Letters About Literature: From Baghdad, With Love

                                                                                                                Sloan Winters

                                                                                                               

Dear Jay Kopelman,

            I’m an11^th grader at Carbondale Community High School and in my English 3 class we were assigned to blog about different books included on the Read for a Lifetime list. For my second quarter book and blog, I chose your book: From Baghdad, With Love. My best friend read it as her first quarter book and loved it and recommended it to me, so I went for it. I have never been interested in war. I have never overly adored warfare or the military or anything. It’s not that I’m anti-war and military, but I just do not enjoy the idea of people killing each other and if anyone-my dad, my brother, my boyfriend or my future husband- was employed in a war I would be quite frankly, torn up and a nervous wreck. I am so thankful for all the Military Forces, but I just don’t want it to affect me too personally. After reading your book, my perspective changed. I never would have chosen a book that was set in a war on my own. Since my best friend recommended it I figured she knows me well enough to accurately recommend a book for me. I was, of course, touched by Lava changing your heart so much, which I will get to later, but my perspective on war and the military, in your case the Marines, was changed. I now have a new pride and respect for military veterans and current soldiers. Soldiers aren’t just tough, strong men devoted to killing for a cause-they are still human and they still have human emotions. I also learned from your novel about how war works. I don’t watch the news, especially when newscasters start talking about war because really I just don’t understand. Living in your shoes by reading your novel put that understanding in my mind and heartbreak in my heart. I could never be a soldier. I don’t have what it takes. Therefore, I’m in awe of the military work now.

            I’m in all reality a big softie. Stories about how one person changed someone’s life, or an activity, and in your case, a feisty puppy; it just touches me.  I also adore the concept that your life could be going one direction and then all of a sudden, something happens and it is changed forever. This is exactly what happened with Lava to you. This gives me hope for humanity. So many people view people as at the core-bad. They view the world as a dark, cold place. They believe there is no pure good and that everything is corrupted. For you, this is what you were living with and I would not be surprised if this was your standpoint on the world prior to Lava leaping into your life. But then he shot across your horizon like a falling star and nothing was ever the same. You were living and working in hell until this furry friend got into your heart, softened it, and changed you. Though I am not to speak for you, Lava was your hero. He saved you from the world and from yourself. As a sixteen year old with much more life ahead of me, I can only hope I find something or someone in my lifetime, like Lava did for you, to ignite the fire inside me and change my life forever.

                                                                                                Sincerely,

                                                                                                Sloan Winters

Sparknotes=Bad

I went on sparknotes.com and read the extremely short and pathetic summary of my second quarter book From Baghdad, With Love. This novel is an incredible and inspiring book and this "summary" of the book is nowhere near the deserving amount of credit to the whole novel. This novel is deeply emotionally moving, and in this summary I wanted to fall asleep. Sure, it spoils the entire book for you and points out obvious symbols. But, how is this enriching your attitude towards Marines, or war, or how people's lives can change in one day, or how good things come out of bad situations, or the pure goodness of reading a book! I've never used Sparknotes for any school assignment. I always really try to read a book whether or not I like it. Like the catchy phrase of the Disney movie, Holes: "It builds character". That is repeated to the campers when asking why they must dig holes all day. I'm pretty sympathetic towards anyone who uses Sparknotes or doesn't read outside school let alone an assigned text. They are cheating themselves. What's it gonna hurt? Going to gain knowledge you wouldn't have originally gained? Going to expand your reading skills and therefore, believe it or not, your writing skills? Reading an entire novel is nothing but a benefit and an enriching experience. When taking the easy way out like reading Sparksnotes, you get practically no benefits but maybe an A on a quiz or test. I consistently see that the people who do take this shortcut, take other shortcuts in life as well, if you get my drift. Reading is one of the simple joys in life and when you completely disregard this fact, no good is done. Even if someone has to sit down and force themselves to read a novel, in the very least they can say that they did it, and they conquered something they didn't want to do. In my case, whenever I've had to sit and force a novel down my throat, I always was thankful I did so, because the best part of the book is always the end when everything makes sense- you just have to get there. Specifically in reference to my second quarter novel, you completely miss the attachment to Lava and adoration for Kopelman, the emotional connections to Kopelman when he doesn't know Lava's fate, and especially you don't get the build-up and climax of when Kopelman and Lava are reunited again and for the rest of their lives. The summary that stated pretty much that the novel was about a Marine who found a dog and went through a lot of trials to get him to America is a terrible representation of the treasure that this novel truly is...the treasure that any and most novels are.