War Heroes: Voices from Iraq

Copyright: 2009

Publisher: Scholastic Press

About the Book:

Do you or somebody you know have a friend or relative that went to Iraq or Afghanistan? Have you ever wondered yourself just how terrible it must be to be fighting in a strange and scary place for our country? Well stop wondering! Pick up Allan Zullo's War Heros book and you will be able to read first-hand 100% true accounts of our own U.S. military soldiers fighting for lives, saving their fellow leathernecks while working towards freedom for the Iraqi civilians and world peace for all. You'll be sitting on the edge of your seat as C-4 explosives are bouncing from bunker to bunker and gritting your teeth as brave men risk their lives to save an injured friend in enemy fire. In this relevant and historical time, don't miss out on a great read to learn more about our country and what its like to be a hero as well as an American. 

What is this book like? 

• Nonfiction
• Relevant and up to date
• Heroic
• Inspiring
• Real (describes fully weapons used and contains sensitive violent scenes)

Online Resources to Support Text:

Teaching Tools
This website contains many educational links to sites such as PBS which include lesson plans and teaching strategies for addressing the attacks of September 11, 2001.

Teaching Strategies:

1. It is essential that content-specific vocabulary be taught before the reading of this text. Much of the technical vocabulary can be taught by encouraging children to think of related items using their prior knowledge. For example, it is not necessary to know the functions and styles of different guns or bombs, just the ability to identify that say, a AK-47 is a type of gun. It may be helpful for children to use the glossary in the back of the book and create a chart grouping related terms for easy access during reading. 

2. After each personal story children should be encouraged to pull together or synthesize the information to explain what the passage was about. This will encourage children to focus on the main ideas of the passage and focus less on the nitty-gritty. Children can address as well why certain individuals were considered heroes for their actions.  

3. Students will participate in creating their own award poster for a soldier of their choice. They will draw a picture of the soldier, describe why he or she is important, what their major contributions were doing war, list their hardships they faced in battle, and how they overcame them. Then the class will present them to each other and display them on the wall for all to see as a kind of memorial.