Gormley, Beatrice
Friends of Liberty, 182 pgs.
Eerdmans Books for Young Readers, 2013.
$8.00 Content: Language: G; Mature Content: G; Violence: PG.
Sally Gifford, the daughter of a shoemaker,
and Kitty Lawton, the daughter of a rich merchant, are best friends. In order to show their commitment to each
other, Kitty wants to exchange family heirlooms that were passed down from both
of their dead mothers. Without their
fathers knowledge they exchange a gold ring and a pearl pendant, but it doesn’t
stay secret for long and when their fathers find out it is just one more
contention between the two neighbors.
The Giffords are Whigs and the Lawtons are Tories in the political
unrest leading up to the Boston Tea Party and they cross paths in many ways that
push Sally’s loyalty to her own family versus her loyalty to her friends.
This is a very clean historical fiction that
will help young readers visualize the colonies during 1773. I thought the storyline was interesting and
adventeresome, but I didn’t really care for the main character. In her insecurities as a friend, she traded
knowledge about her family that put them in danger-not once but twice. It’s a safe book to put in an elementary and
middle school library, but it doesn’t have the wow to keep most young readers
attention.
EL (4-6), MS-OPTIONAL. Reveiwer, C. Peterson.
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