Sheridan's Ride

A classic poem recounts the legend of General Philip Sheridan, a Union officer whose timely arrival at the battlefield at Cedar Creek in 1864 saved the day for the Union Army.

Grade 3-6-- Parker brings to this 1863 narrative poem the same respect for historical events that she demontrated in her versions of Paul Revere's Ride (1985) and Barbara Frietchie (1992, both Greenwillow). The accessibility and dramatic verve of Read's account of Sheridan's mad dash to save the Union troops at the Battle of Cedar Creek, Virginia, remain for modern readers and are ably interpreted in the full-color drawings. Parker plays with perspective, shifting from Sheridan and his valiant black horse, Rienzi, to the cannons of the Confederacy. She takes care to get historical details right, noting in her endnotes where Read took poetic license with historic events. Above all, her illustrations capture the excitement of the original ride; readers feel that "Every nerve of the charger was strained to full play/with Sheridan only ten miles away." A thoughtful gallop through the past. --Kathleen Whalin, Belfast Public Library, ME
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