CCBC (Cooperative Children's Book Center Choices, 1998)
There was no such thing as post-traumatic stress disorder at the time of the Civil War. The symptoms certainly existed, Paulsen notes in his foreword to this grim and moving novel, but there was no understanding among the majority of people as to what returning soldiers had experienced and how the trauma continued to affect many of their lives. Still, he notes, people knew they were different. "They were said to have a soldier's heart." Paulsen's story is based loosely on the life of a real person. He explains in an author's note that Charley Goddard was 15 in 1861, when he lied about his age to enlist in the first Minnesota volunteers. He died in 1868 at the age of 23, torn apart both physically and emotionally by what happened to him in the war. The fictional story Paulsen constructs to link those two events in the real Charley's life is a tale of an innocent, unsuspecting boy's experiences on the cruel and unforgiving battleground of war. At first Charley is swept up in the excitement of going to war--marching in parade, the steamboat ride followed by the train ride east. He didn't like how much the other soldier's swore but it couldn't dampen his enthusiasm for the battles to come. Charley's excitement is soon replaced by horror and fear. "Make it stop now!" his mind cries out in the midst of his first battle, but of course it doesn't stop, not in that battle, and not in all that are to come. The encouragement and the praise of commanding officers is meaningless. Everything is meaningless but survival, and even that seems pointless at times. The details are realistic and brutal in this harrowing novel that leaves no doubt about the inhumanity of war. CCBC categories: Fiction for Teenagers. 1998, Delacorte Press, 106 pages, $15.95. Ages 13-16.

Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, 1998)
The nightmare of the Civil War comes to the page in this novel from Paulsen (The Transall Saga, p. 741, etc.), based on the real-life experiences of a young enlistee. Charley Goddard, a hard-working, sweet-tempered Minnesota farm boy, can't wait to sign up when the call comes for men to defend the Union. But the devoted son and brother who looks forward to sending home the $11 a month he earns for his soldiering is not prepared for the inedible food, ill-fitting uniform, or the dysentery he experiences just while training. The passages on the battles of Bull Run and Gettysburg are--as they should be--disconcerting, even upsetting, in the unflinching portrayal of the bloodshed and savagery of war. What is truly remarkable is Paulsen's portrayal of Charley, who is transformed from an innocent boy into a seasoned--but not hardened or embittered--soldier. Most haunting of all, more than the fiery skirmishes themselves, is the final picture of Charley, so shaken and drained from the experience that the only peace he can envision lies within suicide. An author's note tells of Charley's true fate--dead at 23 from the psychological and physical ravages of war. Maps, Not Seen, Bibliography. 1998, Delacorte, $15.95. Starred Review. © 1998 Kirkus Reviews/VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.

Claire Rosser (KLIATT Review, July 1998 (Vol. 32, No. 4))
Inside is a portrait of a young soldier, perhaps the real Charley Goddard, who is the inspiration for Paulsen in this novel of the Civil War. (The illustration on the cover doesn't capture the youth of the soldier.) "Soldier's heart" is another euphemism for the horrible effects of war on a soldier -- we've also heard of shell shock, battle fatigue, and post-traumatic stress disorder, all terms used to describe the indescribable from later wars. Charley is from an isolated farm in Minnesota, who at 15 has little understanding of why the war is being fought, or about the wider world. He wants experience, adventure, and to prove himself a man, so he enlists, lying about his age. The details of what follows for Charley are sparse, but powerful. He takes part in several crucial battles and endures months of camp life until Gettysburg, where multiple wounds nearly kill him. Once the war is over, he returns home a broken man and survives only a few years until he takes his own life. A brief book, one that gets to the reality of brutal warfare quickly. It delivers an emotional impact that even reluctant readers will experience, and so would be a good book to choose for such students in history or social studies classes. KLIATT Codes: JS--Recommended for junior and senior high school students. 1998, Delacorte, 106p. illus. bibliog. 19cm. 98-10038, $15.95. Ages 13 to 18.

Karen Leggett (Parent's Guide, Fall 1998 (Vol. 1, No. 1))
Fifteen-year-old Charley "didn't figure to miss" this shooting war. In potent and gruesome detail, we fight battle after Civil War battle with Charley. Young readers learn quickly and dramatically that war is not colorful bursts on a video screen and post-traumatic syndrome did not start in Vietnam or the Persian Gulf. 1998, Delacorte Press, $15.95. Ages 12 up.

Elizabeth Bush (The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, September 1998 (Vol. 52, No. 1))
This anatomy of a Union soldier's career, based on the life of First Minnesota Volunteer Charley Goddard, follows the doomed boy from his jaunty leave-taking and exhilarating train ride to Maryland ("Girls gave them hankies and sweets and Charley figured later he had fallen in love at least a dozen times"), through his face-offs with death at Manassas and Gettysburg, to his return to Minnesota, "tired and broken, walking with a cane and passing blood." Doomed he is, despite survival on the battlefield, for it is clear that if his injuries don't claim his life, he will surely succumb to suicidal temptations resulting from post-traumatic stress disorder--or "soldier's heart." In a style and tone similar to The Rifle (BCCB 10/95), Paulsen records Charley's experiences in a remote, almost clinically dispassionate voice and allows readers to supply the inescapable and wrenching emotion for Charley's plight. The brevity, power, and deceptive simplicity of this novella again demonstrate why young adult readers greet new Paulsen titles with unabashed enthusiasm. Sources are documented in an appendix. (Reviewed from galleys) Review Code: R -- Recommended. (c) Copyright 1998, The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. 1998, Delacorte, 144p, $15.95. Grades 6-10.

Horn Book (The Horn Book Guide, Spring 1999)
The level of realism conveyed in this brief but powerful novel is rarely seen in children's books about the Civil War. The book is based on the life of Charley Goddard, who lies about his age and joins the Union army at the age of fifteen. Paulsen's extensive research is evident in the richness of the details he provides, but what makes this novel so effective is the unremitting focus on the trauma caused by war. Category: Older Fiction. 1998, Delacorte, 107pp, $15.95. Ages 12 to 14. Rating: 2: Superior, well above average.

Helen Turner (VOYA, October 1998 (Vol. 21, No. 4))
Charley Goddard boosts his age from fifteen to eighteen, enlists to serve with the First Minnesota Volunteers in the Civil War, and in battles from Bull Run to Gettysburg learns that war is not adventure but grinding horror. Post traumatic stress disorder, shell shock, and battle fatigue are newer, more clinical terms for Charley's "soldier's heart," a malady shared with other survivors of the madness, stench, heroism, and weariness of war. Readers watch Charley as he endures the monotony of waiting; expends fruitless efforts to keep himself, his food, and his weapon clean and dry; retreats into himself as a defense against the agony of losing friends; and is seriously wounded at Gettysburg. A "good" soldier in battle, no better or worse than others, Charley believes he has no control over his own life or death. Every part of soldiering--camp life, food, relationships, killing, and questioning--comes alive as Charley survives and grows old far too quickly. In the compelling final chapter Charley remembers what he wants to remember; "pretty things," he calls them: dew on a leaf, pretty girls, a black and shining Confederate revolver. The real Charley Goddard volunteered, trained, and fought with the First Minnesota and was wounded at Gettysburg. He returned to Minnesota but died within a few years from his Gettysburg wounds and soldier's heart. This is a spare and lucid document of war and of one of its memorable participants, child-man Charley Goddard. VOYA CODES: 5Q 4P J S (Hard to imagine it being any better written; Broad general YA appeal; Junior High, defined as grades 7 to 9; Senior High, defined as grades 10 to 12). 1998, Delacorte, 144p., $15.95. Ages 12 to 18.