_Lincoln's Grave Robbers_ by Steve Sheinkin

When I was in school, I really didn't dig history. Presented in standard (boring) textbook format, it didn't engage me. If you'd ever told me in 6th grade that I'd enjoy reading a history book, I would have thought you were crazy or from Mars.

Flash-forward many a year. I'm now trying to teach my children to enjoy history. Our history curriculum definitely makes it easy and interesting to like history. Add in books, both fact and fictional, related to the same time period, and history does become more than enjoyable.

Lincoln's Grave Robbers ties together historical details with which you will likely be familiar (things you can learn in a textbook) and more obscure facts that really flesh out the story. And it is a story. It's not a list of dry facts. It follows both those who sought to rob President Lincoln's grave and those who attempted to stop them. And it's suspenseful, and in that spirit, I won't give anything away.

I definitely give it two thumbs up with no reservations. Unless your child is highly, highly sensitive and squeamish. Really, it's not too gross, but the subject matter does involve graves and dead bodies. There is some discussion about grave robbers, in general, and why doctors robbed graves. My sensitive son read it and had no problems. He loved it.

John's Story: 1775 by Joan Lowery Nixon

We've been studying the American Revolution for history this year. When I pulled out all of the books we've accumulated on that topic, I found one I'd picked up used-- John's Story: 1775 by Joan Lowery Nixon.  It is part of the Young Americans Colonial Williamsburg series, and is about an 11-year-old boy (just a year or so older than my older sons) who is witness to events unfolding in Williamsburg. I figured it would be a good supplement to our history text and that the boys would gobble it up.

I was wrong about the boys gobbling it up. Usually I just have to set a book out, let them know it's there, and within a day or two it's read. A few weeks after the book was out, I asked if they liked it. One had looked at it but wasn't interested in it. The other said he read it but wasn't too impressed. I was surprised and decided to read it to see why it wasn't a hit.

I read the book and wasn't enthralled by it either. It was just sort of stilted, wooden, boring. I don't think the Prologue helped either; a group of friends in a class visit a booth at colonial Williamsburg where a women sets the stage for the story of the rest of the book. It really made for a slow start. 

There was nothing really objectionable in the book. I did like that the historical aspects of the book seemed well-researched; I came away from the reading with a better understanding of Virginia's involvement in the colonies' fight for independence. However, the story of the book seemed contrived just to relate the historical events in a specific formula. Nothing in the writing made it enjoyable to read.

Overall, I wouldn't recommend it as a good read, but it's pretty safe for the boys--if they can stay awake while reading it. 

Rush Revere and the Brave Pilgrims by Rush Limbaugh

My first exposure to Rush Limbaugh was in my college days. Back then, I was quite the liberal thinker. While I hadn't actually ever listened to him, I knew from news snippets here and there that he was a totally, like, bad person who was a hater of all people and probably puppies and babies, too. Enter Jon. Jon was one of my Latin buddies. We lived in the same dorm, and before class I would walk down to his room to meet him so we could walk across campus together. Each day before class, Jon would be setting his VCR to record Limbaugh's televised show when I knocked on his door.

"Ugh. You watch Rush Limbaugh?!" I asked disgustedly.

Flash forward many a year.  I am now married to a man who has listened to Rush for years. In fact, my husband prefers to listen to talk radio while driving instead of be-bopping to music like I do. Suffice it to say that I am now well-acquainted with Rush. My children are Rush Babies. In fact, when my third-born was a toddler we sometimes were saved from sleepy tantrums because he was soothed as soon as Rush's opening music came on the radio.

My opinion of Rush has changed a lot, too. I now realize he is not evil. In fact, I'm a conservative and actually agree with a lot of what El Rushbo says even if I'm not a big fan of the manner it which he says it. I will not, however, choose to listen to Rush on my own because I still prefer music. I don't like his language and sometimes crass way of talking about people. I don't like being bombarded with the negative subject matter of politics all the time. Of course, I know tons of people completely revile the man and tons love him 100%.

None of these opinions matter to me in reviewing his book, Rush Revere and the Brave Pilgrims.  I was excited to have his book to read before I handed it to my boys, but I was disappointed in the book. It wasn't that it didn't have a lot of history in it; from what I've read in other children's book about the Pilgrims, it seemed accurate. It wasn't that the presentation was poor; there were color pictures, and the writing was on pages that looked like old parchment-type paper. It wasn't that it was filled with typos and grammar errors; it wasn't.

It just wasn't one of the carefully crafted types of books that I enjoy reading. The narrative sounded like. . . well, it sounded like Rush Limbaugh. It had his energy and his tongue-in-cheek humor (a little light potty-humor, too, if I recall). It had a not-so-veiled reference to/ advertisement for Limbaugh's iced tea. It had a talking horse as the panacea for all plot difficulties. While informative, I found it tedious.

My sons and husband, however, loved it. They laughed out loud while reading it. Since I didn't read anything too gross or offensive, I suppose I should give my stamp of approval for the book. My boys all gave it a big thumbs up, so I guess I'll begrudgingly do the same. This is, after all, a blog for books boys will like.

Just be aware that this is NOT a literary masterpiece.