By The SwordILLUSTRATED BY Ages: 10 and up Pages: 40 List Price: $17.95 Cover: Hardcover Published: 4/1/2007 ISBN: 1-59078-427-8 ISBN-13: 978-1-59078-427-3 |
Meet Benjamin Tallmadge, a young teacher in the midst of Revolutionary America. Spurred by the cry for freedom and the blood spilled at Lexington and Concord, Benjamin sacrifices his career and his dreams to enlist in George Washington's army. Readers follow Benjamin and his beloved horse, Highlander, into fiery combat at the Battle of Long Island. Benjamin grapples with the realities of being a soldier—the blasts of cannons, the smell of gunpowder, the relentlessness of the enemy. Will he and the rest of the battered Americans escape from Brooklyn unhurt? Selene Castrovilla has woven Benjamin Tallmadge's own account with additional details from primary-source documents and extensive research to deliver this thrilling narrative of one of history's most harrowing moments. Awards
Reviews"Castrovilla does an admirable job of portraying the tension and dread an unweathered soldier would feel in the face of battle without resorting to the grisly details of blood and death. ...Farnsworth’s oil-on-canvas paintings, which have an aged, worn look, mix the muted browns of battlefield muck with the diffused grays of early morning fog to heighten the action of flint striking gunpowder and cannonballs raining from the sky. A time line, map, and source notes provide plenty of additional learning opportunities to place the story within the history." "[A]n excellent introduction to the use of primary-source material to create a plausible historical narrative that also adds a human face." |
