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Wednesday, June 21, 2017

Homeschool Crew Review: Adventures of Rush Revere Book Series

Adventures of Rush Revere
I spend a lot of time reading aloud to my children.  We recently were offered an opportunity from
Adventures of Rush Revere #1 New York Times Bestselling Book Series by Rush and Kathryn Adams Limbaugh to read and review the Adventures of Rush Revere Book Series.

Adventures of Rush Revere
The Adventures of Rush Revere Book Series features substitute teacher Rush Revere and his talking, time traveling horse, Liberty.  In each of the books, Rush, Liberty, and some middle school students experience history first hand by traveling back in time, going to famous places in history and meeting important people.  Throughout each of these hardcover books you will find illustrations and historical documents.

The first book in the series is Rush Revere and the Brave Pilgrims.  In this book, Rush, Tommy, and Freedom along with Liberty the horse, see first hand how the Pilgrims came to the new world.  They saw the building of the colony and had an opportunity to meet people like Miles Standish, William Bradford, Squanto, and Samoset.  They also attended the first Thanksgiving.

The second book is Rush Revere and the First Patriots.  In this book Rush and his crew travel back to Boston in 1765 where they have an opportunity to see the beginnings of America's fight for independence and meet famous people such as Samuel Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and Patrick Henry.  They also visit Windsor Castle in England, meet King George III, and have to stop a plan of one of the kids to change the course of history.

Rush Revere and the American Revolution is book 3.  In this book, we travel back to 1775 and meet Americans such as George Washington, Paul Revere, and John Hancock.  We see famous landmarks like the Old North Church, Bunker Hill, Lexington, and Concord.  These events take on a special meaning to Cam, whose father has been deployed to Afghanistan in the modern day.

Rush Revere and the Star Spangled Banner is the 4th book.  The crew rushes off to history starting in 1787, meeting James Madison and seeing debates over the US Constitution and Bill of Rights.  Fast forward a few years as Dolly saves an important portrait from the White House.  In 1814 they end up on a British Ship, and meet Francis Scott Key.

Book Five is called Rush Revere and the Presidency.  When Cam decides to run for student body president, Rush Revere and Liberty take him back in time to see presidents and first ladies Washington, Adams, and Jefferson to learn from them and defeat an old nemesis in the election.

I read aloud Rush Revere and the Brave Pilgrims to my 6,8, 10, 11, and 13 year olds, and read through the remaining books in the series on my own.  We enjoy reading historical fiction type stories because I think they are a great way to bring history to life.  I was very impressed when my package arrived.  The books were all tied together with a beautiful blue ribbon and looked so pretty I didn't want to untie it!

I did of course.  The quality of the books are impressive.  They are heavy hardcover books with thick sturdy pages.  I personally think the oversized head on Rush Revere's body is silly, but love the inclusion of the historical drawings, documents, and illustrations in the book.

The story itself interested the children as soon as I started reading.  Most children would find a talking, time traveling horse who can also turn invisible and freeze time very interesting. Through reading this series children get a first hand look at many events that happened in history.  I even learned some things I didn't know.  While reading Rush Revere and the Brave Pilgrims, there was a mention of some boys that shot off a fire arm on the boat and the children asked me if that really happened.  We googled it and discovered it did in fact happen as well as some other incidents involving the same family. We found that very interesting!

One thing that bothers the children is the fact that Rush and the others interact with the people they are traveling to see.  They even gave and received gifts and Rush offered advice about some things.  At one point Rush talks to the children traveling with them about not changing history by interfering in what is going on, but my family believes just their presence and interacting with the people would have changed history and messed up the space time continuum. They are a pretty logical bunch.  There is also a lot of conversations between Liberty and Rush and the kids that I don't think adds anything to the story and could've been left out.

We are studying American History next year and the children have already asked about when I will be reading the other books in the series aloud, so we will be adding the rest of the books to our evening read aloud list.

To see what my Crew Mates had to say, stop by the Crew Blog!


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