Rush Revere and the Brave Pilgrims, Rush Limbaugh.
The story of a substitute history teacher that time travels with a couple of students to witness events in American history as they happen. The target age demographic for these books is around 10-years-old so these are more children's books than YA. However, it's not as childish as I thought it would be and it was very well constructed, not giving away too much all at once of either the fictional story or the historical points.
The event covered is the journey of the Pilgrims to the New World and their first year culminating in the first Thanksgiving. It's familiar to everyone and Rush actually makes it a point to tell the story on his show every year reciting the bullet points that are left out such as the fact that the first system of governance experimented with by the Pilgrims was a type of socialism. He quotes William Bradford's journal frequently when recounting the story on air, so I can tell you that he wasn't putting words in his mouth with much of the dialog written for Bradford in the book except when talking to Rush Revere and the present day kids. Rush, Tommy, and Freedom jump between past and present to develop the childrens' characters and skip to the pivotal moments of the Mayflower voyage, the harsh conditions of the settlement, and their pact with Massasoit's tribe. A lot is packed into ten short chapters and along with a few illustrations pertinent to the book which are pictures of classic artwork depicting scenes from this historical event.
Of course, the star of the book is Liberty, Rush's talking horse and instrument of time travel. He is equal parts silly and clever, the comic relief, and foil for Revere's more serious personality. The time travel doesn't have to make sense simply because it is time travel. If you can accept micro shrinking, a flux capacitor, slingshotting around the sun, and wobbly-wobbly timey-wimey stuff, then you can accept Liberty and cell phone technology. Apart from this, the story is kept simple and relies more on the adventurous nature of the outward dangers than conflict between characters to build excitement. Simple but not shallow. It's playful urban fantasy that's nicely executed.
I guess if I have any complaints it would be the scenes in which a life lesson is learned. But most children's literature and programming is like this so the problem is with me... I always found it infuriatingly obvious (in a condescending way) even when I was a child because I was born old, or born cynical or something. My husband will tell you - I was the girl that ripped off Santa Claus. But that's a story for another day.
It's a good book and adults can enjoy it too. I'll certainly be checking out the other four in the series.
