The Rifle - Softcover

Paulsen, Gary

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0440219205 ISBN 13: 9780440219200

Publisher: Laurel Leaf, 1997

Synopsis

In 1768, a gunsmith named Cornish McManus built a rifle of such accuracy that he know he could never create another like it. He intended to treasure his masterpiece, but with a new wife to provide for, he felt pressed to sell it. Soon the rifle was helping one John Byam become a legendary sharpshooter in the American Revolution. But when Byam succumbed to dysentery, the weapon was passed on to yet another owner...and then to another and another, until the present day.

Strangely, in all the time of the rifle after John Byam's death and through all the people who looked at it and held it to their shoulder, not once in the life of the rifle did anybody ever think to see if it was loaded.

The rifle was loaded.

About this title

Book Description:

Hardcover edition 1995
0-15-292880-4

From the Publisher:

"A truly mesmerizing tale, from beginning to end."
--Publishers Weekly, Starred

"[An] engagingly written story of one rifle and its fatal impact on one modern boy."
--School Library Journal

"Paulsen's message is clear and cutting: a machine made for killing, no matter how lovingly crafted and benignly kept, remains a machine made for killing."
--Booklist "Paulsen is at the peak of his powers in a book that is as shattering as the awful events it depicts. Unforgettable." --Kirkus Reviews, Pointer

About this edition

• Publisher: Laurel Leaf
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0440219205
• ISBN 13: 9780440219200
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 112