Rush Revere and the Brave Pilgrims by Rush Limbaugh

Rush Revere and the Brave Pilgrims (c) 2013
by Rush Limbaugh

Rush Revere and the Brave Pilgrims is a fun book written by Rush Limbaugh for a middle grade to junior high audience, and is a great way to teach young kids about the history of America. I listened to the audio book of the story, read by the author, Rush Limbaugh, and he does a great job, The story follows the adventures of four main characters, Rush Revere, the title character, his talking horse Liberty, and two kids, Tommy and Freedom, who are from the middle school where Mr. Revere is teaching temporarily.

Liberty is no ordinary horse. He can talk, and he can time travel. He was born in the 1700s, and his backstory is given a little bit about how he and Mr. Revere came to be friends. A lightening bolt struck near him, propelling him into the 21st century. Confused, the horse wandered around for a while until he saw Mr. Revere. Mr. Revere had been dressed in a costume from the 18th century because he'd been promoting something for his company. I forget exactly what. But seeing someone dressed in clothes with which Liberty was familiar, the horse proceeded to follow Mr. Revere along. Realizing that a horse was following him, Mr. Revere began a dialogue with the animal in which he discovered that Liberty could talk. They also discovered, some time later, that Liberty could time travel to any period in American history that was involved in some way with the establishment of our current government. So he could travel to anywhere from recent history all the way back to the landing of the pilgrims.

In this particular story, the first of the series I believe, Mr. Revere, Liberty, and two young kids, a boy named Tommy and a girl named Freedom, travel back and interact with the first pilgrims and the Native People who saved them, including William and Dorothy Bradford, Samoset, Squanto, Miles Standish, and Massasoit. The difficulties the pilgrims faced, including the death of Dorothy Bradford is mentioned in the book; William Bradford speaks of his grief at losing his wife, but not to the degree that it brings the fun and light-hearted mood of the book down (the main characters, in their travels back and forth in time were not present at the deaths of Dorothy or the others who died during the Starving Time).

I really enjoyed listening to this book, and highly recommend it to adults and young people alike as a way to explore the early history of the United States.