Synopses & Reviews
Vivid black and white photographs and background details add to the compelling wartime memoirs of Joseph Plumb Martin, a fifteen-year-old Connecticut farm boy who enlisted in the revolutionary army in the summer of 1776.
Review
"An outstanding example of history brought to life through the experience of one individual." School Library Journal, Starred
Review
"A brief history based on the privately printed memoirs of Joseph Plumb Martin, who, at the age of 15, signed up for the Connecticut state militia on July 6, 1776, and stayed with the army for the next seven years. This work offers a view of the Revolutionary War missing from most books-instead of the broad sweep of dramatic events and change, readers see the daily misery, boredom, confusion, terror, and only occasional triumph of army life. Murphy provides the best of both, the drama and the grind, appeasing readersand#8217; fascination with war without romanticizing."
Kirkus Reviews with Pointers
"Murphy presents the life of Joseph Plumb Martin, a 15-year-old Connecticut farm boy, who enlisted in the Continental Army in 1776. . . . The book is generously illustrated with black-and-white maps and reproductions; captions present information that complements rather than repeats the text. . . . An outstanding example of history brought to life through the experience of one individual." School Library Journal, Starred
"Young readers researching the military and social history of the American Revolution will find this an excellent resource." Booklist, ALA, Starred Review
Synopsis
In the summer of 1776, Joseph Plumb Martin was a fifteen-year-old Connecticut farm boy who considered himself "as warm a patriot as the best of them." He enlisted that July and stayed in the revolutionary army until hostilities ended in 1783. Martin fought under Washington, Lafayette, and Steuben. He took part in major battles in New York, Monmouth, and Yorktown. He wintered at Valley Forge and then at Morristown, considered even more severe. He wrote of his war years in a memoir that brings the American Revolution alive with telling details, drama, and a country boy's humor. Jim Murphy lets Joseph Plumb Martin speak for himself throughout the text, weaving in historical backfround details wherever necessary, giving voice to a teenager who was an eyewitness to the fight that set America free from the British Empire.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. 91-93) and index.
About the Author
Jim was born in Newark, New Jersey, and earned a B.A. in English from Rutgers University. Over the years he has had such offbeat jobs as boiler repairperson, chainlink fence installer, roofer, and apartment cleaner, and has worked in a plastics factory, sold books, and been a "tin-knocker" on New York City skyscrapers, working thirty or so stories up on open steel. From 1970 -1977 he was the managing editor for Clarion Books. Murphy has more than twenty-five books to his credit. He is a two-time winner of both the SCBWI Golden Kite Award and the NCTE Orbis Pictus Award, and received a Newbery Honor for his book The Great Fire (Scholastic). He lives in Maplewood, New Jersey, with his family.