The Fighting Ground

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The Fighting Ground (ISBN 0064401855) is a 1984 children's book written by Edward Irving Wortis, under his pen name, Avi. The book is about a 13-year-old boy going off to fight in the American Revolutionary War, and covers two days, April 3, 1778 and April 4, 1778. The story is about a young boy named Johnathan who wishes to go to war.

[edit] Setting

The story takes place in New Jersey on April 3 and 4 in 1778. The Revolutionary War has begun, and the American colonists are fighting for their independence from Britain.

As he works the fields with his father on a warm April day in 1778, thirteen-year-old Jonathan daydreams of being a soldier in the Revoultionary War. Against his parents' wishes, he rushes to the village when the warning bell tolls. For Jonathan, excitement and glory of the battlefield soon turn to fear, exhaustion, and confusion. Hardly more than twenty four long hours later, after having escaped from his enemy captors, Jonathan returns home, his understanding of war and life forever changed.