Who Comes with Cannons? [Hardcover]

Patricia Beatty (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 8 and up | Grade Level: 3 and up

When Truth Hopkins's father dies, she goes to live with her uncle and his family on their North Carolina farm. Like Truth, the Bardwells are Quakers. They oppose slavery but refuse to take up arms in the civil war that is now being waged to end this inhuman institution. Then one day, a runaway slave takes refuge on the Bardwell farm and, to Truth's amazement, her uncle hides him from the slave catchers. Even more puzzling, he asks her to accompany him when he deliverswagonload of hay to a neighbor late: that night.

This ride, and the wagon's real cargo, involve Truth in a mysterious and dangerous underground movement -- and reveal how she can help further the cause of freedom without the use of a rifle.

Patricia Beatty, best-selling author and winner of the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction, takes readers on an unforgettable trip aboard the Underground Railroad. Her powerful story of the Civil War captures the secrecy, suspense, and heroism of this little-known chapter in America's history and will long be remembered by readers.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Beatty's posthumous Civil War novel will be welcomed by readers of her earlier works, such as Charley Skedaddle and Jayhawker . Truth Hopkins, a Quaker, is sent to North Carolina relatives on the eve of the Civil War; her mother is dead and her father dying. Doubly an outsider, she watches and helps in small ways as her kin run a station on the Underground Railroad. When war comes her two male cousins are forced into the Confederate army; later--in a rather improbable journey north and back again--Truth rescues one of them from a Union prison in Elmira, N.Y. The once-timid Truth can then take her place in the family and in the local Meeting for Worship. The risky choice to create a heroine who plays a passive role for much of the story succeeds in the end--Truth's quiet determination allows readers to view the Civil War from the perspective of a group persecuted by both sides. Ages 10-up.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Grade 4-8-- A novel set during the Civil War, told from the perspective of a southern Quaker family. Truth is 12 when her parents' deaths send her to North Carolina to live with her uncle, his wife, and their two sons. Beatty follows the girl as she gains acceptance in her new family and they trust her to help them with their activities on the Underground Railroad. Through the war years, Truth matures as she and her family suffer the vilification of Quakers who will not fight for either side. When her cousin, conscripted by the Confederates, is captured by Union troops, Truth undertakes a dangerous journey north to ask Frederick Douglass to intercede with President Lincoln to set the young man free. Strong characters and a careful evocation of period make this another worthy title in Beatty's historical fiction canon. --Sally Bates Goodroe, Houston Public Library
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 8 and up
  
• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins (October 19, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0688110282
• ISBN-13: 978-0688110284
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #582,677 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Quaker Girl, March 29, 2001

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Who Comes with Cannons? (Hardcover)

Truth Hopkins, a twelve-year old Quaker, is forced to leave her father and move to South Carolina with her Aunt and Uncle. At first she is not well received and thought of as a kettle cousin, or a person who just going to eat food and not help. Soon though, she proves herself. She finds out that her relatives are conductors on the Underground Railroad. She travels with her Uncle on the underground railroad to New York to retrieve her cousin, who was captured by the Union when he was forced to march in the front of the Confederate lines at Gettysburg.

Patricia Beatty's story is very fast paced, and major events are happening all the time. This makes for a very quick read. I like her writing because she describes the setting, before she tells you what is happening. She is also very descriptive. This book was very interesting, and a great historical fiction, but I didn't care much for the particular area of the Civil War it is about, so that made it hard for me to like it much. I recommend this book to intermediate grades and above, because I doubt anyone younger would be interested, or be able to comprehend much of it.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Loved the Book!, January 10, 2000

By 

jen (America, Connecticut) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Who Comes with Cannons? (Hardcover)

Truth Hopkins is an orphan and now living with her aunt,uncle and two cousins. When she finds out they are a station on the underground railroad she does everything she can do to help them. This is an exciting story about the Civil War and the QUakers who did not believe in war. The book shows how one girl van make a big difference. I like it when Truth saves her cousin from a prison in the North. It is a wonderful way to learn about the Civil War from different points of views.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Who Comes with Cannons?, June 14, 2007

By 

Heather Hogan "* Celeste *" (California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Who Comes with Cannons? (Hardcover)

Have you ever been in the middle of a war? The book I read was "Who Comes with Cannons". The book was about a girl whose parents died. She was sent to her grandparent's house to live there. She had cousins that she didn't get along with. Her grandma taught her how to live in the South, since she was from the North. In the North, a lot of things were done differently. Like, for example they did not have any slaves. Also, they talked differently from people of the South. In the South, people did own slaves and that's why the Civil war started. It started because the North did not want slaves and they thought that was cruel. But, on the other hand, the South did want slaves and they fought so they could keep it that way. Her disliked cousins were sent to war on purpose because they refused to go, but they sent them anyway. So they sent the girl, whose name was Anne Hanick, to go save her cousins. She went with her grandpa through the Underground Railroad. I like this book because it was very interesting and it was hard to keep your hands off it. It was an easy book to connect to because it was very non- boring. The one thing that I didn't really like was that it had some parts where nothing happens and it is just boring. But, overall it is a very good book. If you really like war and really good climax, then this is a very great book for you.