme is shown is when Adam becomes a soldier and is in the battlefield in the middle of the war. He is forced to  put on a uniform and get into battle another example of courage is when he protects the bus with civilians on it. That's why I think courage is one of the main themes of this book.
  I would recommend this book to other 7th grade readers, because it is filled with action and adventure. I think a person who is into war and action would really enjoy this book. There is no sequel, but Im interested in reading another one of this authors books. This was one of the best books I've read and thats why I would recommend this book to other readers.

I got this photo fromhttp://www.ba.k12.ok.us/schools/cms/tmelgaard/Best%20Books/Boy%20War.jpg