Sloan Winters
Dear Jay Kopelman,
I’m an11th 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
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