American Revolution Chapter books

This post is inspired by a new book series I found, inspired by a true story of a Texan teenager who participated in the American Revolution. It got my brain thinking of all the cool things I could do with it, and then I realized, “Ticia, you do not have time to create an American Revolution Unit based on this book,” so instead I gathered all of the cool American Revolution chapter books I could find and organized them into categories creating a brand new book list for our American History section.

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Oh, and I’m going to be honest, I have not read all of these, I will comment if I’ve read it, or if I am familiar with the series/author.

Inspired by True Stories

These are inspired by events that actually happened. Some aspects are changed and made up because we don’t have sufficient details to create an entire book, but it’s based on true events.

• Lorenzo‘s Secret Mission– There are two more books in this series: Lorenzo and the Turncoat and Lorenzo’s Revolutionary Quest, reading them got me thinking about pulling out maps to track where the events are happening, and making some homeopathic ingredients (he’s an apprentice doctor), making a haversack, and other projects. Actually several of the ideas in my American Revolution Unit already would work great with this book.
• Spies: James Armistead Lafayette– a Choose Your Own Adventure novel based on a real spy, who is faced with the choice will he spy for Lafayette or will he use this as a chance to gain his own freedom?
• Sleds on the Boston Common– I’m intrigued by this, it’s based on a local legend of a boy who decided to try his new sled through the British army camp.
• Guns for General Washington– a fictionalized account of getting the canons to General Washington (obviously).

“Diary” American Revolution Chapter books

If you don’t know any better, you’ll believe this is a true story. I remember when the Dear America series was first coming out, there was much discussion if it was a true story or not, and then we all learned it was based on vague things that might have happened.

• Five Smooth Stones: Hope’s Diary– I’ve read others in this series, and highly recommend it, I love the Dear America/My Name is America series and the slightly younger kids, My America.
• The Winter of Red Snow– I have read and love this one, I think this might be one of the earlier books in the series
• The Journal of William Thomas Emerson– I have a vague memory that the series includes a book written by a Tory, but I’m not seeing it. I might have to go check my shelves upstairs.
• The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing– this is a two-book series, and it’s a high school book, reading the description it took me a bit to decide on real or not, but reading more it is a clever recreation of “letters.”

Historical Fiction American Revolution Chapter books

These are the ones that are well done historical fiction, you can believe it happened, but there is no claim for the events to have happened, and you are not given a “Mary grew up and married Bob, and they had 4 kids, and then he died in the War of 1812.” Nope, it just ends with whatever story the author was trying to tell.

• Johnny Tremain– When people ask for American Revolution chapter books, this is always mentioned. It was so popular in the 1960s that Walt Disney even made an adaptation of the book that is more or less faithful. Well, as faithful to the book as Walt Disney can be.
• Felicity: An American Girl Adventure 1774– we are big fans of the Felicity books, and there are also Felicity Mystery stories, highly recommend
• Loyalty– I trust Avi books, and the idea of exploring the American Revolution through the ideas of a Loyalist spy is fascinating for middle-grade books. That’s a hard idea for kids to think through.
• Sophia’s War– I’m intrigued by this book, particularly because I’ve always found the story of Nathan Hale interesting.
• True to the Old Flag: a tale of the American War for Independence– G.A. Henty is very controversial. Some people love his writing, others claim it is jingoistic and bombastic. I’ve read one or two of his books, and they’re fun adventures, but they are not always historically accurate.
• Hannah Pritchard: pirate of the Revolution– the danger of looking up lists like this is I end up adding a large number of books to my TBR pile. It’s ever-growing.
• The Secret Mission of William Tuck– This looks to be a fairly generic “these two generic kids have a major part in a mission for General Washington,” ever notice how it’s always General Washington? He must have employed an army of kids for missions
• I Survived the American Revolution– this is a wildly popular series, it became popular after my kids were past the age to really care.
• Annie Henry and the Secret Mission– this is the first in a whole series of books about the daughter of Patrick Henry. I have to admit, they don’t look super interesting on first glance to me.
• Lizzie and the Red Coat– this is part of a series, it looks like they have some connection, but looking at it some more, it actually looks like it is more like the Dear America books, with different authors writing different books
• Kate and the Spies– another book in the series up above, but as I mentioned a different author. I’ll have to skim these when I get them from the library.
• The Secret of Sarah Revere– I’m curious about this book because the description is generic, but the reviews are good.
• Give Me Liberty– What does freedom look like in a country with indentured servants and slaves? An interesting question to tackle, but I don’t know that a middle grade book will handle it well.

I don’t know how to categorize these

These are that oddity, mostly these involve animals, that don’t fall into the “this really happened,” or “REALLY this happened,” or the “I’m not pretending it’s real, just a fun adventure set in the time period,” instead it’s some oddity.

Actually, I think all of the books I’m putting in here are animal protagonists.

• The Declaration, the sword, and the spy– this is the final book in a series of animal led books as the animals interact with famous historical events. I’m not quite sure without reading them, if the animals are literally traveling through time or what is going on. I admit it’s not my cup of tea, but I could see my daughter loving these books back when she was 8.
• Anna Strong and the Revolutionary War Culper spy ring– it’s an interactive chapter book, a little like Choose Your Own Adventure, but there are clues embedded in the book and in the illustrations to solve a mystery.
• Spies of the American Revolution: an interactive espionage adventure– a choose your own adventure book but without the “official branding.”

Time Travel American Revolution Chapter Books

There is a genre of books with a child from the present, usually in the 8-12 range, frequently 11 or 12, traveling back in time and interacting with famous people from the American Revolution, or random events. Sometimes these children make sure the event happens, sometimes they are just witnesses.

I find it fascinating this is an entire sub-genre. I also did leave a few out from this category that my library has.

• Revolutionary War on Wednesday– Magic Treehouse, people have very strong feelings on this series, but my kids were never really into it.
• Surprise at Yorktown– Sarcastic people call this the “Christian Magic Treehouse,” but I will point out Adventures in Odyssey has had Imagination Station episodes for decades, it’s more they only recently moved into chapter books in the last 10 years. Again, my kids never really got into these chapter books, even though they loved listening to them. There are several for the American Revolution.
• Secret in the Tower– three kids travel back in time to help with the Culpepper Ring, which I feel like became more famous because of the somewhat historically questionable Turn! TV show.
• Time Warp Trio: Oh Say I Can’t See– Basically this series is Magic Treehouse but with sarcasm. Again, my kids just never really cared for this genre of story.
• George Washington’s Socks– I was quite honestly willing to put this in the “What the heck do I do with this?” category based on the title, but the kids randomly travel back in time in a rowboat, because reasons. In case you can’t tell, I haven’t read it. I have to admit to curiosity, based solely on the title and description.