Reviewing the Revolution in New Children’s Books

Over at Boston 1775, I detailed my disappointment in the picture-book biography Henry Knox: Bookseller, Soldier, Patriot, by Anita Silvey and Wendell Minor.

All of Minor’s paintings are handsome and evocative. But I can’t recommend the book because the text contains too many errors and exaggerations. Some of those mistakes appear in popular biographies of Knox, such as the notion that the heavy cannon from Fort Ticonderoga were “all the working artillery of the Continental Army.” But others I can’t find any support for.

I also took note of how Steve Sheinkin’s The Notorious Benedict Arnold: A True Story of Adventure, Heroism, and Treachery, which I haven’t read yet, has won a Boston Globe/Horn Book Award.