Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

Mind you, I’m desperately grateful that this year’s plague isn’t the horrible 48 hour stomach nightmare of last December, but my youngest two are coughing and miserable. I’m just hoping that it stops with them.

In the meantime, I spent Friday Christmas shopping and getting things done, Saturday was a day of madness that included a baby shower and the shopping for that, and yesterday both of my younger kiddos were home. (Only my youngest is home today; her brother took cold medicine and went to school in a mask.) I did, however, finish reading Doreen Rappaport and Joan Verniero’s Victory or Death! Stories of the American Revolution (which is expensive enough new that I didn’t bother linking it here) last night before bed, which means it can go back to the library with me today.

As for what I thought of it? I’m afraid that I was familiar with most (though not all) of the stories told, and so the amount of new information it provided me was small. I wouldn’t necessarily blame that on the book, though–when you grow up in one of the original 13 colonies, you do get more colonial and revolutionary war history in school. What I would say is that at just over 100 pages, this is a good book for elementary schoolers with little previous specific knowledge of the American Revolution, and the ‘Acknowledgements’ at the end do an excellent job of laying out what was quoted and what had to be extrapolated from all available research. If you’re in need of this book, it does look to be available used for a reasonable price, but it’s too young for anyone but my youngest. (Although she said she’d read it, so I guess it’s not going back to the library today after all.) In the meantime, good luck with all of your holiday preparations, and I hope your families aren’t fighting the plague!