At the Battle of Yorktown: An Interactive Battlefield Adventure

At the Battle of Yorktown: An Interactive Battlefield Adventure (You Choose: American Battles) is another very strong entry in the You Choose series, this one written by Eric Braun.

I came across this title while searching historical fiction books on a required reading list. This was not on the list, but as so often happens, it popped up under the also bought suggestions and I realized it was a new title in a series I previously reviewed and loved.

One of my challenges is to find books that present accurate but engaging history for children. The two require balance. You can write a very detailed factual account of history, but if kids find it dull and boring, it isn't terribly helpful in engaging them in wanting to learn more about history. The other side is a wonderful story that sadly misleads kids about events because the research is sloppy. This series is both engaging and factual.

The reader is presented with 3 characters to choose from to follow the events that unfold during the Battle of Yorktown, a French soldier, an African American slave hoping for freedom, and a woman following her husband's enlistment in the Continental Army.

I like the attempt to add diversity to the choices because it provides a more rounded look at the war. Too often we don't look beyond the big names we've all come to know from history to the actual people who lived during the time period.

I am on the fence about the French soldier, though. I understand the desire to help students realize the Americans had the assistance of French military during the war and to include that perspective in the story. However, to do that, they had to leave out what I thought was an important perspective and that was the British soldier who was to suffer the ultimate humiliation when the Battle of Yorktown was lost and they had to surrender to the Continental Army. I think that weighting the option of including the French soldier or getting the perspective of the losing side through a British soldier I would have chosen the British soldier.

All three stories were compelling. A reminder to teachers and parents, this is a story about war and not every path leads to a happy ending. There are deaths depending on the choices one makes, even when those choices seem compassionate. As always I suggest previewing a book before presenting it to a child to read and be prepared to handle the reactions to those outcomes.