27 February 2013 HENRY AND THE CANNONS: AN EXTRAORDINARY TRUE STORY OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION by Don Brown, Roaring Brook, January 2013, 32p., ISBN: 978-1-59643-266-6

"And now he's rollin' down the mountain

Going fast, fast, fast

And if he blows it

This one's gonna be his last"

-- John Dawson, "Henry" (about a different Henry who also had everyone counting on his succeeding in a perilous, high-stakes trip)

"It was the winter of 1775. The American Revolution had begun, and things weren't going well for the Patriots of Boston, Massachusetts."

I just love this guy, Don Brown! I've been reading his nonfiction picture books -- including lots of picture book biographies -- for twenty years now. There is something special and extraordinary about a guy who can do great research, write a cohesive and entertaining piece of nonfiction for young people, AND simultaneously create really engaging illustrations with a style all his own for the story he's written. Don Brown succeeds in doing these things over and over. And beginning with the first picture book of his that I read -- the one about aviatrix Ruth Law -- he's often crafted books about people who were not featured in the history texts that I studied as a young person.

As is the case with a number of Don Brown's nonfiction picture books, HENRY AND THE CANNONS is another one that is just perfect for fifth graders studying American history. It's about determination and resourcefulness and adventure as part of a real game-changing episode in the American Revolution. And it's all orchestrated by a seemingly unlikely hero.

Don Brown sets the stage:

"Washington ached for cannons. With them, he could rain cannonballs on the British soldiers' heads and drive them from Boston.

"But Washington had none.

"At Fort Ticonderoga, New York, there were many cannons. In May, Colonel Benedict Arnold had snatched the big guns, as well as the fort, from the British. But 300 miles of lakes and rivers, hills and glades, and mountain forests separated Boston from Fort Ticonderoga.

"Dragging the cannons the whole, hard way in winter was impossible.

"Wasn't it?

"Henry Knox said he could do it.

"Knox was a Boston bookseller who'd taught himself soldiering from some of the very books he sold. In spite of a plump shape that suggested a man who preferred a good meal to a good fight, he was an eager Patriot who was sure he could bring the cannons to Boston."

The journey upon which Knox and others set out ends with fifty-nine cannons weighing a combined total of 120,000 pounds being delivered to Washington who then drives the British from their Boston stronghold.

But how did Knox accomplish this? THAT is what this story is all about -- the exciting details of the ridiculously difficult, dangerous, freezing, and ultimately successful undertaking in which Henry Knox moves the cannons 300 miles.  You’ll be shivering in summertime just thinking about what happens along the way.

HENRY AND THE CANNONS is another one of those amazing history tales that's as good as fiction...only better.

Richie Partington, MLIS
Richie's Picks http://richiespicks.com
BudNotBuddy@aol.com
Moderator http://groups.yahoo.com/group/middle_school_lit/

http://slisweb.sjsu.edu/people/faculty/partingtonr/partingtonr.php