Ready, set, read!
What better way to celebrate America’s 250th birthday than taking a deep dive into books that explore founding ideals, broad perspectives, and the experiences of the everyday – and the extraordinary – folks who helped shape the nation?
Halston Media reached out to historians and librarians to ask them for their literary picks in several genres: nonfiction, fiction, and children’s/young adult.
They enthusiastically responded with a fusillade of titles diverse enough to satisfy every reader from the merely curious to the diehard history buff.
(The Westchester Library System’s 38 local branches have been featuring Rev250 book clubs, events, and reading challenges such as the recent One County, One Read program that selected the acclaimed biography The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Stacy Schiff. It profiles Samuel Adams, showing how his strategic activism from the Boston Massacre to the Tea Party transformed him into a moral and political force who mobilized the colonies and shaped the American Revolution.)
Accessible, age-appropriate, and engaging books filled with colorful illustrations and fascinating facts can inspire the next generation.
For children, Roseanne Pensabene, youth services librarian at the Mount Kisco Public Library, recommended: Rebellion 1776 by Laurie Halse Anderson; Guts and Glory: The American Revolution by Ben Thompson; I Survived the American Revolution 1776 by Lauren Tarshis; Lafayette!: A Revolutionary War Tale by Nathan Hale (graphic novel); Sybil’s Night Ride by Karen B. Winnick; My Brother Sam Is Dead by James Lincoln Collier.
She thought young adults might like: Alexander Hamilton, Revolutionary by Martha Brockenbrough; Hang a Thousand Trees with Ribbons: The Story of Phillis Wheatley by Ann Rinaldi; Alex & Eliza by Melissa de la Cruz; and Hamilton and Peggy! A Revolutionary Friendship by L.M. Elliott.
Ciara Dawson, library assistant, recommended books for adults, including The Words We Live By: Your Annotated Guide to the Constitution by Linda R. Monk; The U.S. Constitution for Everyone by Jerome Agel and Mort Gerberg; Revolutionaries: A New History of the Invention of America by Jack Rakove; 1776 by David McCullough; and Framers of the Constitution by Dorothy Horton McGee.
Pound Ridge historian Johanna O’Keeffe recommended children’s books King George: What Was His Problem? by Steve Sheinkin and Daniel at the Siege of Boston: 1776 by Laurie Calkhoven.
Her pick for adult non-fiction: Revolution on the Hudson by George C. Daughan.
On Hiram Halle Memorial Library director Jennifer Coulter’s list of children’s and young adult books were: My Brother Sam Is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier; Lafayette!: A Revolutionary War Tale by Nathan Hale (graphic novel); Independent Dames: What You Never Knew About the Women and Girls of the American Revolution by Laurie Halse Anderson; Sybil Ludington’s Midnight Ride by Marsha Amstel; History Smashers: The American Revolution by Kate Messner; The Boston Tea Party by Matt Doeden; George Washington: The Life of an American Patriot by Benjamin Harper; and Sons of Liberty by Marshall Poe and Leland Purvis (graphic novel).
Coulter’s recommended adult (fiction and non-fiction) included My Dear Hamilton by Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie; Someone Knows My Name by Lawrence Hill; The Traitor’s Wife by Allison Pataki; The Hornet’s Nest by Jimmy Carter; Forgotten Allies: The Oneida Indians and the American Revolution by Joseph T. Glatthaar and James Kirby Martin; and Washington’s Spies: The Story of America’s First Spy Ring by Alexander Rose.
Also in the collections are 1776 by David McCullough; The British Are Coming by Rick Atkinson; Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation by Cokie Roberts; Liberty Is Sweet: The Hidden History of the American Revolution by Woody Holton; The Fort: A Novel of the Revolutionary War by Bernard Cornwell; Valiant Ambition: George Washington, Benedict Arnold, and the Fate of the American Revolution by Nathaniel Philbrick; and In the Hurricane’s Eye: The Genius of George Washington and the Victory at Yorktown by Nathaniel Philbrick.
Kelly Crummy, children’s librarian at the Bedford Free Library, had some suggestions, too.
For young readers, titles included Danbury’s Burning: The Story of Sybil Ludington’s Ride by Anne Grant; Revolutionary War on a Wednesday by Mary Pope Osborne; Sybil Ludington, Revolutionary War Rider by E.F. Abbott; The History of the American Revolution by Emma Berne; What Is the Declaration of Independence? by Michael Harris; If You Were a Kid During the American Revolution by Wil Mara; and Who Was Paul Revere? by Roberta Edwards.
Graphic novels include Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales: Lafayette! by Nathan Hale and History Tipsters Spill the Tea on the US Revolution by Blake Hoena.
Adult acquisitions librarian Silvia Ohler’s non-fiction picks included:
This Land Is Your Land: A Road Trip Through U.S. History by Beverly Gage; We the People by Jill Lepore; The Fate of the Day by Rick Atkinson; and Pride and Pleasure: The Schuyler Sisters in an Age of Revolution by Amanda Vaill.
For fiction aficionados, she recommends: Rise to Rebellion: A Novel of the American Revolution by Jeff Shaara and The Whiskey Rebels by David Liss (thriller).
Cindy Green, head of youth services for the Mahopac Public Library, had some suggestions for children's reads: If You Were a Kid at the Declaration of Independence by Sonia Black; I Survived the American Revolution by Lauren Tarshis; Independent Dames: The women and girls of the American Revolution by Laurie Halse Anderson; Our Flag was Still There: The True Story of Mary Pickersgill and the Star-Spangled Banner by Jessie Hartland.
She said there are other great titles in the library’s adult non-fiction section under the heading HISTORY 1700s such as The Ride: Paul Revere and the Night That Saved America by Kostya Kennedy; National Treasure: How the Declaration of Independence Made America by Michael Auslin; and The American Revolution: An Intimate History by Geoffrey C. Ward and Kenneth Burns.
There are also tons of relevant biographies about important people such as Betsy Ross, Benedict Arnold, Abigail Adams, John Adams, Sam Adams, Nathan Hale, John Hancock, Sybil Ludington, James Lafayette, and Phillis Wheatley.
LaRiva Greene of the Putnam County Historian’s Office had recommended titles from its research library to share.
They are: The British Are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777 by Rick Atkinson; Chaining the Hudson: The Fight for the River in the American Revolution by Lincoln Diamant; A Citizen-Soldier in the American Revolution: The Diary of Benjamin Gilbert in Massachusetts and New York. Edited by Rebecca D. Symmes; Divided Loyalties: How the American Revolution Came to New York by Richard M. Ketchum; The Fate of the Day: The War for America, Fort Ticonderoga to Charleston, 1777-1780 by Rich Atkinson. An Object of Great Importance: The Hudson River During the American War for Independence by Christopher W, DiPasquale; Old Put: The Story of Major General Israel Putnam by Fredrika Shumway Smith; Peekskill in the American Revolution. 3rd Edition. by Emma Patterson; Private Yankee Doodle: Being a Narrative of Some of the Adventures, Dangers and Sufferings of a Revolutionary Soldier by Joseph Plumb Martin; Saratoga: Turning Point of America’s Revolutionary War by Richard M. Ketchum; and The Winter Soldiers: The Battles for Trenton and Princeton by Richard M. Ketchum.
The Putnam County Historian’s Office is located at 68 Marvin Ave., Brewster. For more information visit putnamcountyny.gov/county-historian or call (845) 808-1420.
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