"Samuel Adams may not have the genius and social skills of Benjamin Franklin and he may not be as brilliant and lighthearted as Patrick Henry but he definitely played an important role in America's independence. Let me tell the three of you something that I hope you never forget. You will meet people in your life that get on your nerves. Maybe they challenge your ideas or they're not willing to completely agree with you. That doesn't mean they're bad people. Yes, Samuel Adams was said to be a stubborn and quick-tempered man. But I think we'll see that he was an incredible motivator. The point is I believe that God knew He would need different people with a variety of personalities to create a free America. He needed men and women who weren't afraid to speak their minds. He needed people who would not back down. And, frankly, this country needs more of that today. Our country needs kids like you who speak up when our liberties are being threatened. Our forefathers said and did hard things even when they knew it might not be the popular thing. Samuel Adams is one of those people. He wasn't trying to win a polarity contest. He was trying to motivate people to take a stand and fight for their liberties!"
~ Page 158 Rush Revere and the First Patriots
I've preached it once, and I'll preach it again! Our family values books that are historically accurate and morally stirring. When our package of books from Adventures of Rush Revere #1 New York Times Bestselling Book Series by Rush and Kathryn Adams Limbaugh came in the mail, we were very excited and jumped right into reading them! We received the entire 5-book Adventures of Rush Revere Book Series, and, I'll admit, I was a little skeptical at how good these books would be considering the main character is the author in a cartoon body with a magical time-jumping horse as his "side kick". However, we got completely immersed and so totally lost in the first book that we finished it in a few days. When I picked up the second book to start reading, my husband graciously ordained himself in charge of the reading of the Rush Revere book... reading... time... (apparently it's a thing in our home now).
(P.S. I'm glad he didn't charge me a paper tax on top of taking over reading the books like we learned the King of England, King George III, did to the Patriots... lest I digress...)
So, the premise of these books is that a Middle School Teacher, Rush Revere, takes his children back in time to meet historical heroes (if you will) with his talking (and boy can this horse talk! Usually about anything food related) and time-traveling horse Liberty. As they time travel to and from the pages of history to the present, they learn valuable lessons on character, how these lessons apply to their lives, and the kids get stirred on to love history as well as understand what it means to be an American. The snippet above is an example of one of the many "teaching moments" Rush Revere has with his students.
Each book is so beautifully put together. What I thought was going to be cheesy (based solely off my perception of the cover) turned out to be a treasured piece to our library of solid, edifying books we want our children to have access to. The pages all have an old, tarnished look to them that each and every family member (sans the baby of course) stopped to admire at one point or another during our reading duration. There are copies of original documents, paintings and photos of items or events that pertain to that specific time in history bringing so much color and imagination to the text.
The Adventures of Rush Revere Book Series are jammed pack with humor, puns, and hilarious scenarios keeping even the most tenacious reader engaged. The kids stay connected the entire time we are reading. These are more then just history books. They are adventure novels that your children will want to read over and over again. These are characters that will become a part of their play time, their day dreaming, and their aspirations.
In fact, we decided to read these books as an afternoon read aloud. I would finished one of the ten chapters in the book and the kids would be BEGGING me not to stop! Each chapter is pretty hearty, but there are only about ten chapters in each book.
At the conclusion of each Adventures of Rush Revere book there are a series of questions that Liberty asks to test the kids memories of what they just learned. These are very fun and sometimes have us paging back through the book to find the correct answer; but most times the kids paid such close attention while I was reading, they get the answers right immediately. This really reinforced what they learned (Not only was I surprised how much historical facts they picked out of these books, but I don't think they realized they were learning so many historical facts... shhhh I won't tell if you don't ;) )
We simply cannot get enough of these books. I even hear my children playing with their Barbies and calling their Barbie horse Liberty and "rush, rush, rushing" back into history to meet the first president!
So going back to the quote earlier,
"The point is I believe that God knew He would need different people with a variety of personalities to create a free America. He needed men and women who weren't afraid to speak their minds. He needed people who would not back down. And, frankly, this country needs more of that today. Our country needs kids like you who speak up when our liberties are being threatened."
~ Page 158 Rush Revere and the First Patriots
We can raise our children knowing where they came from, what they believe in, and give them examples of brave men and women who laid down their lives for the lives of others and we can start by reading them books like the Adventures of Rush Revere Book Series.
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