Mr Revere and I

Scheherazade (“Sherry” for short) begins her reminiscence from her pasture on the quiet outskirts of Boston. She remembers how she came to the colonies in a rather leaky vessel, as a military mount of a pompous British Leftenent, to occupy the port of Boston in the Massachusetts Colony.

            After a hard and boring winter in which there is nothing much to do but gamble and hold horse races among themselves, the British Leftenant wages Scheherazade and loses her to an American, one Nathaniel Simes who owns a glue factory! Nathaniel is not a very conscientious horse owner though, and he uses Sherry as a cart horse to make deliveries, neglecting to brush her or trim her hooves, or even to clean her stable.

            One day,while hitched to the cart, she has an accident on the streets of Boston.  Sam Adams is passing and helps her up. He is appalled at her condition, and confiscates her for use by the “Sons of Liberty.” He, of course, brings her to Paul Revere who needs a mount to speed his messages, and the rest, as they say, is “history.”

            Most of us have heard of “The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere” whether in narrative or poetry form. But this is a nice way to flesh out the story, to make Paul Revere personable and get to know his family and his famous friends. After reading several books set in this time period this year, it was enjoyable to hear and recognize the famous names again. The horse's perspective of British vs American relations is often comical, and her own loyalties are firmly reversed  by the end of the story. The horse's point-of-view is appealing to elementary children who might otherwise feel as if they've “heard it all before.”

            And yet, this author's work is challenging and the vocabulary is nothing to be sneezed at. The sentence structure is varied and the words descriptive. This is why I gave it such a wide age range; the story will interest the youngers and the vocabulary and sentence structure will still challenge the olders – in a good way! We really enjoyed it as a read-aloud. What an interesting way to learn about early American history and that band of dedicated patriots, straight from “the horse's mouth!”

Content Considerations

References are made to gambling in the form of cards, dice, and horse racing.

The British occupiers and the Revolutionaries are sometimes engaged in street confrontations which include throwing rotten vegetables and fish heads at each other.

One character's severe stutter is not very sympathetically portrayed.

Sherry's leg is injured by a musket ball which Paul Revere washes and bandages.

The Battle of Lexington and Concord is told very succinctly, and our view is from afar, so the action is not overwhelming. Phrases like “red-coated figures kept slumping into the dusty road” and “baggage wagons hastily gathered up dead and wounded” are about as graphic as it gets.