Review: Fables of the Flag by Ethan Coffee

Title: Fables of the Flag
Author: Ethan Coffee
Format: Ebook
Publisher: Self-published
Publish Date: February 20, 2012
Source: I received a copy from the author. This did not affect my review.

Why You're Reading This Book:

• You're a middle grade fiction fan.
• You like history with a twist.

What's the Story?:

From Goodreads.com: "Jack Preston, an ordinary kid on his 8th grade trip to Washington DC, finds himself mysteriously transported back in time to 1720 Massachusetts. Finding a world without cars, phones and other conveniences of modern life takes some getting used to, but he's even more surprised to meet a young Founding Father, Ben Franklin.

Being a righteous fellow, Ben befriends the confused and tattered Jack and offers him a place to stay. When Jack overhears a seedy plan that will most certainly ruin Ben's brother's printing business, Jack vows to help find the culprit before it's too late.

From the streets of Colonial Boston, to the cargo hold of a huge galleon, Jack realizes he's on the most bizarre, but important, adventure of his life. As Jack is thrown into a whirlwind of conspiracy, he realizes that much more than a printing company is at stake. An adventure is one thing, but being stuck hundreds of years in the past is quite another."

My Two Cents:

This is the first book in a planned series focused on American history with a twist that includes time travel. It's geared for middle grade readers, who (let's face it) may be grudging history students. This is a great book for those who love history and those who are just dipping their toes in for the first time. I think that with this book's broad appeal, this is a great adventure story for readers and non-readers alike.

I loved that this book takes on the history of this country. History is so much fun to learn about and in my opinion, it's also very important to learn about, especially in the case of younger people. I think that anything that you can do to get kids interested in learning about where we came from. Even though this book does have a fantastical element in a boy time traveling back to the time of Ben Franklin, Coffee does a really great job of mixing historical facts with a great story to pull young readers in.

I also liked that the readers get a picture of Ben Franklin as a boy. So often when we think of historical figures, we think of them as adults, after they had accomplished all of the things that we still remember them for today. I think it's really good for kids to see these great people were young people like them at one time.

Bottom line: This is a great book for budding historians and those that need a little push into learning some of the great stories of our past.