A Boy at War
Harry Mazer
Summary
Adam Pelko is the "new kid on the block". He and his family moved to the Hawaiian island Oahu for his dad's work. Adam's dad is a lieutenant aboard the USS Arizona Battleship. On December 7th, 1941 Adam and two of his newfound friends, Davi Mori a Japanese-American, and Martin Kahahawai a Hawaiian, go fishing. They decide to go over to Pearl Harbor cause that's where the best fish are. All is calm an quiet on the Sunday morning, and just as they are about to cast out their lines...ZOOOOOOOM! WOOOOSSSSHHHH! The boys look up and see Japanese fighter planes. They laugh and smile cause think that the planes must be for a movie until...BOOM! BANG! POW! Explosions surround them and they soon realize that they are not on a movie set, they are right in the middle of an attack. Will Adam and his friends get out alive? Find out in A Boy at War.
Theme
I believe that the theme of the book A Boy at War is that there people should never lose hope. Adam didn't lose hope when he got grazed by a bullet, or when Martin got impaled by a stick. Adam could have said "I'm going to die here" and lost hope but he didn't and got Martin out of Pearl Harbor alive cause he always had hope that he could. Another time when Adam didn't lose hope is when he saw his dad's ship get destroyed, and it seemed like his father might have died, but he kept asking around to see if anybody and seen his dad alive and didn't give up hope. That is why I think that people shouldn't ever give up hope is the theme of the book A Boy at War.
Research
After researching about Pearl Harbor I learned that the attack on Pearl Harbor caused congress to declare war on Japan and America entered WWll. Pearl Harbor was "the straw that broke the camel's back" because America and Japan were already close to war. The speech president Franklin D. Roosevelt gave after the attack on Pearl Harbor has become a very famous speech in American history. Finally, Japan destroyed to damaged 19 American ships and destroyed approximately 300 American planes.
Citation
History.com Staff "Pearl Harbor." History.com. A+E Network, 2009. Web. 12 Dec. 2014
Connection
Based on the research I did I believe that the author made the book seem like what it actuall was like the the attack on Pearl Harbor happened. I like how the author included part of FDR's speech after Pearl Harbor. Another way the author included how Pearl Harbor actually happened was what it was like in the harbor when it happened. With all the ships being sunk, the men being injured and all the explosions.