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Private Peaceful
Michael Morpurgo Scholastic, Inc. © 2004 |
This book was very enjoyable. It was funny, it made you want to cry, and it made you feel what the character was feeling. I would recommend this book probably to the high school level of juniors and sophomores. I think it was a very touching book to read. I hope this review gives you an idea about the book .
The book takes place in a small town in a quiet little county. The beginning talks about a boy named Tommo (the main character) out in the woods with his father. They are cutting down trees when a tree falls and almost kills Tommo. His father knocks him out of the way and ends up getting killed while saving Tommo's life. After his fathers death, Tommo feels that it is his fault but tells no one, not even his brother Charlie, who he is very close to. They are the perfect picture of what brothers should be: nice to each other and they do every thing together. This went on for a long time until Charlie starts to like girls. That’s when a new friend named Molly comes into the book. At first, Tommo and Molly were really close friends but, as the years pass, Tommo starts to fall in love with Molly. Little does he know that Molly and Charlie are falling in love with each other, but that all stopped one summer, or so Charlie and Molly’s parents thought. The two love birds use Tommo as a mail carrier to send each other letters. After that summer, Charlie gets a job at what is called the Big House. What Charlie does at the Big House is clean stables and stuff like that. A short time after that, Molly gets a job there, too, as a cleaning maid. Charlie stays there and works for a while until, one day when Tommo comes home from school, he discovers that Molly is pregnant by Charlie and has gotten kicked out of her house. The two boys go and get jobs on a farm. A recruiter then comes through the town where they are working, asking for any man that can fight to come and fight over seas. That’s when Tommo first hears about the war. At first, Tommo is reluctant, but later he and his brother Charlie go and sign up, even though Tommo isn’t old enough to enlist. So, they go through boot camp together and then go to war together. That’s all I am going to tell you about the book because you’ll have to read it your self to find out the whole picture.
~ Bryan Brown, grade 11, Lakeside High School