REVIEW: Sergeant York & the Great War

Originally edited by Tom Skeyhill, 1930; Edited by Richard "Little Bear" Weaver, 1998

When I was homeschooling, I had a terrible time finding books & videos/DVDs about World War I. Resources about WWII abound, but hardly anything other than a paragraph in a book could be found on "The War to End All Wars." I was really getting discouraged until I had the opportunity to read Sergeant York and the Great War.

Whether you like to teach from Living Books or would like to combine a little WWI history w/some family reading time (even for girls!!), your whole family will enjoy & learn from this book.

This book is a combination of letters, interviews & historical outline. The letters & the wording are written exactly as Alvin York's Tennessee dialect warranted. In his Preface for the book, Richard "Little Bear" Weaver says it perfectly: "For a grammarian, the reading is a nightmare, w/inconsistent spelling & punctuation errors throughout the diary. For the historian like myself, it is wonderful, & draws the reader into the life of Sergeant York." And "drawn in" you surely will be!

Here we find a young Smokey Mountain man who takes his faith in God & his incredible shooting talent all the way across the world to defend his loved ones from evil...& the internal struggle his faced as a Christian going to war, knowing that part of his duty would be to kill the enemy. He tells his story w/the seeming innocence of a sheltered mountain life, but he grew up into a faithful man & a faithful Christian during that time. The unfolding of his adventures will keep your family riveted w/every page & ~ whether you read this for homeschool, for family reading or for your own personal reading ~ you will laugh, you will cry & you will close the book feeling that you have made a dear friend.

Blessings from Ohio...Kim<><

P.S...Top off the reading of the book by watching "Sergeant York" starring Gary Cooper.