Heroes of the Revolution By: David A. Adler Star Rating:

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Synopsis

Heroes of the Revolution is a non-fiction book that takes a look at the lives of twelve patriots of the American Revolution in brief one-page snippets. Each character sketch give the person's name, year of birth and death, and a short synopsis of the events, quotes or achievements for which he or she was most well known. The famous revolutionaries covered in this book are: Ethan Allen, Crispus Attucks, Lydia Darragh, Nathan Hale, Mary "Molly Pitcher" Hays, Thomas Jefferson, John Paul Jones, Thomas Paine, Paul Revere, Haym Salomon, Deborah Sampson, and George Washington. At the end of the book readers will find Author's Notes which contain additional facts about these historical figures, as well as a list of the important events surrounding the Revolutionary War and their dates. There are also source notes and a fairly extensive bibliography for such a short children's book which may give ideas for further reading. I recommend this book for ages 7-10, as the vocabulary contained in it would probably be pretty challenging for younger readers. However, the short passages would make it suitable for read-aloud with younger children who are interested in history.

Review

I thought that Heroes of the Revolution was a very nice book for younger children who have an interest in American history. Each account is accompanied by a full-color illustration of the figure being described, and the brief passages are good for shorter attention spans. That said though, my preference would have been slightly longer passages, as each one only covered the most famous and notable things about that person. Still this book would also be useful in teaching highlights of the American Revolution to children who have not previously studied American history. What I liked most about it was that is contained both men and women, and that it had the most famous personages such as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson alongside lesser know but equally heroic figures such as Lydia Darragh and Haym Salomon. In my opinion, that fact alone demonstrates that every contribution to a cause, no matter how seemingly small, can be of great importance. In that respect, I felt that the book not only had great facts to teach, but a great lesson as well. I thought this was a very good book for parents and children to read together, as I even learned some new things, as well as being reminded of things I already knew. 

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David A. Adler