Let It Begin Here!: April 19, 1775: The Day the American Revolution Began (Actual Times) - Hardcover

Starred Review. Grade 3–5—This attractive picture book opens with an introduction to the causes of the American Revolution. George III and his advisors looked for a way to relieve the monarch's war debt and decided to impose taxes on the American colonies. The colonists rebelled, but the real action started with Paul Revere's midnight ride and the "shot heard round the world," which plays out with a combination of accessible narrative and bloody realism in Brown's vivid, appealing watercolors. The central figures are sketched with interesting details: British Major Pitcairn bragged that "the whole banditti of Massachusetts will run away" if he showed them his sword, and American Captain Parker was "dying of tuberculosis." After the colonists' defeat at Lexington Green, the British marched to Concord and were beaten by a larger militia. An endnote describes the outcome of the war and the fates of the major players, including the King who "passed his last years raving mad and chained to a chair." Brown keeps the information flowing easily while getting the salient points across. His version is different enough from Dennis Brindell Fradin's book of the same name (Walker, 2005) for the two to exist peacefully together on the shelf.—Rebecca Donnelly, Loma Colorado Public Library, Rio Rancho, NM
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