From Amazon.com...
"Paul Baumer enlisted with his classmates in the German army of World War I. Youthful, enthusiastic, they become soldiers. But despite what they have learned, they break into pieces under the first bombardment in the trenches. And as horrible war plods on year after year, Paul holds fast to a single vow: to fight against the principles of hate that meaninglessly pits young men of the same generation but different uniforms against each other--if only he can come out of the war alive."
This was the first novel I ever had to teach. It's also a novel I hadn't read. I won't lie, there were some days I was a day ahead (or even behind!) the students. This came to kick me in the butt when an over-achieving student came to school having read ahead and said, "Miss Remmers, I can't believe that happened in Chapter 5!" I'll tell you what, I couldn't read my spark notes fast enough!
Quite frankly (and don't misinterpret this as I'm "Pro-Book burning") but I can see why the Nazis burned this book. It is very anti-war because it is so honest. It's also a very dull read. I felt bad for my students because I certainly did not enjoy the novel and I'm an English teacher! It was very hard to get into and I found that it was extremely difficult to relate to Paul and his friends. I really struggled through this book and, while I understand that in school you can't always teach what you love, I think that I could have picked a better anti-war novel. I don't have any ideas as of yet... but I think I could find one. I knew that my students weren't reading it, and (no matter how horrible this is) I really couldn't blame them!
As for the ending, it was unexpected, abrupt, and dull. I don't expect a war novel to be overly exciting or even happy (I mean, how could it be!), but by the end of this novel I didn't even care what happened to the small group of protagonists as I just wanted it to be over! While I'm glad I had this experience and entire unit of lesson plan and activities — I hope never to teach this novel again.
Funny Thought: We watched the movie before we took the test. We watched the movie starring David W. Harper, Jim-Boy from The Waltons, and no one recognized him!!
Originality: 8/10
Ending: 5/10
Characters: 7/10
Plot: 7/10
My reaction/enjoyment: 5/10
Theme: 10/10
Imagery: 10/10
Setting: 5/5
Voice: 5/5
Style: 5/5
Tone: 5/5
Cover: 7/10
Overall: 79/100 C
To the FTC, with love: School Book