Let It Begin Here!
April 19, 1775: The Day the American Revolution Began
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
The first book in Don Brown's Actual Times series brings the start of the American Revolution to life.
A 26-year-old King George II found himself in financial turmoil after crushing the French, Austrians, and Spanish in battle. Luckily money was no object since he could easily get it back by raising taxes on his American colonies...but what King George didn't realize was the colonies were beginning to have a mind of their own and had started to set their sights on freedom.
The cast of characters includes those we know--the famous silversmith, turned messenger, Paul Revere--and many we haven't heard of like "Flinty Whittemore," a 78-year-old who fought off the British with a musket, two pistols, a sword, was bayoneted 14 times and still lived another 18 years to brag about it.
Detailed, yet accessible, Don Brown's award-winning nonfiction style brilliantly comes to life in Let It Begin Here, this fascinating account of the start of the Revolutionary War.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Brown, noted for his numerous picture-book biographies of lesser-known figures, here offers a slightly older audience "you are there" style accounts of two signal dates in American history. Expert pacing, novelistic incorporation of quotations and well-observed but straightforward reportage draw readers into the action. He humanizes complicated ideas. For example, Let It Begin opens vividly as King George III wins the Seven Years' War: "Celebration was surely in order. But George could not celebrate," writes Brown, quickly explaining how Britain's war debt contributes to the start of the Revolution. Looking at the Titanic, Brown explains the causes of the disaster and, describing the passengers' and crew's behavior, finds the details that speak loudest (a passenger stuck on the sinking ship gives his life jacket to a woman boarding a lifeboat). His subtle watercolor-and-pencil compositions skillfully capture moments in the text people's facial expressions; the blood of battle; rushing, roiling, icy water; as well as both the valiant and understated gestures of some of the actors. Top-notch. Ages 6 10.
