We Were There, Part 4

 

Of the four We Were There books dealing with the American Revolution, We Were There at the Battle of Lesxington and Concord (1958), by Felix Sutton, is my favorite. Of course, there's a nostalgia factor involved in that. Lexington and Concord was in my elementary school library. I read it and loved it as a second grader.

It holds up when re-reading it as an adult. As was standard with the series, the main character is a 15-year-old boy (this time named Rob Gordon) and a 13-year-old girl. Often, the two are siblings. In this case, Rob is the adopted son of a tavern keeper in Lexington (John Buckman--a real-life character) and Sary Williams is the daughter of Buckman's housekeeper. 

In one of the earlier entries on this series, I commented on how the We Were There books shied away from portraying young puppy love or crushes. Here, though, the book ends with a subtle and sweet implication that Rob and Sary might some day be married. I guess the authors weren't always worried about alienating their younger readers who might still think girls are yucky. Heck, I'm thinking that maybe I'll even stop giving myself anti-cootie shots after kissing my wife!

Anyway, the book begins with Rob and Sary sneaking a wagon-load of food into Boston, which is currently occupied by British troops following the Boston Tea Party. Before long, Rob overhears several British soldiers talking about a possible military expedition to arrest John Hancock and Sam Adams (currently hiding out in Lexington) and seizing weapons & gunpowder. 

The soldiers spot Rob, who has to lay one out with a fireplace poker before making a getaway. He and Sary barely manage to get out of Boston and warn Hancock. 

A few days later, Paul Revere makes his midnight ride to warn the Minute Men that the British are indeed coming. Rob participates in part of this ride, then he and Sary do some scouting for the Minute Men. When the Shot Heard Round the World is fired in Lexington, Rob is riding to Concord with a message. Sary, though, witnesses the battle. Afterwards, despite being horrified at the sight of dead and wounded, she pulls herself together and aids the wounded.

Rob joins the Minute Men at Concord, taking part in the charge at the Concord Bridge and participating in the exhausting day-long battle that ensues. Going into this, Rob sees the upcoming battle as a chance for glory. Instead, though he performs bravely, he learns that battle is terror, watching friends die and taking the lives of fellow human beings. 

This is what gives the book its strong backbone. The battle scenes are described vividly and with historical accuracy. The cause of liberty and the necessity of fighting for it are upheld. But the actually dirty business of fighting is not sanitized or glorified. Rob learns what war is, so when he continues to fight (joining the Continental Army at the book's conclusion) we see the bravery and determination behind that decision. 

It's still a young adult book, so the violence isn't overly graphic. But the author still brings across a sense of spilled blood and intense fear intermingled with true courage. It's a great book. 

We Were There, Part 3

 

We Were There at the Boston Tea Party (1959), by Robert N. Webb, was the third in the overall We Were There series but the first to deal with the American Revolution. We've looked at the later volumes dealing with Ethan Allen and Yorktown respectively. Now we jump back to time just before the real fighting began.

As per the series' usual format, the main characters are a 15-year-old boy and his younger sister. In this case, it's Jeremy and Deliverance ("Del") Winthrop, children of a collage professor. The two young ones have gotten involved with Sam Adams, Paul Revere and other Sons of Liberty, delivering messages and doing other tasks.

But they want to do more. And here, I must pause in my plot summary to insert a bit of historical trivia. In 1865, a decendant of Sam Adams wrote that Adams' had a dog named Queue--a huge Newfoundland who was friendly with most people, but absolutely hated the Redcoats. It was said the he was covered with scars from his violent encounters with the British soldiers who were occupying Boston. 

There are no contemporaneous accounts of Queue, so there's a good chance he didn't exist. Or if he did, his private war against the Redcoats is merely a legend. But the We Were There novel treats Queue as real and, by golly, he's awesome. He easily rates a spot alongside other great dogs of fiction such as Buck, White Fang, Slasher and Nobs.

He also gives Jeremy and Del a motivation for doing something more for liberty. Or at least do something nice for Sam Adams. The dog is currently held by the British, who have tired of his canine shananigans. 

With a sympathetic British sergeant looking the other way, Jeremy and Del manages to sneak up to Queue and cut him loose. But the dog won't leave without taking vengence, charging through the mess tent and scattering food over the dining soldiers.

It's a great scene, interjecting some humor into the story and using the incident to show that the problem wasn't with the individual British soldiers, who were often decent enough fellows, but with the stripping of the colonists' liberty.

