The Crossing by Jim Murphy

I read The Crossing by Jim Murphy last week to my 10 year old daughter who was home sick from school one day.  We finished the whole thing in one day, and we both really enjoyed it.  Jim Murphy writes non-fiction historical books for kids.  The Great Fire, The Blizzard, An American Plague,  and Truce are some of his works.  I read Truce  last year which was about a WWI Christmas along the front lines.  It was very good.  He has a great way of making history very accessible to children.  Having read 1776 by David McCullough and loving it, I was anxious to check this "kids" version out.  It didn't disappoint.  He has pictures and diagrams on almost every page to help you understand where the armies were and what was happening.  It was fun to read out loud to my daughter because we discussed a lot of the circumstances where "lucky" things happened--like the wind changing so British ships couldn't get up the river to attack the Americans and heavy fogs suddenly developing so the British could not see the Americans retreating as they left New York.  I kept asking my daughter, "Do you think that was an accident?  Do you think they were just lucky?"  "No, mom.  God was helping them."  And Jim Murphy mentions in the book that so many of the men, including Washington, felt that God was leading, guiding, and directing them.  It was great.  George Washington is a hero, is one of my heroes, and after reading this with my daughter, he is now one of her heroes.  Can't ask for anything better from a book than that.