If You Were There in 1776 [Hardcover]

Barbara Brenner (Author)

Book Description

Series: If You Were There

Period prints and drawings highlight a fascinating look back at what life was like in colonial America in 1776, exploring the ways in which children lived on a New England farm, a southern plantation, and on the frontier.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 3-6-After briefly sketching early colonial history and citing some of the tensions leading to the break with England, Brenner presents an interesting survey of everyday life in 1776. Clothing, food, work, religion, and recreation are discussed, as are Native peoples and slaves. Also, the six largest cities are visited. Reproductions of prints and paintings illustrate the book. Information on this subject is readily available in any number of sources, such as the new "Colonial American" series (Watts), Alice M. Earle's Home Life in Colonial Days (1991) and Child Life in Colonial Days (1989, both Omnigraphics), etc. The author's inclusion of details of how peoples' lives began to change as a result of the Revolution and her accessible style are the selling points here. Both budding historians and report writers will find this title worth their time.
Elaine Fort Weischedel, Turner Free Library, Randolph, MA
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Gr. 4-8. After setting the year 1776 into a world context and briefly describing the colonies and rebels, Brenner fleshes out the world, combining a look at what children were doing then (in chapters entitled "What's for Dinner?" and "At Play," for example) with a tour of the diverse populations of the colonies. Separate chapters on Native Americans and slaves make clear the groups the signers of the Declaration of Independence did not intend to include in their document. The illustrations include many examples that go beyond conventional pictures of colonial life. Notes; bibliography. Mary Harris Veeder

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 144 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers; 1St Edition edition (May 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0027123227
• ISBN-13: 978-0027123227
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.8 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,313,638 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A Mom's review: NOT recommended, October 24, 2011

By 

M. Heiss (USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: If You Were There in 1776 (Hardcover)

I'm a mom with a family of boys, and we are planning a trip to historic Boston and Philadelphia for summer 2012. In preparation, I am reading all the children's materials I can find on the Revolutionary time period. Some of the books, I'll have the kids read and make presentations about before the trip. But not this book.

This book is best skipped.

From the title, I thought this book belonged in the "If you sailed on the Mayflower/If you were there when they signed the Constitution/..." series of children's historical books (which are quite good), but this book is not part of the series.

Barbara Brenner relies heavily on sources from "historians" like Howard Zinn (A People's History of the United States) and Page Smith (A People's History of the American Revolution). These works have been discredited and repudiated for decades. Barbara Brenner's reliance on those sources for her book throws the whole project into question.

Which is a shame, because the artwork and illustrations used in this book are very high quality and unique. That's the reason I gave the book the second star: the visuals of colonial life in 1776 are quite good. But the class-struggle baloney is out of place in a children's book. There are plenty of better resources on this time period for this age group (4th-6th grade).

I like:

"The Declaration of Independence" by Dennis B. Fradin
The "thirteen colonies" series by Lucent publishers
"Liberty or Death" by Betsy Maestro
"Revolutionary War Days: Activity Book" by Cheryl Kirk Noll

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars my review, March 22, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: If You Were There in 1776 (Hardcover)

I think this is a good book for children to read. Colonial times has a lot of interesting facts I think this is one of the simplest book to gather your information I think all of the readers out there I encourage you to buy this book!!!!!

4.0 out of 5 stars Pretty Good, January 19, 2012

A Kid's Review

This review is from: If You Were There in 1776 (Hardcover)

I had to read this book in school and I must say, it was a good read, a little long, but still. Even though this book is factual, and obviosly doesn't have a plot, it still felt like it, it made learning about 1776 almost fun, I enjoyed it!