Ratings

Content Ratings based on a 0-5 scale where
0 = no objectionable content and
5 = an excessive or disturbing level of content

Guide to Rating System

LANGUAGE

VIOLENCE

SEXUAL CONTENT

ADULT THEMES

Rating Explanation

Language: Several swear words and profanities. Name calling and derogatory speech in boot camp.

Violence: Drill Instructor yells at recruits and punches one in the stomach. Marine recruits are trained to kill. The main character goes to Okinawa to fight where there is shooting, exploding shells and grenades. Descriptions of war. Two characters are killed in the fighting.

Sexual Content: No “dirty pictures” or “pinups” allowed at boot camp.

Adult Themes:  When Adam returns home after being wounded in the war, he is different. He is anxious and  nervous around people and noises. Adam’s father was killed in the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Synopsis

Heroes Don’t Run is the third installment of the trilogy about Adam Pelko.  The first two novels, A Boy at War and A Boy No More follow Adam from right before the attack on Pearl Harbor until he is ready to enlist. In Heroes Don’t Run, Adam joins the Marines at age 17, lives through boot camp and is sent to the Pacific for battle. Adam experiences the horrors of war in Okinawa and sees friends die for their country. Wounded in battle, Adam returns home a hero.

This book stands alone and can be enjoyed with or without having read the first two books in the trilogy.

My husband is a World War II buff and we all enjoyed reading this book aloud as a family. I was relieved that the descriptions of war were not too graphic, but be aware, it is about war and there are deaths and killing. Our kids didn’t seem bothered by the violence, but that could have been because we read it aloud together. Things always seem scarier when you are reading alone.

This would be a good choice for kids who are interested in WWII because it isn’t too intense but still gives them an honest and realistic description of the war in the Pacific.

©2009 The Literate Mother