What do you do when your 9-year-old son asks you to read a book that he’s just finished so you can discuss it with him? You put down the thriller you were about to start and pick up the one he’s handing you.
My 4th grader loves graphic novels and prefers to read them over pretty much anything else if given the choice. It’s not a genre I’ve ever been particularly into (outside of the Maus books — spectacular, if you haven’t read them yet, by the way,) but I thought this one was very well done.
Knowing what happens to the original Nathan Hale, I wasn’t entirely sure how appropriate this one would be for my son — although I did buy it for him from a local bookstore (Harvey’s Tales in Geneva, Illinois — adorable bookstore if you’re in the area) because it looked like something he’d like. And, the story is all told from the gallows, but, spoiler alert, Nathan Hale does not die in this book. (Which makes sense because at this point, there are over ten books in the series, and Nathan Hale seems to be the narrator in all of them — hard if he was hanged in book one.)
Sadly, I don’t know enough about the Revolutionary War to know exactly how accurate all of this, but it sounded right. And it did introduce us to a lot more historical characters than the few we’ve all heard of before if you’ve grown up in the United States.
Overall, I think this book was a great introduction to the Revolutionary War, and it was definitely age appropriate for the 8-12 age group listed for it. I’m hoping it sparks a desire to learn more about our history in my son. I know I want to go read more about it to close my own knowledge gap.
And, I’m adding the rest of the series to his wishlist, and I’ll probably flip through those, too. (Although I’m a bit nervous about the one on the Donner Party — that one I do know a lot about, so we’ll see how the author keeps it PG-rated.)
If you have children in this age group in your house or in your friends’ or siblings’ houses, definitely keep this one in mind.