The Revolutionary War Comes Alive

Recent­ly, the record­ed ver­sion of Sophi­a’s War was a School Library Jour­nal Pick of the Day. I extend my thanks to the folks at SLJ.

Here’s what they had to say:

Set in 1776 dur­ing the Amer­i­can Rev­o­lu­tion when New York was under siege by the British, Avi’s tale (S & S/Beach Lane Books, 2012) of resis­tance fea­tures an amaz­ing female pro­tag­o­nist, tri­als aplen­ty as she tries to avenge her broth­er’s death, and a lit­tle romance thrown in for good mea­sure. Sophi­a’s fam­i­ly believes in free­dom and des­per­ate­ly wants Amer­i­ca to gov­ern itself. Her broth­er goes off to fight, is cap­tured, and ends up dying in a filthy hold of a British prison boat. John Andre, a charm­ing Eng­lish offi­cer who is bil­let­ed with Sophi­a’s fam­i­ly, fails to inter­vene to save her broth­er. Despite hav­ing a school­girl crush on Andre, Sophia is con­flict­ed by his fail­ure to save her broth­er. After wit­ness­ing the exe­cu­tion of Nathan Hale, Sophia is deter­mined to help the Amer­i­can cause. Recruit­ed as a spy, she becomes a maid in the home of the com­man­der of the British forces in Amer­i­ca. Sophia uncov­ers some cru­cial infor­ma­tion and sets out to reach West Point before Bene­dict Arnold can turn it over to the British. Avi’s out­stand­ing text and Angela Goethal­s’s spot-on nar­ra­tion make the Rev­o­lu­tion­ary War come alive for lis­ten­ers, pro­vid­ing a real sense of the time peri­od. A per­fect choice for school and pub­lic libraries.

Grades 5 to 9. 6 cas­settes or 6 CDs. 7:15 hrs. Record­ed Books. 2012. cas­sette: ISBN 978–1‑4703–2043‑0, CD: ISBN 978–1‑4703–2042‑3. $66.75.