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  • Henry and the Cannons: An Extraordinary True Story of the American Revolution by Tedd Arnold
  • Elizabeth Bush
Brown, Don. Henry and the Cannons: An Extraordinary True Story of the American Revolution; written and illus. by Don Brown. Roaring Brook, 2013. [32p]. ISBN 978-1-59643-266-6 $16.99 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 3–5.

It’s winter of 1775, and the British occupy Boston. General Washington and his troops, however, have the offensive advantage in the surrounding hills, ready to “rain cannonballs on the British soldiers’ heads”; or at least they could if they had any artillery. Portly, sedentary bookseller Henry Knox, who’s read a fair deal about military tactics, convinces the general to let him bring in the heavy guns from Fort Ticonderoga, which had been seized from the enemy months previously. Here Brown presents Knox’s daunting journey as both an epic adventure and a winning tale of a most unlikely hero. Winter itself plays a duplicitous starring role, one moment driving wind and icy water into the row boats tugging the cannons across Lake George, the next moment delivering a hard freeze to help horses and oxen drag the guns “over frosty trails and across frozen rivers.” Line and watercolor paintings in icy aquas and snowy whites reinforce the shivery setting of this urgent mission, and although the stakes are deadly serious, the flight of the Redcoats at the sight of the cannon arrayed on the hilltop provides a touch of humor. The picture-book format directs this at a young audience, but upper elementary history teachers should welcome this title as a springboard or supplement to a Revolutionary War unit. A brief bibliography of adult print resources is included.

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