“In the fall of 1777, Philadelphia sat twitching like a nervous mouse. The British were going to attack, but no one knew where or when. Congress had fled inland to York. The Liberty Bell was secreted to Allentown. Folks thought the year resembled a hangman’s gallows and took it as a bad sign. Now, all the church bells were being removed to keep the British from melting them down into firearms.”
There's something about a well-written children's book paired with lovely illustrations that makes you feel like you've found a hidden treasure. This book caught my attention a few years ago while I was perusing the internet for historical children's books.
The Scarlet Stockings Spy by Trinka Hakes Noble tells the story of Maddy Rose, a young girl growing up in Philadelphia at the height of the American Revolution. Maddy's father died at the Battle of Princeton, and her brother is off fighting with Washington's army. She does her best to help her mother on the home front.
Secretly, she works with her brother Jonathan to alert Washington's army to the movement of enemy ships. Every morning, Maddy Rose hangs her petticoats and stockings on the laundry line in a special pattern to signal the patriots about ship movements in the harbor. One night, during the Battle of Brandywine Creek, Maddy spots a British man-of-war. She hurries home to alert Jonathan with her secret code, but Jonathan never arrives to relay the message. Instead, a stranger arrives holding a folded uniform. Maddy Rose takes the bundle and slowly works to turn the uniform, along with her scarlet stockings, into an American flag, which she hangs in celebration when the war finally ends. It's a story of sacrifice and patriotism, written with a tenderness that stays with you long after the last page.
Across just 48 pages, Trinka Hakes Noble captures the tension colonists faced, with the threat of enemy spies around every corner and the danger of British attack always looming.
“Uncertainty settled over the city like soot. Suspicion skulked through the cobblestone streets like hungry alley cats. Rumors multiplied like horseflies. Spies were everywhere."
She weaves history into the story in a way that transports the reader straight into 1777. Early on, we see Maddy Rose brewing liberty tea to boycott British tea. Later, the author mentions that all the church bells have been removed and hidden so the British can't melt them down into ammunition.
This book makes it onto the Time Traveler’s bookshelf because:
- Though it's a children's story, history is woven into the very fabric of the plot, incorporating real events like the Battle of Princeton, the Boston Tea Party, and the Battle of Brandywine Creek.
- The lovely descriptions and vivid similes transport the reader straight back to 1777.
It's currently $10.19 on Amazon, in case you'd like to add it to your own bookshelf.
Noble also paints the mood of 1777 through vivid similes, describing suspicion that "skulked through the cobblestone streets like hungry alley cats" and rumors that "multiplied like horseflies."
Although the story is fiction, it's rooted in the author's own family history. Her great-great-great-grandfather fought in the Revolutionary War, joining Washington's army and distinguishing himself at the Battles of Trenton and Princeton. Years later, in 1780, George Washington paid the Hakes family a visit and asked that, should they have a son, they name him in his honor. That same year, great-great-great-grandfather George Washington Hakes was born.
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