Sunrise Over Fallujah - Walter Dean Myers

Wow. So this book is basically an account of a group of Army troops who are stationed overseas and are in the areas of Baghdad and Iraq. It never comes out and says that it is based on real happening in the war, but it is a very realistic setting and plot points.
First things first, it really took me forever to read this book. It was a slow read for sure. I was always re-reading and trying to make sure I had details straight in case they really meant something a couple paragraphs later. It was hard to adjust to the vocabulary because it was so military oriented and used a lot of certain terms for their weapons or their status, anything military related. So I continued to get thrown off by the language and the depth of the descriptions by the narrator. The narrator was great, I knew how he felt throughout the whole book and enjoyed knowing so much about his character and the way he was viewing those around him. It was unreal to me how much each of these soldiers seemed to go through, mentally and physically. As a reader, I was constantly aware of the different struggles being endured. This was a bonus and sometimes this was a challenge. It was difficult to know the every move, every emotion side of the book, at times it is what seemed to make it drag on and on. Because the book was full of train of thought and day to day, the timeline was really difficult to put together also. I would have to look things up if I was to be asked how long the period of time is that the book takes place in. It seemed like it could have been 2 weeks or 2 years, and I would not be able to decipher. This is mostly because of the narration, but also because of the very spread apart plot points. The narrator makes one hint towards the idea of this being few and far between in the Army, and I felt that was a direct reference to the plot also. I couldn't help but get bored between the action of the war that the troops were undergoing. So, although I kept feeling relief while the soliders where in the "Safe Zone" as they were feeling the relief, as a reader I was wanting more to happen, not necessarily scary and warlike happenings, but some kind of bigger action during the down times.
I really did enjoy the book, although a lot of my comments are seeming to sound slightly negative. I am happy to have read it and finished it, but I could not by any means pick it right back up and read it again. This was definitely a challenging book for me. An old boyfriend of mine, and now a friend, recently joined the Marines and has been stationed once in Mexico and will be moving next to Japan for about 7 months. There are constant references to the fact that the main characters in the book are Army forces and that the Marines were the ones in front of them, front in line for fire, the ones dying. That was hard for me to get past, personally. I don't think all readers will have that reaction, but it made it difficult to keep reading because of the images it was bringing up for myself. The things the narrator was enduring seemed to be downplayed by what he was thinking the Marines were dealing with. That definitely made it a challenge, aside from the writing style being a challenge in itself. I think I may ever consider this my challenge book because of how exhausted I feel from reading it. It's young adult, but it's heavy stuff when you have such a large connection to the book.

As far as teaching is concerned, I would have to get a high schooler's perspective on this book. Maybe someone younger wouldn't find it so grueling, it might be my point of view. The moral of this book was not as direct as I would have liked it to be for teaching purposes. In Maniac McGee I can pick the moral no problem, and no exactly what is being pointed at and preached. In this I can pick a few, but I wanted it to have a stronger story, a stronger underlying moral. I could definitely teach this book if the students were interested in reading it. There is a lot they could get out of it. The character development is especially good because it's so realistic, how they had to learn to trust the men and women they were working with and that is how the reader gets to know the character. It was very cool. All in all there were definitely a lot of teachable factors to this book. It really was a great read and it definitely has my recommendation, just as long as you don't dwell on the facts of it quite as much as I was!

Another quick sidenote! I wanted to include how wonderful I thought the ending was. It was a breath of fresh air at the end of a long tunnel. I really enjoyed the way the author concluded. There could even be a sequel! But the writing and wrapping up in the end really was my favorite part of the book, even through the tears it made me spill!