For young readers, this is an extremely well written account of the American Revolution. Written as a diary of a young girl, the book opens with Hope's family living with her relatives in Valley Forge. This quickly changes, however, when her family moves back to Philadelphia.

I like this book because it weaves interesting information about this period of time throughout the story, making it an educational read. Gregory not only portrays the drama and suspense of that period, but also accurately depicts the everyday occurrences and unusual habits in daily life. In the beginning, both Hope's father and brother are gone. When they return, she finds out the hardships they have gone through. Even though this is an educational book, it is easy to read and follows more than one interesting story line. In the beginning, for example, her brother has run away to join the army and no one knows how he is. She is also concerned about her father when he is gone. Will he return home? Then to make matters worse, her best friend is not allowed to talk to her, because her friend's family sympathizes with the other side. The family also has the unpleasant task of feeding and boarding some British soldiers. Will she accidentally reveal her sympathies?

The My America Series is shorter than the Dear Diary series also published by Scholastic. The complete story arc consists of three titles:

• Five Smooth Stones,
• We are Patriots, and
• When Freedom Comes

I am delightfully surprised by this new children's book. The author is talented and the story progresses without you noticing it... Yes, the story grabbed me from the first chapter, and that is a lot to say for this reviewer who is a mother of seven and has read many children's books to her kids. I liked many things about it. Like Frodo and Sam in Lord of The Rings--and all of us ordinary people--Will isn't perfect. He is an ordinary kid called to an important mission. His family and his town are realistic, and the mystery, dangers and mishap well told. The story includes many references to Catholic traditions and theology. I can see myself holding a captive audience when my grandchildren are old enough to enjoy this story!

I don’t much care for science fiction books or movies. One of my brothers loved them, spending every Saturday afternoon watching movies on television, checking out every sci-fi thriller from the library and spending his hard-earned dollars to watch, and re-watch, and re-watch the first Star Wars the summer of 1978. I took a pass on joining him (and to this day, don’t think I’ve ever seen any Star Wars movie all the way through!). That said, The Tripods Attack by high school English teacher John McNichol, although of the sci-fi genre, was a great read! Set in futuristic late 1800s England, this book is basically a re-telling of H.G. Wells’ classic, War of the Worlds. McNichol recouches this classic from a Catholic view with a young G.K. Chesterton (aged 16) on the brink of embracing the Faith. H.G. Wells (a few years older and worldly-wise) befriends the young Gil and joins in the adventure. A futuristic London is the opening setting. London is run through the use of “difference engines”, a computer system of sorts. The young Chesterton, an orphan in the story, works in the dead-end position (and not too successfully) as a punch-card maker, ensuring that the punch cards for the difference engines are punched properly. Suddenly, he is called to the Undersecretary of Operations, made a reporter for the company-owned London Times, and off on an adventure to Woking, England (the same town that H.G. Wells later uses in his War of the Worlds book). On the way to Woking, Gil meets and is befriended by worldly-wise, 20-year-old, Herb Wells, a reporter for a rival paper. The young men are off to investigate strange happenings in Woking: the arrival of pulsing cylinders that are wreaking havoc on this London suburb. In Woking, Chesterton also meets Father Brown, a 60-year-old Catholic priest, and “the Doctor” who seems to know more about what’s going on than anyone else. Superficially, the book is a sci-fi adventure race to rid England of the strange beings, a group of Martians who are angry! Added to this is the fictional mystery of Chesterton’s parentage and the apparent connection between his parents, the Doctor and the aliens. This plot makes for a rousing good story line for middle-school or high school readers. However, on a deeper level, this book is young Chesterton's internal-debate between the secular world-view and modern attitudes of Wells and the Catholic world-view and morality of the priest. Wells and the Doctor spout platitudes and arguments trying to convince Chesterton that religion is silly, there is no God, and that the only thing to rely on is self. Further, that truth is what we experience and therefore different for each and every one of us. Father Brown, on the other hand, explains that God is love, that truth is Truth, and that sacrifice and love are the strongest tools for combating evil. I liked this book on both levels. The sci-fi story-telling level is so improbable as to just be pure fun; well-written and well-plotted add to the pleasure of the reading. The philosophical level, the eternal debate between secular and faith world-views, is clever and a great example of apologetics. The scene where Gilbert and the Doctor are debating the morality of killing babies and the science-is-the-answer versus faith arguments is amazing! I also liked that the author throws in bits of fact and fiction from literature – for instance there is a comment that a boy named Bartleby has just been made a scribe for the Company (a reference to Dickens’ short story, “Bartleby the Scrivner”). Even the use of a country-parish priest, unassuming in all but his statements and actions, named Father Brown is a great tool; Father Brown is the detective in the real Chesterton’s famous series. The obvious links to Wells’ classic are also interesting – twisting Wells’ anti-religious original into a great book about Catholic apologetics!