this was a good read, the characters were well done and I enjoyed the plot. I do think that it works well for younger children.

This was an interesting, fairly short story, and I was able to get through it pretty quick. Here are my thoughts on this book.

What I liked:

I appreciated that Mrs. Priestly really took charge, and didn’t rely on her husband or other men. This would have been sadly uncommon during the revolutionary war; to have a woman that was allowed to be that independent, and I really admired how Mrs. Priestly handled everything.

I also enjoyed the plot. It wasn’t amazingly fantastic, but it was a nice story about two kids during the revolutionary war. I just think that it could have been written out a little better.

What I didn't like:

My biggest problem with this book was that it romanticized slavery quite a bit. Aunt Hitty and Uncle Jude were treated like family members, and they cared for the twins, and they were treated kindly. BUT THEY WERE STILL SLAVES! Romanticizing slavery is not a good thing, cannot be ignored, no matter when the book was first published. The thing is, this book was first publish almost a century ago, and I know that treating slavery like it wasn’t that bad was fairly common in the time, but that does not excuse it in any way. This book is aimed at younger children, and simply reading them the book would give them wrong ideas about what slavery was like.

My other problem was that although I appreciated Mrs. Priestly’s character, independence and will, I did not appreciate one bit how although Roger and Sally were the exact same age (they’re twins) Roger acted older, more mature, more responsible, and just because he was a boy, it seemed. For example, *spoiler* when Mrs. Priestly realizes that the British soldiers are trying to break into their house to steal the gold, she runs into the twins room. She has Sally stay in bed, concealing the gold under her covers and has Roger go with her to bravely push the ladder away from the house, to stop the robbers.

I also had a hard time reading Aunt Hitty and Uncle Jude’s dialect/speech. I understand why authors write books with certain dialects; Lois Lenski is an incredible example of that, however, when the writing get really hard to read and understand, I don’t think that it’s necessary.

Conclusion:

Overall, the intention is nice, but I had to many problems with it to really enjoy it. Reading a book that romanticizes slavery makes me really mad because slavery was not something to take lightly, even in a children’s book.

Rating: 2.5/5 stars

Do I recommend it? No

MY RATING: 2.5/5 stars.