Soldier's Heart

Being the Story of the Enlistment and Due Service of the Boy Charley Goddard in the First Minnesota Volunteers

A searing story of the horrors of war, written in a spare contemporary style by the master young-adult fiction author and former Minnesotan Gary Paulsen. Based on the true story of Charley Goddard, who volunteered the Union Army at the age of 15. After many battles, Charley is wounded and sent home, changed forever.

In June 1861, when the Civil War began, Charley Goddard enlisted in the First Minnesota Volunteers. He was 15. He didn't know what a "shooting war" meant or what he was fighting for. But he didn't want to miss out on a great adventure.

The "shooting war" turned out to be the horror of combat and the wild luck of survival; how it feels to cross a field toward the enemy, waiting for fire. When he entered the service he was a boy. When he came back he was different; he was only 19, but he was a man with "soldier's heart," later known as "battle fatigue." Ages: 12 and up, Grade Level: 7 and up

• By: Gary Paulsen
• Publisher: Laurel Leaf (2000)
• ISBN: 978-0440228387
• Format: Paperback, 128 pages, 4.2 x 0.3 x 6.9 inches