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Battle Dress by Amy Efaw

Summary

Andi Davis is looking for an escape from her disorganized, dysfunction home life, and West Point seems the only logical way out. Andi figures that given everything she has had to put up with at home, West Point will be a breeze. But nothing could have prepared her for the first six weeks of cadet training, better known as Beast. Andi is screamed at, belittled, and worn down during the long, grueling training that is designed to break cadets and then rebuild them into soldiers. The upper class cadets bark orders so fast that her head spins, and the fact that she is one of only two girls in her platoon makes things even more difficult. But Andi decides that anything is better than going home, anything.

291 pages, 8th grade and up

Discussion questions

Spoiler alert! Some of the questions contain key elements of the plot. Do not read if you don't want to know what happens!

  1. Is escaping from your family a good way to choose a college? Does Andi choose to attend West Point for good reasons?
  2. What do you think of the songs and quotations at the beginning of the chapters? Do they illuminate the events in the chapter?
  3. A female cadet tells Andi on her first day, "Be outstanding, but don't stand out." Is this paradoxical statement helpful to Andi?
  4. Andi always seems so unsure of herself and her qualities, yet when she prepares to run the qualifying race for the cross-country team, she describes herself as "mean" ("My Sauconys are going to kick your Asics' butt.") What happens to Andi when she is running? After she makes the team, why does she decide not to "humiliate" Platoon Sergeant Cadet Black?
  5. Why does Andi want Gaby to be her best friend? What do you think that means to each young woman? How are Andi and Gab similar and how are they different?
  6. Why does Andi "desert" Gab when Gab injures her knee during the night march?
  7. What happens when Andi breaks down in front of Squad Leader Cadet Daily? Is Cadet Daily showing good leadership qualities? Would Cadet Daily deal with a male cadet similarly?
  8. Two themes of West Point discussed in the book are "Never Surrender" and "Cooperate to Graduate?" How does Andi's squad exemplify these themes?
  9. Would you go to West Point? Could you survive Beast?

Snacks: Try freeze-dried, reconstituted food to see what Andi might have had to eat.

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