April Morning

by Howard Fast

Book Overview

For use in schools and libraries only. The Battle of Lexington becomes 15-year-old Adam Cooper's initiation into manhood. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0553273221
• ISBN13: 9780553273229
• Release Date: November 1983
• Publisher: Bantam
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.28 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 4.2" x 6.9"
• Age Range: 10 to 13 years
• Grade Range: Grades 5 to 8

Customer Reviews

Excellent, eye-opening

"A boy becomes a man" is been the theme of countless novels. April Morning, written in 1961, reveals what a skilled writer can do with a basic idea. The novel starts innocently with Adam Cooper, a 15-year-old Lexington boy, being scolded by his stern father for laziness in doing his afternoon chores. But today is no ordinary day. As the evening progresses, Adam's dad is called to a town committee meeting--it seems the British are marching out of Boston to seize the colonists' arsenal and put them back in their places. April Morning is a short book, but it at first seems to unfold quite slowly. There is plenty of time to see Adam clash with his pompous dad, seek solace from his tart-tongued grandmother, argue with his little brother, and grab a furtive kiss with his young girlfriend. The modern reader, used to each book opening with an exploding helicopter, might be forgiven for wondering where Fast is going with all this. Then something happens that is so shocking and so unexpected, that we, like Adam, are thrown forever out of the ordinary world and into the nightmarish beginning of war. In the course of the next hours, Adam is forced to confront the realities of a war he never asked for and a world that is forever changed.

A High School Junior Remembers

I read this book my freshman year of high school. Looking back, it was a slow book in my mind. However, that was mostly because we read it section by section and discussed each one. If I were to have read it on my own I would have been through it in about a day or two. While not everything in it is exactly accurate, the story of Adam is an inspiring one. I feel that this is a book for a high school level reader and maybe at the least a mature high school reader. A lot of the events and ideas presented are not for those who do not take war and death seriously. While a lot of people have said they read it and would never want to read it again, I have to differ. I would gladly read this book over and over. It sits on my shelf of classics that include A Separate Peace, The Great Gatsby, Les Miserables and the like.

THE AMERICAN REVOUTION: DAY ONE!

The first two battles of the American Revolution (Lexington and Concord) are brought to life with revolutionary excitiement and breathtaking detail in "April Morning." This will have any history buff and non-history buff excited and ready for more! Grade: A+

April Morning

April Morning, is a book that will make you jump out of your seat. It explains about a boy named Adam and his family who lived during the Revolutionary War in April of 1775.You will learn about Adam, his brother Levi, his mother Sarah, Granny, and his father Moses. Adam is 15 years old. He has many internal conflicts about becoming a man. He has many external conflicts with his father and his brother. One of the conflicts he had with his father was about superstition. His father whipped him seven times, but Adam said it was a superstitious number so he whipped him ten more times. During the war, Adam had to act like a man about seeing people being killed.Also, Adam was very emotional because he saw close friends killed.The book explains about the bloody battles of Lexington.I highly recomend this book to people who like learning and reading about war.

A must have in your personal library...

This was probably one of the best books that I have read. It tells the story of a teenage boy named Adam Cooper, and his involement in the battle of Lexington. At first no one in the village of Lexington believes that the British are coming to fight. But when they kill Adam's father and many of his friends, he fleas. After he has gained control of himself, he goes out with his cousin and helps win one of the most famous battles during the American Revolution. This book was well writen, and it felt like you were right there in all of the action. I recommend this book to anyone.