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  • Sophia’s War: A Tale of the Revolution
  • Elizabeth Bush
Avi. Sophia’s War: A Tale of the Revolution. Beach Lane/Simon, 2012. 310p. Trade ed. ISBN 978-1-4424-1441-9 $16.99 E-book ed. ISBN 978-1-4424-1443-3 $9.99 R Gr. 6–9.

The treachery of erstwhile Patriot Benedict Arnold is told here from the vantage point of twelve-year-old Sophia Calderwood, the fictional sister of a young Patriot soldier who dies on a British prison ship in the New York harbor. Witness to the hanging of Nathan Hale, Sophia is prepared to despise Lt. John André, a handsome British soldier billeted in her home. His flirtatious ways captivate the adolescent, though, and it isn’t until he refuses to assist in obtaining her brother’s release from prison that Sophia sees André as a suave but ambitious man set on climbing through the military ranks. Infuriated by her brother’s subsequent death, Sophia vows to avenge him and gets her chance when she’s recruited several years later to spy on the British. Positioned as a servant in British headquarters, she uncovers plans for the meeting between André and General Arnold that would, in effect, hand over West Point to the British; since her contact has been forced into hiding, she must bring her information to the fort commander on her own. While Avi performs a few narrative contortions to get details unknowable to Sophia to fall into place, the fictional core of the story—Sophia’s simultaneous infatuation with and hatred of John André—is both engrossing and convincing, and if readers pick up a history lesson with the drama, so much the better.

Elizabeth Bush
Reviewer
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