From School Library Journal
Grade 4-6-This first installment in a new series tells the story of Thomas Bowden, a 10-year-old living in the wilderness of northeastern Pennsylvania during the Revolutionary War. His father has gone off to fight with General Washington, leaving the boy to look after his mother, sister, and baby brother. After the Tories burn their home, the Bowdens make their way to the Forty Fort for safety. There, Thomas and Eben, another young patriot, embark on a dangerous adventure to spy on the British. They are caught and eventually escape, but not in time to save their troops from ambush. After the battle, the Bowden family decides to try and reach Philadelphia; facing dangers from the war and from nature, they make their way across rugged mountains. The descriptions of snakes, bears, and other perils are vivid and readers will feel as though they are traveling alongside Thomas. The characters are solid, but really don't change much within the story. Pryor does a superb job of weaving real events into the narrative and includes brief historical notes at the back of the book. Kristiana Gregory's The Winter of Red Snow (Scholastic, 1996) is another fictionalized account of real incidents during the Revolutionary War, told through a young girl's diary. Libraries will want to have both books for a nice balance of viewpoints.
Linda L. Plevak, Alamo Area Library System, San Antonio, Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
About the Author
Bonnie Pryor thoroughly researched important periods of American history for each of her American Adventures. For
Luke on the High Seas, she delved into seafaring in the nineteenth century so that the details of Luke Reed's journey would be accurate. She lives in Gambier, Ohio.
In Her Own Words...
"I grew up in Spokane, Washington, the middle child in a family of three girls. Books were a part of my life from as far back as I can remember. I was often in trouble for reading at the wrong time. I would be caught reading under the dining room table when I was supposed to be dusting, or reading under the covers by flashlight late at night-even hiding a novel inside my textbooks at school.
"Not everyone thought I read too much. I remember a school librarian who saved all the new books for me to read first, and on several occasions she gave me presents of books. Perhaps she felt she should because I had read every single thing in her library!
"I was very shy, and, like Robert in The Plum Tree War, I spent a lot of my time hanging from my knees from a favorite plum tree, telling myself stories. Of course since I was raised in the West these stories were usually about wild horses and cowboys, and I was always the heroine who came to the rescue. The stories were long and involved, sometimes going on for days. I was always impatient to get to my tree each day so I could find out what was going to happen next, but I was too lazy to write the stories down.
"I think everyone expected me to become a writer, but it took me twenty years and a gentle nudge from my husband, Robert, to build up the courage to try. In the meantime I moved to Ohio, worked at a variety of jobs, and raised a family. I have four grown children, eight grandchildren, and two daughters still at home-Jenny and Chrissy. Many of my books are loosely based upon incidents in my children's lives, and they often appear as characters, in personality if not by name.
"My family recently moved to the country. When I'm not writing and visiting schools, we're busy building barns and fences and laying out flower beds. In addition, we all take part in caring for the four newcomers to our home: three horses and a bunny!"
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