The story progresses, with Jeremy and Del spying out the waterfront and discovering when ships carrying tea will be coming into port. Later, Jeremy actually sneaks aboard one of this ships to find out when the captains plan to offload their cargo. This involves the Winthrop siblings in the planning and eventual carrying out of the Boston Tea Party.

It's another strong entry in the series. Unlike the other two books we've reviewed, the author is dealing with a situation in which the siblings aren't necessarily in physical danger. But Jeremy and Del still find useful and legitimately exciting tasks to perform. And additional tension is added via their father, who they see visiting the Tory Governor Hutchinson. Is their dad pro-British? Will their work in the cause of liberty eventually put them at odds with their own parents?

I also like the historical accuracy. Heck, Queue MIGHT have existed. And the book is full of little touches showing the author knew his stuff. For instance, when the kids take a message to John Hancock, the wealthy merchant is having dinner with Paul Revere. Jeremy notices that Hancock is dressed in the richest finery (which he did in real life) while Revere is dressed very plainly (also, a real-life touch). Small touches like these add to the strength of the book.

We have one more We Were There book to cover. As a reminder, I'm doing blog entries on these books because I might eventually be doing a talk about them at a DAR meeting and so needed a handy place to preserve my notes. So we'll eventually cover the classic novels Johnny Tremaine and April Morning as well. 

We Were There, Part 2

 

We're continuing to look at the We Were There books regarding the Revolutionary War with We Were There When Washington Won at Yorktown, by Earl Schenck Miers. Bit of a spoiler title, isn't it?

Following the typical formula mentioned when we covered the Ethan Allen book, the story is told from the points-of-view of a young boy and young girl caught up in an important historical event. This time, we meet 15-year-old Jed Barnes and his younger sister Fran, who live with their parents on a farm near Williamsburg. The routine of their lives is disrupted when British troops under Cornwallis occupy the area.

It isn't long before Jed is caught up in the events. He meets some Pennsylvania militia serving under Mad Anthony Wayne and soon after meets General Lafayette. The young French general is impressed with Jed's intelligence and grasp of military tactics, so he employs Jed as a spy. Soon, Jed is offering to care for the horses of British officers in Williamsburg, listening to snatches of conversations and picking up bits of important information.

He experiences his first taste of battle alongside Mad Anthony's men, several of whom he's befriended. The book was written for kids, so the battle is not described in graphic terms in regards to blood and guts (though Jed does see a man beheaded by a cannon ball), but the author does an excellent job of describing the terror Jed feels as musket balls fly past him and Redcoats do their best to kill him. As is true with all the We Were There books, the author is not writing down to his audience. 

Jed is later tasked with taking a message to General Washington, whose with his troops in New Jersey. The journey involves dodging and hiding from the British, something accomplished in part because he's helped by a 15-year-old girl named Nell. Nell will end up being adopted by the Barnes family. Jed thinks of Nell as another sister without a hint that there might eventually be a romance. It's my guess that the series--aimed at boys who were often still of an age where you think girls are gross--deliberately avoided even a hint of romance. 

Jed meets Washington and Alexander Hamilton, with the book taking time to point out Washington's qualities as a leader and Hamilton's bravery under fire. Taken together with the scenes featuring Lafayette, the novel actually provides us with a sort of basic primer on being a good leader.

Jed eventually gets back to Virginia, where he helps dig trenches during the ensuing siege warfare and takes part in the capture of one of two key redoubts that need to be captured before Cornwallis is forced to surrender.

Mixed in with all this are scenes showing Jed's strong relationships with his parent and his sister, giving the characters depth and empathy. Jed's mom, in particular, is a great character. At one point, she tells off Cornwallis to his face. Several times during the book, she accurately predicts what one army or the other will do based on "common sense."

As with Ethan Allen, this book gives us a great adventure story and strong characterizations while still teaching us a little bit about history.

This finishes the two books that I acquired through interlibrary loan, forcing me to discuss them outside of their historical chronology. Next time, we'll jump back to just before the shooting started to visit the Boston Tea Party. We'll then finish with the book about Lexington and Concord, which would overlap with the Ethan Allen book. If my future biographers wonder when I didn't cover the books in historical chronological order--IT'S NOT MY FAULT!

We Were There, Part 1

 

The We Were There books was series a of 36 novels for kids written between 1955 and 1963. There was one (We Were There at the Battle of Lexington and Concord) in my school library when I was in elementary school. I loved it and, when I rediscovered it as an adult, I was impressed with how good it was. As we have discussed before, I had remarkably good taste in books as a child. 

