My Brother Sam Is Dead by James Lincoln Collier
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Book Reviews of My Brother Sam Is Dead
Book Review: Someone should have told the authors to watch their language....
Summary: 2 Stars
Tim's father said "In war the dead pay the debts of the living." This book does a wonderful job of portraying the folly of war. At the end of the book, you can understand where Tim is coming from when he says, "But somehow, even fifty years later, I keep thinking that there might have been another way, beside war, to achieve the same end." Not only was Tim's individual family torn apart, with a Tory father and Patriot son, but communities. Both sides are depicted to have engaged in atrocities that were in no way justified, no matter how lofty the ideals they were supposedly pursuing.
In addition, Tim is a very enjoyable character, and you can really feel his confusion as he's torn between his father and brother, who both seem to make good points. The authors did a wonderful job portraying this and drawing the reader into the story. This book had lots of wonderful potential that the authors had the ability to fulfill. That fact that Tim is so engaging a character makes the book's problems that much worse.
My number one complaint is the language in the book. I counted 6 occurrences of d*** by itself, 9 instances of taking the name of Jesus or God the Father in vain, 1 son of a b****, and 1 bast***. The language was not necessary. Most of it came from the narrator Tim and his brother Sam. It is in no way portrayed as being a bad thing that they speak in this manner, and Tim is everyway portrayed as a great kid. We do not use such language (or such blasphemy) and do not want it encouraged as "normal" (i.e. okay) for our children.
Also, Tim lies and sneaks off several times to do things he knew his father didn't approve of, or that he had even directly forbid. Some of these had the potential to be very dangerous situations, where Tim went against his father. Like the language, this was not portrayed as being a problem, and this is not something that needs to be role-modeled for children/teens. The instances in which a child or even a teen should go against their parent's instructions are very rare, and Tim's instances were not among those few.
If I had known these things ahead of time, I would not have bought the book. There were some good things in the book, and a lot of potential, but it was ruined for me by too much trash. If the language were limited to only a couple words and I didn't have any other concerns, then I might just let the profanity meet the business end of a permanent marker, but as is, I won't be keeping this book and will move on to some of the many other books available on the Revolutionary War.
Book Review: has it's good
Summary: 2 Stars
I read this book for school and I have to say it's boring, it has good parts and very little parts that make u wanna keep reading. The book's character Tim was kind of a jerk in one part why *SPOILER* when Tim and Sam's father was being harassed by a militia while Sam was at home visiting, Tim took Sam's gun to give to the militia (which is what they wanted), Sam chased him down and Tim threatened to shoot Sam, but when Sam was captured Tim runs away, come on, really what kind of brother is he, so as you can see this book isn't so exciting.Book Review: Bad history.
Summary: 1 Stars
It's not that this book tries to show both sides of the Revolution fairy(like say, PBS Liberty's Kids series). It is that the book is grossly unfair to the Patriots in general and Israel Putnam in particular that the book is almost unconscionable. Sam is wrongly executed for stealing cattle. First, Putnan while did execute two individuals, they were a deserter and a spy. Putnam did not execute cattle theives. Second, the cattle belonged to Sam's mother and were taken with consent, since Putnam knows this he is portrayed as an unjust dictator, rather than the competant and reasonable man he was. It is also isinuated that Putnam has lost control of his soldiers, who are alleged indulge in a riot of rape, looting and arson. This is not only ahistorical, but actually counter-historical as Putnam's forces are never accused of such actions in the many sources I have consulted. This would be as false as claiming that Pearl Harbor attacked the Japanese fleet or that cargo ships attacked German submarines in WWII. Finally, there are numerous anachronisms. Characters curse in front of women and children, which was not done in the day. The word "amok" is used by a character-this word did not come into use until the English languaged until the 1800s.
The writing is fair, for a children's work, but I do not look forward to unteaching the contrahistory in the work.
Book Review: The Am Patriots are the bad guys
Summary: 1 Stars
I began reading this book is the hope that it would be a good book for my 10 year old grandson. I was looking for books that might pull him into history. The beginning of this book was very promising. There was certainly complexity on many different levels during the Revolutionary period and I thought the book did a good job of portraying some of that. As the book went along, though, I was disturbed to notice that the Tories were consistently portrayed as "the good guys" and the Patriots as "the bad guys". This is not over simplifying. As sympathetic as a book may be towards people who genuinely believed in the English Monarchy, the American Revolution established a "new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal".
This book leaves the reader with the distinct impression that the more sympathetic position, based on the characters it presents and the way it treats them, was that of those individuals wanting to maintain the Monarchy.
I believe that many efforts are underway these days to undermine a sense of pride in the sacrifices many American Patriots made to establish and preserve the ideals of this nation. This book will be going into my garbage--not into the hands of my grandson. I was amazed to see there are "study guides" for this book.