"With Guns In Their Hands And God On Their Side"

Sunrise Over Fallujah is Walter Dean Myers's 88th publication of 91 (one of which is a 12 book series, so that's really 102 publications). To see the entire list, use the link above, go to the "Bibliography" section, and click on the link on the bottom of that page. It's really impressive. 

The video at the end of this post gives a great overview of the book, so I won't go too much into that. Sunrise Over Fallujah is well written and portrays a young soldier's coming of age in the current Iraq war very well. This is specifically an adolescent/young adult novel, so there's no profanity (maybe one damn or hell, but I don't remember that even being present), but Myers does a great job describing the war. 

Robin, the protagonist, encounters battle, and Myers describes piles of body bags, soldiers killing and being killed, soldiers being dismembered, even attempted rape. He does this all in a way that provides a pretty clear picture for adolescents, but not in such a graphic way that it will cause any real controversy ("you can't let students read this"). It is a tasteful and toned-down-yet-realistic picture of what soldiers encounter.

Through Robin, Myers brings to light issues young people, those most likely to be enlisting in the near future, may not have considered. Certainly issues that aren't often discussed with adolescents, especially by recruiters. 

We get a mostly balanced picture of the situation (the initial invasion of Iraq at the start of the current war). Robin is dedicated to his country and his job, but he is conflicted because he now sees that war isn't as cut and dry as he imagined. It's difficult to tell the good guys from the bad guys. He wants to feel safe and protect his fellow soldiers, but really doesn't want to kill anyone. He is often scared and sometimes cries. He doesn't always understand the U.S.'s policies or logic.

Even the soldiers are presented diversely. Robin serves with women, blacks, whites, hispanics, young people, older people. And while the U.S. soldiers are primarily presented in a positive light, those who condemn all Iraqis are disliked by other soldiers. Those who seem to enjoy war are, through tone and imagery, presented in a somewhat negative light.

I could easily write much more about Sunrise Over Fallujah and pull out tons of quotes, but I won't. The book gives adolescents an idea of the plight of Iraqi citizens, talks about the myriad tribes and factions present there, the local violence, lack of hospitals and drinking water. It shows how the soldiers help the people and how the invasion has brought strife to the area. It would be a great book to use in a literature class, in a current events class, in a social studies class. It is appropriate for high schoolers and beginning college students, but could surely be explicated by professionals.

If the embedded video won't work, click here.