Sentries

by Gary Paulsen

Four strangers fight for the lives they want in this emotional young adult novel from Newbery Honor author Gary Paulsen sure to strike a chord.

They are four different people with four separate Sue, a young woman distanced from her native roots; David, a traveler in search of a dream; Laura, a student seeking her parents’ understanding; and Peter, a rock star struggling to create the perfect sound.

One looming fate threatens them all. And everything they love may be taken away in a fleeting second...

Genres: Fiction, Realistic Fiction, Young Adult

176 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

Gary James Paulsen was an American writer of children's and young adult fiction, best known for coming-of-age stories about the wilderness. He was the author of more than 200 books and wrote more than 200 magazine articles and short stories, and several plays, all primarily for teenagers. He won the Margaret Edwards Award from the American Library Association in 1997 for his lifetime contribution in writing for teens.

Reviews

[Josiah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Experimental YA literature was a hit-or-miss proposition for Gary Paulsen. A number of his works fit the category—Tracker, for one, as well as Canyons and The Rifle—but if any Paulsen novel should be called experimental it is Sentries, a highly stylized offering that attempts to be an atom bomb of a story...but can't get all the way there. It starts with four teenagers from different areas of the United States, who bear no mutual connection other than roughly similar age. Seventeen-year-old Sue Oldhorn of Minnesota is an Ojibway Indian who feels no bond to her heritage. She works at a bank as a numbers cruncher, and quietly tolerates her grandfather's frequent intrusions on family mealtimes with singsong cautionary Ojibway tales that seem to have no modern relevance. Sue feels held back from engaging in the contemporary world—including dating her boyfriend Bob—by her grandfather. But all that changes when she meets a young Ojibway man, Alan, who causes Sue to look at life with eyes both old and new. Is returning to her familiar life possible after Sue's experience with Alan?

Fourteen-year-old David Garcia is on a journey from impoverished Mexico to the United States of America. Crossing the border illegally was harrowing, but he made it, and is headed north with hopes of landing a job and blending in. David longs to earn money for his family in Mexico, but has no idea what he's getting into when he agrees to hoe beets at a Nebraska farm. The arrangement seems perfect until David sees he's being taken advantage of by a boss who knows that as an illegal, David has no recourse. Life in the shadows is no bed of roses; can David ever establish himself as a true American? Laura Hayes, a Minnesota high-schooler, loves life on her family farm. Especially lambing season, when she, her parents, and elderly farmhand Louie are inundated with the crisis of bringing a new generation of lambs into the world. Guarding sheep from predators during childbirth is arduous, but Laura knows it's her future. At least, she did until this year. Her parents have decided without her input that she should be phased out of the farm work to focus on school. Laura's dreams of someday inheriting the farm are in jeopardy, but can she show her parents their decision is wrong?

A couple of years post high school, Peter Shackleton of California has made a good run of it. Leader of a music group called Shackleton's Ice, Peter eschews Hollywood vice to concentrate on making music, and it has paid off with moderate fame and fortune. He seeks inspiration in unexpected places, and presently when a new sound begins flooding his creative senses, he takes off to be by himself and perfect the sound before presenting it to the band. Peter is on the verge of a music innovation that could catapult Shackleton's Ice to new heights. Will the band have a chance to reach their potential? Nothing stands in the way...except, perhaps, the sudden threat common to all four main characters and beyond, which could snuff out their existence before they have the slightest idea what happened. Is human society more fragile than we can conceive?

One of my favorite parts of Sentries is the commentary on artistic inspiration throughout Peter's segments. He floods his mind with a variety of creative inputs to fertilize the ground, but only hard work can bring his musings into reality. After succeeding, Peter feels anxious: what now after such a triumph, bringing a wondrous new sound into the world like a mother birthing a child? Where does he go from this happy place? Mike, one of his bandmates, has an answer. "We have to go back to where the sound came from and we have to find it again, and find the next new sound and keep doing that." Consistently producing fresh, fascinating material is daunting, but it's the only thing that makes a life in art worthwhile. The pursuit will have its ups and downs, but when you hit on the right recipe as Peter recently did, you'll have no doubt why you choose being an artist over any rival occupation. Creating and consuming art is what unlocks the beauty of life for us.

