Young American Patriots Series
by Susan Olasky
Reviewed by Carly Robinson
Purchase details: Young American Patriots Series $23.96 for the set of 4 or $5.99 each. Published by Crossway Books. Please support HomeschoolChristian.com by buying the set from our Christian Book Distributors link or the individual books from the links below.
Will Northaway and the Quest for Liberty (Amazon link or CBD link)
Will Northaway, a twelve-year-old boy living in London during the mid to late seventeen hundreds, survives by stealing from the street vendors of the city. Because they feel sorry for him, he is never reported to the police, but one day, Will is caught by British soldiers and falsely accused of attempted murder. He escapes and decides to go to Boston to find the father that he never knew. Working his passage on a ship, he lies to everyone aboard by saying that his father is a rich merchant. Once in Boston, Will finds a job with a printer and gets in many difficulties with the mobs. Who and where is Will's father? Will has exciting adventures as he learns to handle difficult situations.
Reviewer's Recommendation: I recommend this book for eight to twelve year olds. It is a very exciting book, and at the same time the reader learns all about Boston's violent mobs, the trades and customs of the time, and what people ate and saw.
Will Northaway and the Fight for Freedom (Amazon link or CBD link)
Will Northaway, a fourteen-year-old boy living in Boston around 1765, is apprenticed to a printer, Mr. Spelman. As the mobs of Boston start getting worse, Mr. Spelman moves his business to Worcester, but when the people there find out that Mr. Spelman is a Tory and that he uses stamped paper for the Stamp Act, they stop giving him business and instead give him trouble. The people kill Will's dog and tar-and-feather Will because of what his master believes! Will respects both the Tory and Patriot views, but cannot decide which side he should be on. Mr. Spelman wants to move to London to escape persecution, but Will does not wish to go back to London. Yet, he is bound to his master for another six years. Through all this, Will's master has become a man of faith, so Will has to decide whether to accept God and what to do about his future.
Reviewer's Recommendation: This is an equally exciting story as the first, and it also tells you a lot about the goings-on in the Boston area during this time frame. It explains about the Stamp Act, and how people rejected it so strongly that judges would not take cases any longer!
HomeschoolChristian.com resources related to this review:
HomeschoolChristian.com's History Section where you will find many "living" history resources!
Review of American history books by Lost Classics
Review of the Trailblazer series of historical fiction
Review of the Promised Land Diaries series
Review of the Young Patriots series by Patria Press
Review of The Winged Watchman
About the Reviewer
Carly Robinson, at the time of this review, is a homeschooled eleven-year-old girl who enjoys to be with horses, write stories and poems, and, in the summer, go to the neighborhood swimming pool. She loves to read, and as her mother has many books,is constantly buried in one of them.
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