Embedded Files
CRACKER IS ONE OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY'S MOST VALUABLE WEAPONS:a German shepherd trained to sniff out bombs, traps, and the enemy. The fate of entire platoons rests on her keen sense of smell. She's a Big Deal, and she likes it that way. Sometimes Cracker remembers when she was younger, and her previous owner would feed her hot dogs and let her sleep in his bed. That was nice, too.
Rick Hanski is headed to Vietnam. There, he's going to whip the world and prove to his family and his sergeant -- and everyone else who didn't think he was cut out for war -- wrong. But sometimes Rick can't help but wonder that maybe everyone else is right. Maybe he should have just stayed at home and worked in his dad's hardware store.
When Cracker is paired with Rick, she isn't so sure about this new owner. He's going to have to prove himself to herbefore she's going to prove herself to him. They need to be friends before they can be a team, and they have to be a team if they want to get home alive.
Told in part through the uncanny point of view of a German shepherd, Cracker! is an action-packed glimpse into the Vietnam War as seen through the eyes of a dog and her handler. It's an utterly unique powerhouse of a book by the Newbery Medal-winning author of Kira-Kira.~ Information From Google Books
AR Level: 4.9 Points: 9 Quiz Number: 110627
About the Author: Cynthia Kadohata
Cynthia Kadohata has written many other books including: Kira, Kira, A Million Shades of Gray, and Weedflower. For more information on her, check out her website.
Other Books that you may like:
Young Adult Fiction--Vietnam War
Young Adult Fiction--Vietnam War
Bunting, Eve. The Wall (Clarion Books, 1990).
A young boy and his father visit the Vietnam Veterans' Memorial to find the name of the boy's grandfather.
Dowell, Frances O'Roark. Shooting the Moon (Athenum, 2009).
Twelve-year-old Jamie is excited when she hears her older brother, T.J., has enlisted in the Army. Their father is a Colonel and they have lived all of their lives on army bases. She would love to go fight for her country too if they would let her. She is surprised when their father does not want T.J. to go to Vietnam. He does everything he can to convince her brother to back out of his enlistment agreement, but T.J. persists and is sent to Vietnam almost immediately after basic training. He sends generic letters home to his parents, but he sends rolls of film to Jamie. She learns how to develop film by herself so that she is the first one to see the prints and she is surprised by the content of the film. First of all, the war does not look at all as glamorous as she thought it would. Secondly, there are many pictures of the moon, which make her wonder what her brother is trying to show her with the pictures. Jamie soon decides she is not so thrilled about her big brother fighting in the war anymore.
This Vietnam tale is a great way to introduce the Vietnam War to students this age. Jamie’s perspective of the young child who sees war as glamour and heroes quickly changes when she starts seeing what is going on over there. Her father is a well-written character as he is the one who describes some of the errors in the strategy used in the war. The emotions and feelings of soldiers and families help the reader to truly get into the story and feel what it would be like to be in their position. A very well-written book on a very difficult topic.
Edelman, Bernard, editor. Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam (W.W. Norton, 1985).
More than twenty-five years after the official end of the Vietnam War, Dear America allows us to witness the war firsthand through the eyes of the men and women who served in Vietnam. In this collection of more than 200 letters, they share their first impressions of the rigors of life in the bush, their longing for home and family, their emotions over the conduct of the war, and their ache at the loss of a friend in battle. Poignant in their rare honesty, the letters from Vietnam are "riveting,...extraordinary by [their] very ordinariness...for the most part, neither deep nor philosophical, only very, very human" (Los Angeles Times). Revealing the complex emotions and daily realities of fighting in the war, these close accounts offer a powerful, uniquely personal portrait of the many faces of Vietnam's veterans.
Garland, Sherry. The Lotus Seed (Harcourt Children’s Books, 1993).
A young Vietnamese-American girl tells the story of how her grandmother saw the Emperor of Vietnam on the day he was forced to give up his throne. Wanting to remember this momentous event, the grandmother took a seed from a lotus plant in the Imperial Garden. Later, forced to leave Vietnam, the grandmother took the seed with her and looked at it whenever she felt sad or when she wanted to mark an important event in her own life. Many years later, one of the grandmother's grandson's plants the seed. The grandmother is unhappy to have lost her seed until she sees what happens. Illustrated with color paintings.
Garland, Sherry. Children of the Dragon: Selected Tales from Vietnam. (Harcourt Children's Books, 1st education edition, 2001).
Legend has it that more than four thousand years ago a mighty dragon prince named Lac Long Quan married a fairy princess named Au Co. From these parents the Vietnamese people were born. With power, humor, and grace, Sherry Garland shares six of her favorite folktales of Vietnam. Passed down through the ages, these colorful stories depict the rich history, tribal customs, explanations of natural phenomena, and values so important to the Vietnamese people. Award-winning illustrator Trina Schart Hyman brings these magically entertaining and vividly detailed stories to life in an introduction to the folktales of Vietnam that is nothing less than masterful.
