A war-fevered boy, a disillusioned doctor, a slave woman, a sketch artist, a lover of horses, a black man determined to shoulder a gun...
Give ear to their voices. Follow their tales and ten others in theis innovative account of the Civil War's first great battle, told from sixteen points of view. Weaving hopes, horrors, and folly, Newbery Award winner Paul Fleischman lights the faces behind dates and facts, showing us history as lived by its makers, and letting us look through many eyes--Southern, Northern, craven, and courageous. Read as a novel or performed as a reader's theater, Bull Run is a compelling rendering of a nation's discovery of the true nature of war.

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From the back cover:
It was the first battle in the bloodiest war in American history-In this brilliant fictional tour de force that can be read as a novel or performed as reader's theater. Newbery Award-winning author Paul Fleischman re-creates the first great battle of the Civil War from the points of view of sixteen participants, Northern and Southern, male and female, white and black. Here are voices that tell of the dreams of glory, the grim reality, the hopes, horror, and folly of a nation discovering the true nature of war.

TOBY BOYCE: "I was eleven years old and desperate to kill a Yankee before the supply ran out."

GENERAL IRVIN MCDOWELL: "I felt myself to be a horse who's ordered to gallop while still hitched to a post."

GIDEON ADAMS: "To be a Negro living in the midst of whites unknown to them is to be a ghost spying on the living."

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It is an interesting read and enjoyed it. When finished, I wanted to know more and was left in suspense. I felt disappointed just never knowing what happened to all of the characters. A fair amount of the characters are just separate tales and do not have an intertwining other than they all meet at Bull Run. It reads more like diary entries.

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