I see similar narrative patterns between this book and The Rifle, arguably the finest piece Gary Paulsen wrote. Sentries, however, falls well short of that mark. The link between these four teens' stories is too vague, and the "shocking" conclusion has the same issue. I wouldn't even understand what happened had people not commented about it in bookish spheres. I'm also not sure what the "Battle Hymn" chapters are all about, which each follow a different young member of the U.S. military into tragic circumstances. Ray Haus's odyssey is particularly haunting, the stuff a Robert Cormier novel is made from. Ultimately I'm not certain what point is being made by Sentries as a whole. Gary Paulsen returns to some of his favorite writing motifs, notably beet farming, but it can't save the story from mediocrity. If you're a big Paulsen fan, though, you should read this book at some point.

[Ivan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Imagine being a teenager and feeling that your entire life as you know it is on the line. This is exactly how four teenagers from four different parts of the country all felt at the same time. Sue, a Native American, is living her life unlike her ancestors. Her dilemma is that her elder grandfather is on his last leg. throughout the story her attitude towards him changes 180 degrees. David is an illegal immigrant from Mexico. He came into the U.S. looking for work in the beet fields of South Dakota. His plans changed when he came across a beet field in Nebraska and there was no reason for him to travel more. His biggest problem was that he made very little money and his job could be lost at any moment. Laura, the daughter of sheep ranchers, has always liked working with her parents' sheep. Her father is a father who constantly tries to instill values and morals into his children. Her biggest setback was when her father made an important decision for her and gave her no say. His decision put her way of life at risk. Peter is almost the stereotypical rock-star from California. For the most part, Peter is a laid back kind of person. Although, when it comes to parties, Peter strongly refuses being under the influence of any drugs or alcohol. What upsets Peter is that his band members willingly partake in all "wrongful" activities at parties. Even with his band members doing the wrong thing, their band is still extremely successful. All four teenagers are learning that sometimes in life, what you have now cannot be taken for granted. They are learning this because they are all living lives which can be changed at any moment and they all realize this. I chose to read this book because Gary Paulsen is one of my favorite authors and this is one of the few of his books I haven't read. I can relate to this book because I too am a teenager. While reading this book I realized that I have a lot in common with every character. I can relate to some of the situations they get it and their thoughts toward those situations. I can relate to David the most because no matter how hard the work is I will always get the job done. The book lived up to it's promise. It was exactly what it said it would be about. You should read this book if you are uncertain about where your life is at. I would recommend this book to any teenager who wants a book they can relate to. You should not read this book if you are sensitive to racism. This book isn't for someone who is close-minded and can't accept the way other people live. The only problem I had with the book was the fact that there were four different stories going on in just one book. At times it was hard to follow along. Other than that, the book was excellent.

[Dana Berglund · Rating 2 out of 5]

In honor of Gray Paulsen's passing this week, I decided to read one of his books that I didn't remember existed. The cover (mine is from 1987) is pretty terrible, and most of the stories in it haven't aged well either. We follow stories of 4 young adults, but they never have any direct connection to each other. Some are hopeful and some are dismal; your own connection to any of them may depend on your personal experiences. A lot of it isn't even dated that much, except for the cocaine use and the blatant Noble Savage stereotypes. Yes, Paulsen again decided that he had the experience to write from a young Native American (woman's!) perspective, and then have her neat city life swerve toward a young Ojibway man who lives alone in a clearing in the woods. Sleeping on the ground or in his canoe, walking 7 miles in moccasins to see her for lunch, and speaking in short, cryptic sentences. Sigh.
Then there are the intervening one-off chapters about young men who go to war and discover how horrible it is. They are also not directly connected in any way to the main characters (all three of them return from war very broken, and never marry or have children).
I don't even know what to do with this book.

[Lojicholia · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars really; surprisingly, David’s character was really well done, as was Laura’s. The war vignettes were surprisingly brutal, and I was a little surprised to see how deeply brutal Paulson was willing to go (although I guess I shouldn’t be based on what I remember from Dogsong). Sue’s chapters didn’t quite do it for me, and Peter was just downright boring. All told tho, quite an enjoyable little book.

