My first Paulsen book. I liked it. Simple language for much heavier issues. Not a read for my 5th grader but still a valuable book for humans to read when ready to read about alcohol intake and mind numbing methods to retreat from military horrors. His subject matter and treatment were balanced. I like the simplicity of it. The point is not buried. The story is brief yet fills me with new ideas about poverty, survival, kindness and alcoholism. I don't need a long book for a snapshot of the Mexican border and what all could be happening there or for military veterans and their thoughts on coping. It takes place in several encounters but overall a short book. The book does it's job, moving me to consider outside experiences.

it was ok.
(3/5)⭐️

The writing was great, but the story was not. The ending was predictible, although I hoped it wouldn't happen. This is not a book for kids. There are too many adult concepts.

A fun little read with beautiful messages of redemption and self sacrifice, but the relationship that defines the story is developed so late that it feels like it doesn’t carry near as much weight as it should. Orphans for the win.

So true and so sad.

I think that I have finally found a book that I like, that can replace another book with a lower lexile score. This book is rated 1150 on the lexile score, and it is easy to read. It's also short, has a boy hero, and follows my theme of You can Make a Difference. So, I'm going to start teaching this book this year. It was recommended by the Gates Common Core committee. I've checked out many of their titles, and this one will work for me. Yeah!! **stop here for spoilers*** In this book 14 year old orphan boy of mixed heritage, he has red hair, wants to improve his life by crossing into the USA to work. Now his life consists of begging for money, always being hungry, fighting off older boys who steal the little money he gets, and running from men who want to kidnap him and sell him as a slave. He meets a sergeant stationed across the border who has troubles of his own. This man is fighting the horrors of fighting in Vietnam; he drinks to keep the 'friends' away from haunting him. He decides to feed the boy, and give him money, and in doing so he helps his own horrors. In the last scene four men come to take Manny to be a slave and he fights all four of them. He is cut badly from their knives, but he kills all four of them. Manny tries to get the man to run with him, so he won't be in trouble, but instead the man hands him his wallet and tells him to run, to go across the border and make a life for himself. The story abruptly ends there. We don't know if either person is safe. We are left to finish the details ourselves. I think that this will be a great discussion in my classes. Also this is a short book, also good since we need to add nonfiction reading to the unit.
Warning-- the man drinks, he goes to bars where ladies who are almost naked dance. This might be offensive to some. It was recommended to 11-13 year olds. Go figure. He doesn't like smoking however.

Not my favorite of Paulsen’s books, but my students liked it.

It was good esp. if you want to learn about imagrents.

No. Pointless.

I think it was a pretty good book about a boy crossing the borders from Mexico to the U.S., but I just thought the exciting stuff happened early on, which I think brought my hopes up for the rest of the book to be even more exciting, but sadly I did not think it did.

This was a short but potent story by the great Gary Paulsen. I liked it overall, though parts of it felt like a rambling fever dream, I understand the style used for his characters in this case. The sergeant is constantly battling his demons throughout, but he still manages to help young Manny in the end.

饥饿的流浪儿，酒鬼老兵，三次相遇，人性的闪光点