Looking for a gift I can send to my 8 year old nephew. He can handle a much higher level book than that which you might typically think of though.
He is currently focusing on, and already knows way more than I do about WWII but I’d like to get him interested in the Revolutionary War and take him on some battlefield trips next summer.
I’m thinking of something that focuses on battles and has alot of pictures and diagrams as well as narrative.
Can anybody help?
Well, the children’s classic is Johnny Tremain, which isn’t a non-fiction “battle book” but is really good, does have some fighting, and features a boy who gets his fingers stuck together in a tragic silversmithing accident. Boys love it.
I suppose the Jeff Shaara books Rise to Rebellion, The Glorious Cause, and Something Else are too advanced?Shame, darn fine books.
My Brother Sam is Dead? It’s a young adult novel about the time period.
The Road to Guilford Courthouse is a well-written and meticulously researched book covering the war’s often-overlooked end game in the Carolinas, leading up to Cornwallis’s defeat at Yorktown. I recommend it highly.
The book provides detailed accounts of all major battles in the Carolinas and intesting analysis of why certain tactics worked. There are some illustrations, but it is definitely not a picture book. Might be a little advanced for even a precocious 8-year-old.
As for a tour of battlefields, I don’t know your location, but South Carolina has interesting and well-maintained battlefields at King’s Mountain and Cowpens and (a little more off the beaten path) Ninety-Six.
In North Carolina you should see Guilford Courthouse.
Well, you said he was precocious, so he might like 1776, by David McCullough (sp?) My husband (who is in college) just finished it and LOVED it, and has run out and gotten the next book, about John Adams.
Sargeant Lamb’s America by Robert Graves of I Clavdivs fame is an excellent book from the point of view of a Irish soldier serving in the British army.
Marc
Not non fiction but I recommend April Morning by Howard Fast to go along with Johnny Tremain. I read this in the 7th grade (and Temain in the 6th) and they both made an impression on me. I credit them with making the colonial period my favorite in American History.
Both are short fun reads that are considered modern young adult classics (of varying historical accuracy). They are written for people around the age of 12, so they are probably not too young for him either. But they are both good books, I haven’t even seen a copy of either in at least 15 years and I still remember them both vividly.
That was a great book too. Apply all of what I said in my last post to this book as well.
Thanks all. I just sent him Johnny Tremain and a battlefield atlas I found at Barnes & Noble.