PRESENTATION OUTLINE
The book I read was called....... "Growing up in the Revolution and the New Nation"
By: Brandon Marie Miller
The book "Growing up in the Revolution and the New Nation" was focused on the life of the children growing up in the New Nation. One of the topics this book covered was growing up in the war. For example when John Quincy Adams spent most of his growing-up years surrounded by war.
Another topic that this book covered was about the Americas looking towards the new nation for its new way of living and the new things to be discovered. This was about the people who made this nation stick together and work as a well oiled machine, like our first president George Washington and the inventor Benjamin Franklin.
Another topic in this book was how kids were forced to grow up faster because of the changes brought about by the war. Parents also started doing more things to make their children more mature. They did things like hardened their children by bathing them frequently in cold water. They also had their children "breath the free air" which was also the outside air.
The next topic in the book talked about what the children did for fun. Most party games were Woo the Widow, Thread the Needle, and Pawns.
Girls usually played with sewed dolls, dishes, and puppets. Boys usually flew kites, rolled hoops, and played with toy soldiers.
The last topic was about education in the new nation. Most of the families in the new nation valued education a lot. Most families homed schooled their kids by teaching them out of the Bible or an Almanac( a book with wise sayings). Richer families home schooled too using their libraries, but in a small town children attended a Dame School. Dame Schools are schools were children learned reading, spelling, and even sewing.
Before I read the book "Growing up in the Revolution and the New Nation" I thought that it would be a boring fact-filled book.
But after reading it I was totally stunned by how much I enjoyed the book. The reasons I liked this book was how it was so easy to read and how it was so storylike. It was really hard to imagine you were actually learning things about the Revolutionary War.
Another reason I liked reading this book was how it told you how children lived and what they did for their everyday routines, like hardening and rapping their children tightly so they would grow straight. I also discovered what was normal for children to do. Another reason I liked this book was how the author included real life stories in the side notes so you not only know what the men did to help the war, but what the children did to help the war like Sybil and her daring ride to warn her father's men to hold off the British.
The next example I liked in this book was how the author makes you want to learn more about the the Revolutionary War leaving your hands glued to the pages. The author doesn't disappoint the reader because he goes into great detail with his writing. I felt like I learned a great deal of information from this book.
Lastly, I love the way the author makes you feel like you grew-up in the Revolutionary War and you witnessed all the events just as the children did.
For these reasons I think the author did a phenomenal job writing this book and I would give the book 5 stars.
