Travel Back in Time to the Revolutionary War with These Fun Adventures For Young Readers

Thanks to the musical Hamilton, which just about every 9 to 12 year old knows and loves, the Revolutionary War is big right now. Here are some fun books that literally take kids back in time to see it for themselves!

Ike decides to mail himself back to the 1770s to save the day in person, and in Benjamin Franklin: You’ve Got Mail he arrives at the right place and the right time, only to find that Ben is on the run from angry mobs and his house has been burned down. There’s no hope for the Colonies unless the French can be convinced to join their cause, and so (after raising some funds by selling fake medicine) Ben and Ike set off to France. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson had the same idea, and are taking the same boat. Surely with three such statesmen bending their minds to the task all will be well…but when they reach the French king, bad oysters take down the Founding Fathers. It’s up to Ike to save the day. He does, more or less, although with consequences back in his own time (Florida, a state Ike did not hold in high esteem, is now French territory).

George Washington’s Socks, by Elvira Woodruff
Five kids exploring in the woods find an old rowboat, but when they give it a try, they find themselves being carried down the half-frozen Delaware River, just as George Washington is about to try to move his miserable, starving army across it. One of the kids gets separated from the others, and finds himself marching in Washington’s army on a snowy trail spotted by the blood of the feet of the men ahead of him. The kids all see firsthand the horrors of war, and learn that good and bad people can be found on both sides of a conflict. There’s enough adventure to keep things interesting, and it’s a very vivid and accurate picture of one of the most tense moments of the Revolutionary War.

The Left-Behinds: The iPhone that Saved George Washington, by David Potter
For most of the kids left behind at boarding school for Christmas, going to see a re-enactment of Washington Crossing the Delaware was not the treat they would have chosen. But then one of them, Mel, finds General Washington dead in a stable (which didn’t actually happens), and he realizes he’s travelled back in time. His two best friends have gone back in time too, and they realize that they must come to the rescue of the colonies, or the United States will never exist. Thanks to texts from his history teacher back in the present, Mel realizes that his iPhone was the catalyst that sent them back. But unless he can charge it (so relatable!), the kids can’t get home again. So there in the middle of an 18th  century winter (with Washington dead in barn) the three set out, braving hostile Hessians and suspicious colonial kids to find Ben Franklin, the only iPhone charging hope there is (thanks to his experiments with lightning). But that still leaves Washington murdered…so Mel hops back in time again, to foil the killers…It’s an exciting adventure, brightened with many touches of humor.