This book just didn't draw me in - I stopped half-way through because I really didn't find it that interesting.This book is intended for a much younger audience than most of Myers's books, which means that a lot of students expecting something more YA will be disappointed. Several characters seemed flat, and a lot of the situations just seemed unrealistic (I think someone would have called the ACLU pretty early on).That said, I like that this book deals with racism and the Civil War in a new way. Racism is still an issue in our society, and I like that this book deals with this issue in a way that younger or less mature students can process. But there's a lot of really great books that deal with racism too, and this book just isn't that awesome. This book is all about the freedom of speech and standing up for what you believe in. I enjoyed this book about a group of boys who start their own newspaper at their school. I thought that they should have been older than the 8th grade though, they seemed older than that. Overall a good book though. Ages: 13+ Sex: none Violence: yes Alcohol: yes Drugs: yes Language: some
I felt like it started in the middle of book, with not muck back story. I dropped it.
—Shutc
Thought this was gonna be an awesome nugget of a book. Disappointed. Nothing special.
—Eviis
Typical Walter Dean Myers book. Thankfully nobody gets killed.
—Becca
Could be a good book for Civil War / Civil Right discussion
—SMR1394
It was . . . . . . Okay
—ouch