Laiz, Jana. Weeping Under This Same Moon (Crow Flies Press, 2008).
ForeWord Magazine Winner of Book of The Year and International Reading Association Notable Book, Weeping Under This Same Moon is based on a true story of two teenage girls from different cultures, whose paths intertwine, dramatically altering the course of their lives. Mei is an artist whose life has been disrupted by the Vietnam War. Her anguished parents send her away on a perilous escape during the exodus of thousands of Vietnamese refugees known as Boat People. In Mei's words we learn of the dangers she faces caring for her two younger siblings on a sea journey fraught with hunger, thirst and deprivation, leaving behind everything she loves to find refuge for her family. Hannah is an angry seventeen-year-old American high school student. Friendless, neurotic, a social misfit - her passion for writing and the environment only intensify her outcast state. Through Hannah's voice, we get inside her head, there to discover a gentle soul beneath all the anger and turmoil. When Hannah learns of the plight of the Boat People, she is moved to action. Destiny brings Mei and Hannah together in celebration of culture and language, food and friendship, and the ultimate rescue of both young women from their own despair. Weeping Under This Same Moon is a testament to the power of love and the spirit of volunteerism; affirming that doing for others does so much for one's self.
Marrin, Albert. America and Vietnam: The Elephant and the Tiger (Beautiful Feet Books, 2002).
Fought in a small Asian country unfamiliar to most Americans at the time, the Vietnam War became a cause that divided the nation and defined a counter-culture. The first televised war, newscasters became a force creating the greatest anti-war movement in history, while American boys suffered and died in jungles and rice paddies against guerilla soldiers they rarely saw face to face. As Marrin does so well, he brings an objective look at the complex issues that brought America into this war, that compelled her to stay there, and that prevented her from pursuing a definitive conclusion. Beginning with a history of Vietnam from ancient times, readers will understand the cultural, religious, and geo-political forces that made Vietnam a desirable territory conquered again and again by rival nations. They will learn how America's initial efforts to support anti-communist forces led to greater and greater involvement eventually spanning the administrations of Eisenhower, Kennedy, LBJ, and Nixon. Through photographs, perceptive epigraphs and first-person accounts, Marrin puts a human face on a multifaceted war. As Everett Alvarez, the longest-held POW in Vietnam, says of this book, "One of the book's strong points is that it portrays the war the way the men who fought remember it."
Mason, Bobbie Ann. In Country (Harper Perennial, 2005).
In the summer of 1984, the war in Vietnam came home to Sam Hughes, whose father was killed there before she was born. The soldier-boy in the picture never changed. In a way that made him dependable. But he seemed so innocent. "Astronauts have been to the moon," she blurted out to the picture. "You missed Watergate. I was in the second grade."
She stared at the picture, squinting her eyes, as if she expected it to come to life. But Dwayne had died with his secrets. Emmett was walking around with his. Anyone who survived Vietnam seemed to regard it as something personal and embarrassing. Granddad had said they were embarrassed that they were still alive. "I guess you're not embarrassed," she said to the picture.
Myers, Walter. Fallen Angels (Scholastic Books, 2008).
A coming-of-age tale for young adults set in the trenches of the Vietnam War in the late 1960s, this is the story of Perry, a Harlem teenager who volunteers for the service when his dream of attending college falls through. Sent to the front lines, Perry and his platoon come face-to-face with the Vietcong and the real horror of warfare. But violence and death aren't the only hardships. As Perry struggles to find virtue in himself and his comrades, he questions why black troops are given the most dangerous assignments, and why the U.S. is even there at all.
Nelson, Theresa. And One for All (Yearling, 1991).
Geraldine, her older brother Wing, and his best friend Sam swore their eternal friendship back in grade school. But now its 1967, and Wing and Sam are seniors in high school. Wing wants to go into the Marines and go to Vietnam, Sam would rather march for peace. Geraldine is caught in the middle, and longs to keep their pledge of friendship alive despite all their differences.
Wallace, Terry. Bloods: An Oral History of Vietnam War (Ballantine Books, 1985).
The national bestseller that tells the truth of about Vietnam from the black soldiers' perspective. An oral history unlike any other, BLOODS features twenty black men who tell the story of how members of their race were sent off in disproportionate numbers and the special test of patriotism they faced. Told in voices no reader will soon forget, BLOODS is a must-read for anyone who wants to put the Vietnam experience in historical, cultural, and political perspective.
White, Ellen Emerson. The Road Home (Scholastic 1995).
Rebecca Phillips, 22, is a nurse in Vietnam who has seen endless bloodshed, horror, and suffering. When her helicopter crashes in the jungle, she faces a brutal showdown for survival that will change her forever. Named an ALA Best Book for Young Adults.
Links to learn more:
About War Dogs
Videos about Vietnam War Dogs:
About the Vietnam War
SGT. Hack's Vietnam and Military Collection
The Vietname War...From the DMZ- Informatioal Website
Google Sites
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