All the Broken Pieces

All the broken pieces

This is about a young by named Matt who is Vietnamese and has to deal with people at school and on his baseball team being mean about him being mean. While the war is still raging and memories of bombings and other traumas are fresh. Matt has to deal with the difficulties that many veterans face when returning home at a time when post traumatic stress disorder wasn't yet recognized.

What I liked about this book is that it is a novel in verse. So it is kind of a fast read. Also I like this book because it makes you not want to but the book down so you just want to keep reading it.

I recommend this book to people in either 7th grade or 8th grade there are not any like super hard words that kids in that grade wouldn't understand.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

New Kid

All the Broken Pieces is about a Vietnamese boy who gets brought to America. A family adopted him and he goes to school and gets bullied because he is from Vietnam. He tries out for the baseball team and makes it. Kids don't like him cause they hear their parents talk about the war and things. The Vietnam war just got over and everyone is mad at them.

I liked this book cause it is about baseball and many other things. I like it cause it gives a little bit of information about the war and I thought that was pretty cool. I like how the baseball team begins to respect him and realize his talent.

This book isn't just for baseball fans. It can also be for people that are interested into war and culture. I think that this book would be good for anyone that like cliff hanger books and really like reading. This book is really short and is a good read for anyone.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Reviewed by Sally Kruger aka "Readingjunky" for TeensReadToo.com

Matt Pin was airlifted from Vietnam at the age of 10 and adopted by an American family. He is now in seventh grade and has adjusted well to his new family. He remembers the early adoption classes and meetings when he was learning to speak English, and he's glad they helped him remember the customs and traditions of his culture. His American parents now have a biological son, but Matt has always felt loved and appreciated.

The downside is that Matt also remembers Vietnam. He hasn't forgotten the sounds, the smells, and the horrors of war. He knows his father was an American soldier, but he's not sure why he left his mother behind. Should he want to find this missing father or just put it all in the past? He knows his mother told him she loved him and that was why she sent him away, but how do you give up someone you love?

What haunts him the most is the younger brother he left behind. Matt can't find the words to share the tragic story that separated him from the toddler. His loving American parents hope time will heal the many wounds created by the awfulness of war. Their encouragement, along with that of another Vietnam vet, the game of baseball, and Matt's interest in music, work together to start the healing process.

ALL THE BROKEN PIECES is the first novel for author Ann E. Burg. Written in verse, the spare language brings focus to the raw emotions felt by all the characters. Burg examines the effects of war from many vantage points as she involves her readers in this turbulent time.

Even readers without a connection to this controversial war will come away with an understanding of the widespread damage done when war is chosen over peace.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Amazing.

One of the best new books I've read this year. Quick read, but stays with you. Ann Burg's ability to communicate such a powerful message in so few words using free verse poetry is amazing. A great book for the classroom. I'd also recommend this book for book clubs (kids and adults) that want a quick read with lots of depth and complexity.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

All the broken pieces is a book about a 12 year old Vietnamese k

All the broken pieces is a book about a 12 year old Vietnamese kid who is living in american with his adoptive parents after the war in his home country went down, and he can not stop wondering why his Vietnamese mother gave him away for adoption when he was 10, what happened to the little brother she kept with her, why his American father never returned for them, and when his American parents will send him back. he is sent to school and he gets bullied because he is Vietnamese, he tries out for the baseball team and he makes it. A boy on his baseball team hates him because his own brother was killed in in the conflict in Vietnam. His piano teacher also served as a soldier in Vietnam and won't talk about it. Then a trip to a veteran's group shows him more sides of the war than he knew before, and a new coach forces his teammates to work together. In one summer, Matt lives through a painful season and finally finds safety and the understanding that loving his new family doesn't mean forgetting his first family.

what i really kind of liked about this book was that it was a quick read and along with that a really good book not the best book that i have read but its is pretty close, when i was reading this book i couldn't put it down because it was that good. If i were to rate this book from a scale of one to ten ten being the best i would give it a 7 or an 8.

if i were to recommend this book to anyone i would most likely recommend it to people from the age of 12 and up because it is a little more advanced book and it has lots of vocabulary that people younger than the age of 12 would not get or understand, over all this is a really good book so read it.

A Wonderful Book

I loved this book. The message of acceptance, tolerance and hope, set during the aftermath of Vietnam, was quite moving. Matt is a compelling main character, a Vietnamese adoptee struggling to adapt and be accepted in America. Ann E. Burg's writing is great. The free verse is wonderful! Buy this book!

Story of a Vietnames boy air-lifted out of Vietnam with departing soldiers in his new life with a wonderful American adoptive family. It rings true as he does what children do, trying to put together the pieces he has to make sense of his life.

I bought this book because I picked it up while waiting for my granddaughter and realized I would be sobbing in the children's department if I didn't finish it at home. The realization of the back story and the main character's confusion at the beginning was so moving. I later found the book moved to growth and satisfactory resolution through loving and supportive relationships.

The writing was excellent, quick moving and deeply felt. The young narrator's point of view and understandings felt real as he struggled to understand his two worlds: the Vietnam he left behind with mother and brother and war, and the America that was so different and did not accept either refugees or returning soldiers well.

This book was in the children's department and seems to be viewed as a children's book. It is entirely appropriate for adult readers as well, perhaps enhanced by our memory of the period. Younger children who read this should do so with a caring adult.

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