Paul Fleischman’s historical fiction book
Fleischman’s other book, Seedfolks, was also told from numerous points of view. I also noticed that the woodcarvings above the characters’ names on the new chapter pages were like the pictures above the characters’ names in Seedfolks. The pictures provide the reader with a clue about the character and what he or she does or what is important to him or her. Seedfolks includes much more individual dialect in the characters’ stories than this book does. Whole sections of that book were written in dialect, while the characters in this book only interspersed a little bit of dialect. For example, Shem Suggs narrates “He led us out of the woods and charged down into a line of Zouaves got up even gaudier than he was” (79). One would think that the Northerner and Southern characters might have different ways of talking, especially the slaves. Perhaps dialect was left out of this book on purpose to show that the characters were all more or less the same, regardless of which side they were on. Finally, the stories of the characters start to intertwine at the end of this book, just like in Seedfolks. For example, Flora Wheelworth mentions a German Union soldier who clutches a picture of a woman and has to have both legs amputated; the reader assumes that this is Dietrich Herz (100).
This book can be easily integrated into a social studies lesson on the Civil War. A map of
5 comments:
I also identified similarities between Bull Run and Seedfolks. As I stated in my blog, I was skeptical when I first began reading both books because the change in perspective occurs so frequently. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to follow the characters. This, however, was not the case. I appreciated the small icons at the top of each character's name in Bull Run. I have a problem with remembering names, so the small symbols helped me make the necessary associations so that I instantly remembered who each character was as I read. I also liked how Fleischman included maps on the endpapers. This would be a great additional resource for a unit on the Civil War.
I did not refer to the map while reading. Interesting that you did and found it helped the story. I will need to remember that when I recommend the book to students.
I did not look at the map while I was reading, either. I don't even think I noticed it was there (probably because my book is from the library so the flaps are immovable). While I was reading, I had to keep a piece of paper handy to write down each character's name, something that I could recall about them to refresh my memory, and also which side they were on. This also would have been a little easier if I had found the list of characters at the end of the book. I really need to pay more attention to the "extras" in books.
I enjoyed both Bull Run and Seedfolks for their similarities as well. As I mentioned in my blogs about them, I had not read books written in this format before. I really enjoyed the well rounded point of view it gave the stories.
I read through this book quickly because I wanted to find out what happened to all the characters, even through I had a feeling that at the end of the book I would never really know. I was reminded of this when I read Seedfolks, as well, and I had to resign myself to use my own imagination to decide the fates of the characters. That was easier to do in Seedfolks, because with the Civil War, there was a lot of death and slaves still had a very difficult life after the war. Still, this was an excellent book and I would use it in a Readers Theatre with older students.
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