Aside from Lexington and Concord, I have run across The Battle of the Bulge and The Oregon Trail in used book stores over the last few years. I continued to be impressed with the good prose, solid historical accuracy (each book had an historian working with the writer) and the willingness to occasionally present difficult and morally uncertain situations. So, when I saw nine of them on the shelf in a Goodwill bookstore, I snatched them all up.

It gave me an idea. I have been a guest speaker at both Daughters of the American Revolution and Sons of the American Revolution meetings. My wife Angela is a leader in the local DAR chapter (which was my connection for becoming a speaker). I told her that if they ever had an open slot, I could do a talk on children's and young adult novels dealing with the American Revolution. This would include Esther Forbes' Johnny Tremain, Howard Fast's April Morning and the four We Were There novels dealing with the Revolution or the events leading up to it.

Angela thinks its a good idea, but there's no certainty that I'll eventually give this talk. So, as I read each of these novels, I'm going to write about them here. That way, if the talk does come up in the future, I'll have these posts as notes to use. 

Normally, I'd write about them in chronological order according to when the historical events being depicted happened. But I had to get two of the We Were There books via inter-library loan. I'll need to return these soon, so I'll be reviewing them first, beginning with We Were There with Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys, by Robert N. Webb (1956).

Each of the WWT books feature a boy and a girl, usually in their early teens, as the protagonists, giving the young reader point-of-view characters they could identify with. In this case, the story is told through the eyes of 15-year-old Tom Botsford and his 13-year-old sister Lucy. They live with their parents on a farm across a lake from Fort Ticondaroga.

Tom meets Ethan Allen when the big, bosterious leader of the Green Mountain Boys saves him from a mountain lion. The year is 1774, so the Revolution is still a year away. But Allen and his Boys have work to do. 

There was a land dispute between New Hampshire and New York, caused by contradictory land grants issued by various English kings over the years. The Botsfords and other settlers are in conflict with "Yorkers," militia and surveyors from New York who are trying to run them off their land. Tom ends up working with Allen's men, at one point helping to save his own farm from being burned.

All of this helps establish the personalities of the Botsfords and of Allen, but I'm also impressed that the author succinctly explains a complicated political situation (which was eventually resolved years later by the formation of Vermont) and use that to drive the plot. The story even briefly delves into the moral complexities of the situation, as Allen and his men eventually ride off to burn down a few Yorker farms and drive those families off the land. 

The book also does a great job of capturing Ethan Allen's larger-than-life personality. Though it does clean up his language. In fact, when Angela and I were discussing the book just before I read it, we were wondering if the plot would be driven by Tom being taught by Allen to cuss and drink. 

Eventually, the war begins and the focus of the Green Mountain Boys turns to capturing Fort Ticanderoga. Young Lucy Botsford has been to the fort to sell them cakes and bread made by her mom. So now she goes back one more time (the British troops haven't yet heard about Lexington and Concord) to sell some more cakes, but also to count how many troops are stationed there. Tom in the meantime, is on guard duty when he encounters an arrogant colonel named Benedict Arnold, who has been sent to take command. 

Arnold clashes with Allen over who is in command (an event that did happen in real life), with Allen eventually threatening to hog tie Arnold unless he leaves the issue alone until after the fort is taken.

Arnold's betrayal of his country is still a couple of years in the future. Here, we get a realistic snapshot of who he was at the time--an arrogant but incredibly brave and capable soldier. The book doesn't cover his later activities, but Arnold will be responsible for saving the Revolution at least twice before his ego led him down a treacherous path.

The Green Mountain Boys cross the lake at night in rough weather, attacking the fort and taking it without the loss of a single man. 

Later events are summarized at the end of the novel--Allen gets captured by the British while leading an attack into Canada, spending three years as a prisoner before being exchanged. Henry Knox, one of Washington's aides, arrives and hauls the cannon to the Continental Army besieging Boston (an incredible feat that could have been the plot of a We Were There book in of itself). And Tom Botsford rides off to join the army and fight for his country. That final scene is genuinely touching. Tom's mom is worried sick about him. His father is worried also, but proud of his son as well. It's a legitimately touching ending. Tom is doing the right thing, but he's riding into an incredibly dangerous situation and there's no guarentee he'll survive.

So We Were There with Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys is a kids' book written with intelligence, telling an exciting story in clear prose without dumbing down either the characterizations or the events. 

In a few weeks, we'll examing the WWT book dealing with Yorktown. Darn Inter-library loans!--forcing me to read these books out of proper historical order! Civilization may collapse, but there's nothing to be done about it.