Time Enough for Drums

This is another historical book from Ann Rinaldi that deals with the Revolutionary War. Jemina Emerson is 15, a Patriot, and a rather headstrong and opinionated young girl. John Reid, a supposed Tory, is hired to be her tutor, and for a good while things do not go well between them.

Things get more complicated as the town, already split between Tories and Patriots, has to endure armies of both sides coming through the town. The Hessians, fighting on the side of the British, seem to be a rather brutal group.

Things rapidly get worse for her as her father is killed, her mother seems to go pretty much insane, her tutor turns out not who he appears to be at all, and there's no way of telling which army will occupy the town next.

One of the really good things about Rinaldi's novels is that they deal not only with the lives of the central characters, but show how things like the Revolutionary War and the Civil War affected the entire town that the main characters live in. They show that matters were not clear-cut at all, and not everyone supported the same side.

Another good book in the series.

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