Time Enough for Drums

Rinaldi, Ann

ISBN 10: 0823406032 ISBN 13: 9780823406036

Publisher: Holiday House, 1986

Synopsis

During the tumultous years of the American Revolution, while her brothers and her beloved tutor are away in battle, fifteen-year-old Jemima Emerson learns hard lessons about love, loyalty, and patriotism

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Reviews

Grade 6-9 Jemima Emerson witnesses the events of the Revolutionary War as they affect her family and home town of Trenton, N.J. She is a fiesty young lady whose family represents the differing positions of the colonies' fight for independence. Her older sister is married to a British officer, her paternal grandfather works for Indian justice and the cause of independence, her maternal grandfather is a Tory, her older brother an officer in Washington's army, and her mother writes pseudonymous patriotic letters to the newspaper. Jemima is tutored by John Reid, a supposed Tory who is really a spy for Washington, with whom she clashes as he tries to make her a proper young lady. Gradually her feelings for Reid change from animosity to love. The book is a good introduction to the causes and effects of the war but does not have the ring of veracity as does My Brother Sam Is Dead (Scholastic, 1985) by James and Christopher Collier. Problems arise with the use of first person in providing Jemima with information to report to readers. Lucy the house slave knows that the Hessian grenadiers had killed more American soldiers than any other Hessian unit on American soil. How Lucy became privy to this evaluation is not explained. Another issue that does not sit well is Reid's manipulation of Jemima. This might have been standard treatment for the period or an element borrowed from paperback historical romances, but it lessons the appeal of Jemima as the heroine of the story. Twentieth Century prejudice aside, readers will share the events of the war and be rewarded with a better understanding of the War for Independence. Therese Bigelow, Hampton Public Library, Va.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Set in Trenton, N.J. during the American Revolution, this well-plotted historical romance has been written with an excellent feel for the period. Jemima (Jem) Emerson, 15, is constantly at loggerheads with her handsome, strict, Tory tutor, John Reid. In a town of divided loyalties, the Emersons are avid patriots. During the war, they endure death, privation, Hessians and Redcoats. Jem grows up and falls in love with Reid, who is not quite the stuffy Royalist he appears. The Emersons are an intelligent, loving and likable family. But as Jem's childish feistiness mellows into womanly demureness, it almost seems as if Reid has tutored her solely to prepare her to be a good wife for him. Readers will find their romance involving, but may wish that Jem had a bit more substance.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Holiday House
• Publication date: 1986
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0823406032
• ISBN 13: 9780823406036
• Binding: Library Binding
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 249