Name: My Brother Sam Is Dead
Rating: 4.19 (27 reviews)
Author: James Lincoln Collier, Christopher Collier
ISBN: 9780439771306

pastelea

3 years ago

My Brother Sam is about two brothers Sam and Tim and there family. Sam goes to war and his brother Tim has to sit at home in Tue gave n doing chores. Like milking old pres and stiff like that. I do not really like it because the story is told in Tim's point.of.view and I think it would be beter.if it was told in Sam's point of view. I feel bad.for the mom because edge father ends up diving and it is just her and Tim at home. I personally do not like it I think it is long and boring.

100letters

3 years ago

3 stars—- I was supposed to read this book for school, but I wasn’t sure I’d like it. I normally don’t read historical fiction and I’ve always found it kind of dull, so I didn’t have high expectations for My Brother Sam is Dead. Unfortunately, this book did not exceed my expectations. First of all, there were the characters. My Brother Sam is Dead is told from the perspective of Tim, a ten-year-old kid who’s faced with the troubles and dangers of the Revolutionary War. Tim has an older brother named Sam. Sam is a Patriot, but that’s a problem in his family because his father’s a Loyalist. I feel like Tim wasn’t very well developed—he doesn’t do much in the story, and I think the book would have been more interesting if it had been told from Sam’s perspective. Tim just sits there when Sam and his father argue about taking sides in the war, and he doesn’t say ANYTHING. He does do some interesting things in the book, but most of the time, he just talks about time passing and how he misses Sam. I mean, B-O-R-I-N-G. Tim didn’t make ANY effort to rescue his father when he went missing, either. I constantly rolled my eyes at him. There were also many minor characters like Mr. Heron and Tom Warrups, who were interesting but appeared, like, ONCE in the book. I wish they’d gotten more of a spotlight. General Putnam was horrible, harsh, and rude, but in the “How much of this book is true?” section, the authors describe him as brave and loyal. Wait, what? The only character I actually liked was Sam, because his life as a soldier was pretty cool. Then, there was the plot of the book. There were many side-plots going on (like, Mr. Heron asking Tim to deliver a letter, Tim’s father dying) but none of these plots actually mattered. In the end, Sam just abruptly...died. The ending was like a deflated balloon—there was so much buildup, so much excitement—and then all of a sudden, it just went POP! But the worst part was, the authors didn’t even show how Tim grieved and got over Sam’s death. They showed him FIFTY YEARS AFTER SAM DIED. Tim’s now sixty-four years old, has grandchildren, and is living a happy life. I HATE it when authors create boring, hollow happily ever after endings. However, I enjoyed some things in the book. I liked reading about Mr. Heron—he was a really mysterious and fascinating character. I also enjoyed the interview with the authors, and the part where you could learn about games and toys from the Revolutionary War. So, my overall opinion of My Brother Sam is Dead: It wasn’t a bad book, but it wasn’t very good, either. The characters and plot could definitely use some work. I don’t think I’d recommend this book.

mackiefr

3 years ago

I read in school last year. It was pretty good, but it has a lot of brutal mentions. I recommend reading in 5th grade if you're in that grade.

mistymom

5 years ago

I LOVE this book, it is a perfect book for 5th to 6th graders. there is just so much detail to explain what it was like back then, and there are so many amazing parts in the book to learn about each character. There area few bad words so it would probably be best for older kids but other than that I loved it. I definitely recommend it :)

The T

5 years ago

This book was a monster to read, not because it was 224 pages long but because the plot was so long and grueling. The ending was not sad, rather it left me feeling nothing. Mostly because tHE ENDING WAS SPOILED IN THE TITLE. Partly because the author failed to make me like Sam or even sympathize with Tim's emotions over Sam's death. Anyway, that wouldn't have even been possible because Sam died at the end of the book. This book could have been better and I feel the author knows this.

llama

8 years ago

this book is really sad but really good

dancegirl_t2005

8 years ago

I am reading this book with the users dancegirl_k2006 and dancegirl_j2006 so far everything that I have read in this book has been very good and I think that if you would like to read it, that you would like it very much.