Paul Revere's Midnight Ride
by Stephen Krensky, illustrated by Greg Harlin, 2002, New York, NY: Harper Collins Publisher. (0-688-16410-2).
Author website: http://www.stephenkrensky.com/
Illustrator website: "no author website"
Media: watercolor and pencil
Annotation: Paul Revere was a known messenger for the colonial rebels. On the night British troops planned to seize a stockpile of colonist ammunition, Paul Revere sets off on his midnight ride to warn his friends in Concord.
Personal Reaction: Paul Revere’s Midnight Ride touches all the right notes of an engaging and exciting picture book. It’s an adventure story that has chases, armies and hiding rebels risking their lives for causes they believe in. The story is involving and detailed, teaching little known facts about this famous night ride. I re-learned after reading the story that Revere was warning his fellow colonists of a British plot to seize ammunitions stockpiled by the citizen militia. I didn’t recall that the journey was 19 miles long, from Boston to Concord, and I don’t know if I ever learned that Revere never made it to Concord himself. He was almost captured, just passed Lexington, and had his horse confiscated by the British. He walked home at the end of that famous night. Author Krensky fills the tale with lots of important facts that flesh out the story.
The watercolor illustrations by Harlin really set the mood of the story, each page muted with dark colors that seem to take place at night, as does most of the story. Each page is deep with shadows and is given an aged look, leaving the impression that we’re seeing events from a long time ago. I appreciated the work that went into Paul Revere’s Midnight Ride for it refreshed my knowledge of this important event in the birth of our nation.
Annotation: Paul Revere was a known messenger for the colonial rebels. On the night British troops planned to seize a stockpile of colonist ammunition, Paul Revere sets off on his midnight ride to warn his friends in Concord.
Personal Reaction: Paul Revere’s Midnight Ride touches all the right notes of an engaging and exciting picture book. It’s an adventure story that has chases, armies and hiding rebels risking their lives for causes they believe in. The story is involving and detailed, teaching little known facts about this famous night ride. I re-learned after reading the story that Revere was warning his fellow colonists of a British plot to seize ammunitions stockpiled by the citizen militia. I didn’t recall that the journey was 19 miles long, from Boston to Concord, and I don’t know if I ever learned that Revere never made it to Concord himself. He was almost captured, just passed Lexington, and had his horse confiscated by the British. He walked home at the end of that famous night. Author Krensky fills the tale with lots of important facts that flesh out the story.
The watercolor illustrations by Harlin really set the mood of the story, each page muted with dark colors that seem to take place at night, as does most of the story. Each page is deep with shadows and is given an aged look, leaving the impression that we’re seeing events from a long time ago. I appreciated the work that went into Paul Revere’s Midnight Ride for it refreshed my knowledge of this important event in the birth of our nation.
Life in New England; Taxation of colonies; The road to war; The American Revolution / Social Science, Grade 5: Students will consider life in the colonies and the buildup to the American Revolution.
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