Sunrise Over Fallujah

Myers, Walter Dean. (2008). Sunrise Over Fallujah. New York: Scholastic Inc.
Chapter Book: Yes Genre: Non Western 

Sunrise Over Fallujah is a story about a new army recruit named Robin "Birdy" Perry and his account of his time spent in Iraq right after one of the most difficult times in American history, 9/11.
I remember I had been working for Continental Airlines for eight years and in those eight years you develop friendships with other airline employees and you become a family. In the airline industry we have what’s called an interline agreement whereby crew members can jump seat in the cockpit with other crew members if the flight is not full with crew members from that particular carrier, so you get to know each other very well. Some of what I tell you will be information learned after 9/11.

Two weeks before that very dreadful day two of the highjackers flew on our aircraft Baltimore, Newark – Newark, Boston. We would later learn that they were testing the security on all American carriers. It is believed that they wanted to make a statement with The CONTINENTAL UNITED States of AMERICA(N). I remember very vividly getting dressed on my way to work when I received a phone call from my brother in-law, telling me to be careful and to turn on the news. For those of you who do not know one of the aircrafts had hit the Twin Towers in New York City. It was awful. And as the day progressed it only got worst. We learned that some of our crew member family was high jacked and murdered. In addition, some of our regular customers that were on the aircraft that was diverted from hitting the White House was murdered. Americans were outraged and afraid, and as quiet as it is kept it had a devastating effect on our economy. Overnight Continental had to lay off 11,000 employees. Other carriers had to let go even more. The numbers were unbelievable. So when President Bush Jr. told Americans that the people who attacked us was in Iraq, and that he was declaring war on them we were 100% behind him. Which brings me back to Sunrise Over Fallujah.The story Sunrise Over Fallujah starts out with Private Robin Perry, from Harlem New York writing a letter to his uncle telling him about how he feels about going to war in Iraq. He did not understand why his father did not want him to go and why his uncle Richie who had served in Vietnam never wanted to talk about his experience until he had an experience of his own. It was all exciting at first the mission was to get Saddam Hussein find his weapons of mass destruction destroy them, and pay them back for bombing us. However, he would later learn that there were no WMDs and Saddam Hussein did not bomb the Twin Towers. In addition, the mission changed and finding out who the real enemy was would not be as easy as it seemed.

Private Perry was a part of a special detachnment created for Medical, Construction, and Intelligence. Their inital responsibility was to help secure and stabilize the country and successfully interact with the Iraqi people. As the story progress we find out that Perry AKA Birdy's excitement would turn to disillusionment when he starts to see that the people he has come to know as family are dying all around him and now he is in a war that seems to have no end. I wish I could say that this story had a happy ending and that everybody lived happily ever after. But you will have to read the story to find out for yourself and find out if the Sunrise Over Fallujah was a bright one. Although this story reminded me of a time in my life that I had buried in my mind to never resurface I believe it's a story that must be told. I recommend this story for students between the ages of 14 and above. There were no illustrations but Walter Dean Myer's story telling was very vivid. I thought the story was very well written. Below is an interview with the author.
http://aalbc.com/authors/walter1.htm