… but what the heck is up with the cover and back page? Did they confuse this with another Paulson book?

[Kathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the chapters but it needed a structure.
Disappointed

[Gale · Rating 2 out of 5]

Vignettes: Loneliness Times Four

This an unusual book--definitely not a novel, for the plot is non-existant. The storyline alternates among 4 teenagers and 3 veterans of different wars--none of whom meet each other. According to the Summary, there is a theme which provides commonality/literary glue, but even that is somewhat obscure. The chapters are short and read quickly. Master story-teller Paulsen held my interest because I kept waiting for the four protagonists to interact and solve the world's problems--or at least their own.

But it was not to be--which lead to my frustration and disappointment. If he just wanted to write good short stories, he could have rearranged them, so that readers would realize when the end had been reached about a specific young adult. Nor did I notice any thread of nuclear disaster, as proclaimed on the back of the book. I found human vulnerability and dignity, as these young people sought meaning and direction in their lives. All four pursued their goals differently, but it was unfortuate that they never knew of each other's dilemmas, so they could not even learn from each other's experiences. Neertheless, this book provides sad commentary on the social isolation of the teen years. Familiair with the literary heights which I have come to expect from Paulsen, I was disappointed.

(August 7, 2012. I welcome dialogue with teachers.)

[Fran · Rating 4 out of 5]

Going for a 5 until the last chapter. Just took off a star. Read and share. I am going to read other reviews to enlighten myself.
Found this book on the discard cart at the school library. I loved following separate characters in their individual settings and conflicts.
I'm not sure how I thought it would end.

[Brooke · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is no main character, no rising action, no climax, no resolution.
This is a weird book, but I loved it.
I am a fan of collage-style writing, where piecemeal ideas are placed next to each other. Joan Didion and Kurt Vonnegut come to my mind with some works in that style.
There is not a clear thread that the pieces share in common, but when viewed as a whole give an overall sense. Ingredients in a dish.
In the case of Sentries, that overall sense is... personal.
Injustice, hard work, impending death, loss of innocence, music, human connection, war, new life. The atom bomb mushroom cloud is an apt cover—the version I bought is also just a collage of images (Alan, Lauren, a lamb, a guitar, military rank medal, and a beet).

Paulsen wrote a lot of books, and if you read a few of them you’ll likely see threads of his other works woven in here. The most clear to me just so happen to be his more controversial works. “The Beet Fields,” “The Night the White Deer Died,” “The Rifle”. These are also Paulsen at his most deadly serious.

[Noelle Marshall · Rating 3 out of 5]

“She didn’t really think much about her appearance as long as she was comfortable.”

Title: Sentries
Author: Gary Paulsen

⭐️⭐️⭐️

this is a middle grade fiction book.

In different parts of the country there are 4 teens who are living their lives. One is a Native American in Minnesota. Another is a rockstar in California trying to hit it big. Another is a migrant worker who has crossed the border looking for a new life. The final is a rancher‘s daughter living in Wyoming. All of these people are living with hope for a new future.

This book was just an OK read. Obviously, it’s short, but felt very choppy and hard to know each of the characters because of the way it was set up. It was just OK.

[Tyson Edwards · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked this book. It was unlike anything I've ever read before, but I was captivated by the intimate personal descriptions and dialogues. Paulsen has a way of getting into the head of a person and spurting out on the page the exact words that person is thinking. The ending is both poignant, powerful, and perplexing. Great read!

[Aurora Dimitre · Rating 3 out of 5]

As tends to be the case with me and Gary Paulsen, I failed to connect, but he did mess me up with some of his scenes.

[Marilyn Robbins · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is definitely not one of Paulsen's better books. I found it confusing and very disjointed. There didn't seem to be a unified plot holding the various characters together.

[Julie Kirby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gary Paulsen was such a sensitive writer. This book is another example of his efforts to endear misunderstood people to the wider, often ignorant population.

[Bunny · Rating 2 out of 5]

Page 101.
Who eats macaroni & cheese with a spoon?!!

