Adam Pehowski

Dear Mr. Paolini,

I never really thought about a soldier's life until I read your book Brisingr. I always thought of soldiers as making our life better by getting rid of the bad people on the earth. Then I read your books. Your books explained to me that even though soldiers are fighting for a cause, they are still killing people. I never thought of war as taking people's lives away. Even though the other people think differently, they have a family who probably loves and cares for them. That makes me wish even more that everyone on the planet would get along and stop war.

In fifth grade, my Accelerated Learning class did a project to send boxes of supplies to soldiers in Iraq. We first earned money by doing jobs at home. Then we had a bingo night to raise money. After that we took the money and bought items soldiers might need or want. Next, we set out a box for kids to put leftover Halloween candy in it. Then, we packed the boxes with supplies and used the candy as filler so it could go to Iraq. The receipt from the post office was about twenty feet long, and luckily someone donated the money for postage.

At first I thought we were doing this project because we wanted to be nice. I wasn't wrong; I just wasn't completely right. After I read your book, I realized that the soldiers felt good to see that we were thinking of them. They feel bad for fighting and especially killing people. After our project, they felt better because someone cared for them and put a lot of effort into making them happier. It reminded them of home and their families. The soldiers knew America cared for them, it's just we often don't show it. America needs to show we care for our soldiers. Without soldiers, America wouldn't be so free. Showing we care for them is the reason we did that project.

Your book taught me a lot. Soldiers are still good people, but they are forced to kill people. Before I read your book, I didn't think of soldiers killing people much. Now I do. Killing can feel really bad, seeing someone die like that. Some people wouldn't ever want to experience what soldiers have. That is why we need to show we care for them by doing nice things for them. They don't want to have to think of killing every single minute of their life. Soldiers are soldiers because they are strong, tough, and brave, not because they like to kill people. If they did, then they would be a very bad person. Your book taught me all of this, and I hope other books will teach people a lesson too. I hope that war will end soon. May world peace come upon us.

Sincerely,
Adam Pehowski