Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Collection
Publication
Bloomsbury USA Childrens (2007), Paperback, 240 pages
Description
Like all young Israelis, Valérie Zenatti enlisted in the national defense service on her 18th birthday, where for the next two years she endured rigorous training and harsh living conditions, ultimately participating in top-secret missions with the secret service.
Awards
Sydney Taylor Book Award (Mass Import -- Pending Differentiation)
USBBY Outstanding International Book (Grades 9-12 — 2006)
Grand Canyon Reader Award (Recommended — 2009)
Mildred L. Batchelder Award (Honor Book — 2006)
Prix Ado-Lisant (2004)
Language
User reviews
LibraryThing member STBA
The memoir of an Israeli girl thrust from her typical teenage life into compulsory military service, where she learns to adapt to the physical rigors and emotional challenges.
LibraryThing member mcgarry
Non Fiction
This is Valerie's story, as she finishes her exams, breaks up with her boyfriend and then leaves home to take up her national service with the Israeli army. It is a strange existence, with highly pressured teaching and exams, crushingly strict routines, lack of sleep and poor food. When
This is Valerie's story, as she finishes her exams, breaks up with her boyfriend and then leaves home to take up her national service with the Israeli army. It is a strange existence, with highly pressured teaching and exams, crushingly strict routines, lack of sleep and poor food. When
Show More
Valerie returns home on leave, she is aware of how much she has changed in a short time, and how her friends' and family's perceptions of her are different too. Show Less
LibraryThing member TLHelen
'When I was a Soldier' is a true story about the life of a French-born teenage girl, who joins the army for national service in Israel. After her important school exams are over and her boyfriend breaks up their romantic relationship, eighteen-year-old Valerie Zenatti must go to the base in Tel
However, life as a soldier is a huge challenge and Valerie finds herself comparing it to the life she was experiencing as a teenager with no burdens. We gain great insight of the tasks and difficulties she must face - guarding, strict discipline, lack of food and sleep, and the stress from the sudden change in her life.
In this book, Adriana Hunter does an excellent job in translating this autobiography from its original French language to English. 'When I Was a Soldier' is a memoir that is easy to understand and it has a captivating plot as you join Valerie in her journey to become a young woman.
Show More
Aviv in order to complete her two-year service to her country and finally become a true, respectable young woman.However, life as a soldier is a huge challenge and Valerie finds herself comparing it to the life she was experiencing as a teenager with no burdens. We gain great insight of the tasks and difficulties she must face - guarding, strict discipline, lack of food and sleep, and the stress from the sudden change in her life.
In this book, Adriana Hunter does an excellent job in translating this autobiography from its original French language to English. 'When I Was a Soldier' is a memoir that is easy to understand and it has a captivating plot as you join Valerie in her journey to become a young woman.
Show Less
ISBN
1599900599 / 9781599900599