Soldier's Heart: Being the Story of the Enlistment and Due Service of the Boy Charley Goddard in the First Minnesota Volunteers » (Reprinted Edition)

Gary Paulsen is one of the most honored writers of contemporary literature for young readers. He has written more than one hundred book for adults and young readers, and is the author of three Newbery Honor titles: Dogsong, Hatchet, and The Winter Room. He divides his time among Alaska, New Mexico, Minnesota, and the Pacific.

Although he was eager to enlist, 15-year-old Charley Goddard has a change of heart after experiencing both the physical horrors and mental anguish of Civil War combat. Battle by battle, Gary Paulsen shows readers the turmoil of war through one boy's eyes and one boy's heart -- and gives voice to all the anonymous young men who fought in the Civil War.

— Riverbank Review - Martha Davis Beck

Paulsen doesn't address the issues that bring men to war; he is interested in describing what war is. In our age of missiles, which can make war seem more remote and its effects less palplable, a novel like Soldier's Heart may be an important one for young adults to read—and to remember.