[Louanne · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've enjoyed so many of Gary Paulsen's. This wasn't one of them. In fact, I absolutely hated it. I had to ask ChatGPT to explain the ending!

[Leo · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is plain horrible. To begin with, there’s not really a plot to this book. Basically, this book alternates from four different characters (David, Sue, Laura, and Peter), and from four different locations. Each character goes through different things throughout the story. This is confusing and difficult to understand because at one page you may be reading about one character at one location, and then at the next page you can be reading about a totally different character at a totally different place. I disagree with those who say this book is interesting. This book is the exact opposite of interesting. The only interesting character in this book is David. All the other characters like; Sue, Laura, and Peter are just boring.

My favorite character in this book is David. David is from Chihuahua, Mexico and he is looking to flee his home in hope that he finds success in the United States. He plans on entering the United States illegally. Once in the U.S., David ends up on a farm and does back aching work for less than two dollars a day. I find David really interesting because he had to sacrifice the comfort of his home and risk everything he had in order to search for a better life.

My favorite quote in this book is, “...in the morning new sun CLICK.” (Paulsen 168). This quote is my favorite because it is the absolute last thing that is said in this book. I was so happy and relieved when the book was finally over. Yes, this book is that bad.

[Brian Stillman · Rating 1 out of 5]

Paulsen fails at trying to pass along the way great music feels not only to an audience but to a performer. He fails at it even more calamitously than Gregory MacDonald in A World Too Wide. That both are immensely talented writers makes the failure all the more cringe inducing.

Still, I love Paulsen, and I've read a lot of Paulsen, and to have one book reek while so many have shone is a fair trade.

[Kayleen · Rating 1 out of 5]

SPOILERS
This book is written three years before the end of the cold war and is his anti-nuke effort. The stories of four teens/young adults are interwoven with stories of soldiers who suffered grave injuries in three wars. Just as the four main characters seem to have everything to live for, the next war snippit is that of the total destruction of nuclear war. "CLICK"
It was a poorly cobbled, anti-war editorial.

[Takoda Holman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book really interesting because it talked about so many people and their lives. however it was very hard for me to follow and keep up with because it jumped around from character to character so often. Also it would change who it was talking about each chapter and added people periodically. I didn't like it because of this fact I got lost multiple times.

[Joe Coffey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think Sentries can be confusing, yet it can be interesting where 4 teenagers both have conflicts of something and have a goal. For example, one person named David is hoeing beets and doesn't know how much money he will earn or how long it will take. Another teen named Peter made success with a new note in his music which he composed and performed.

[therices1 · Rating 1 out of 5]

I hated this book. It was a waste of time. Stories of 4 people who never meet up. I don't get how they are related. Later I read it was a commentary on war and nuclear destruction. Didn't get that. Don't waste your time.

[Dean Deters · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of stories about several characters at turning points in their lives. 4 very different lives and ways of looking at things. It is not a typical Paulsen book, and the final chapter is confusing and cryptic. I did enjoy it, but only read this if you are into contemplating your life.

[Shane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sentries was an okay book but it gets really confusing midway through by mixing many of the character's stories together and developing strange word choice. I still recommend it though because it does a great job keeping your attention and telling a fascinating story in an unconventional way.

[Matthew Bledsoe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sentries was an okay book but it gets really confusing mixing many of the character's stories together its about 4 different characters and there lives how there life's are and how there life's are on the line

[Danielle · Rating 1 out of 5]

I love Paulsen's writing in general, but this was just a painful read.

[Danny · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like this book so far. it is a good book

[Michael Labampa · Rating 2 out of 5]

To be honest, It was really boring and I stopped reading it around page 110. Read it in one sitting if you have nothing else to read.

[Madison · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't understand this book. Maybe it's just not my style of reading, but I don't get it. I don't get the title, or how the stories fit together, but it is nicely written.

[Avneet Sandhar · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked how this book had the different perspectives but however it need more to the book because it was to straight forward but otherwisebthe book was really great!

[Megan Hill · Rating 1 out of 5]

confusing