Reviews

I Survived the Battle of Gettysburg, 1863 by Lauren Tarshis

marcykohlbeck's review

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adventurous fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

ava_xoxo4's review

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adventurous informative sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.75

mhaugh16's review

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adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

heylook's review

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2.0

The author talks about all the research she did - over 31 books, etc. etc. - as if the writing somehow reflects that. It doesn't. She could have just read the first sentence of the wikipedia entry and come up with the same dumb story.

lanica's review

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5.0

This gives a very accurate look at the civil war, not by throwing a ton of facts and dates and trivia, but by looking at one boy traveling with one unit who had one small objective at Gettysburg. in real life, each soldier only had a very small picture of the overall war. I love that this is what Lauren Tarshis does for her readers. By concentrating on one tiny piece of the Civil War we get a true representation of the war as a whole. Very well written book aimed at grade school aged kids. Highly recommended for school libraries.

bookmeagoodread's review

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informative sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

julie_ann_harper_1633's review

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4.0

Boys will love this book. War is scary yet intriguing to boys who tend to love adventure and fighting. They will be taken back in time and learn about the occurrences during the Battle of Gettysburg.

gloriaclover's review

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5.0

The boy and I like this series. The author makes history engaging.

loveablepuddle's review

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

rdyourbookcase's review

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4.0

These books are a genius idea - historical fiction that reads like an action movie. Most book series for kids are fairly formulaic. Kids know what they like and that way, authors keep them hooked. Unfortunately, sometimes it means adults get bored - even librarians. They feature a diverse group of kids and world events, but... Every single book features a boy as the main character.

Every.

Single.

One.

I’m a girl. I like to read about girls. Girls are historically significant, too. Why why why is a woman author only writing about boys??? Aren’t we, as girls, told enough in history class that women weren’t important? Even if we aren’t directly told, we’re indirectly told, because most of the important people we learned about were old white guys. And some of these historical events are recent. Why couldn’t a girl save her family during the Japanese Tsunami or Hurricane Katrina?

I understand wanting to focus on one particular audience and getting boys to read more, but boys will read about girls if they’re written well. The Hunger Games proved that. The I Survived books are written well. So mix it up and give us some girl main characters!