Learning American History With a Horse

Being a part of the Homeschool Review Crew provides so many neat opportunities for our family, but one of the most exciting for the boys is when books hit our steps.  It's pretty hard for us to say no to book reviews, so when we heard we were going to get the full set of Adventures of Rush Revere #1 New York Times Bestselling Book Series by Rush and Kathryn Adams Limbaugh, we may have just done a happy dance.  Yeah, we did a happy dance! So excited about the Adventures of Rush Revere Book Series!

The Adventures of Rush Revere is actually a five book series written by Rush Limbaugh.  If you did not already know, Rush Limbaugh is a wonderful story teller.  I for one was not aware of that and so I admit, I was a bit doubtful of the story credibility.  Boy, was I put in my place!

Not only are these books well written and entertaining, but are loaded with a wealth of historical information about American History.  Written at a middle school level but appropriate for older and younger kids, Rush takes you on adventure after adventure with the help of the main character, teacher Rush Revere, and trusty magical horse Liberty.  With a simple chant, Liberty and his friends can time travel to different events in American History and witness first hand what took place while interacting with the people as well. 


Book 1- Rush Revere and the Brave Pilgrims- In the first book of the Adventures of Rush Revere, the prologue begins the adventure with school teacher Rush Revere and his horse, Liberty, on the Mayflower.  After capturing the attention of the reader, additional characters, Tommy, Freedom, and Elizabeth are introduced when their new substitute teacher, Rush Revere, comes to their class. After introducing the students to his talking horse who can help them time travel by jumping through portals, the adventures begin.  They get to meet Squanto and William Bradford, as well as watch the First Thanksgiving.

Book 2- Rush Revere and the First Patriots- Again, the prologue sets you in the appropriate time in history, this time with the first patriots and the beginning of the American Revolution.  The excitement builds as you meet Samuel Adams and Patrick Henry and see if Elizabeth will change history.

Book 3- Rush Revere and the American Revolution- This book is about, you guessed it, the American Revolution and is MY favorite of all the books.  This book focuses on the character Cam who has been acting differently since his father was recently deployed.  Since we are a military family whose dad has been deployed several times, this one just tugs at my heart strings as you read about Cam and his struggles.  I also love how the book shows an adult outside of Cam's family reaching out to care about him.  It takes a village sometimes!

Book 4- Rush Revere and the Star-Spangled Banner- This was the first book that Colby read.  He says it is about the time Rush Revere took his students on a train to Washington, DC.  They visited famous places like the White House, Washington Monument, and the Jefferson and Lincoln Memorials.  They also time jumped to the time of the War of 1812 to learn about when Francis Scott Key wrote the song The Star-Spangled Banner.

Book 5- Rush Revere and the Presidency- This was Colby's favorite book in the series and actually the one he read second! He has a strange obsession with presidents so the name captured his curiosity immediately.  He said this book talks about the first three presidents "a lot!"  Because two modern day characters, Cam and Elizabeth, are running a school campaign for student body president, Rush Revere and Liberty take them back in time to learn how to prepare and run a race better.

Our thoughts- Well, if you couldn't already have guessed, we loved these books!  I admit to being pleasantly surprised at how well they are written and the amount of historical content in them.  Being history buffs around here, we are pretty picky when it comes to historical fiction and these books meet the mark for sure.  

Colby, age 10, was easily able to read them on his own, taking about 4-5 days to complete one.  He loved the humor of the horse, Liberty, and he said the time travel was his favorite. When I caught him laughing out loud several times, he said that it made him laugh when Liberty made himself invisible and confused people. 

Rush Limbaugh and his team also blessed the leadership of Crew with the audio dramas as well.   Since my youngest is an audio drama nut this has been a HUGE blessing to us.  Yes, he has read the books, but he has listened to the CDs just about every night since they arrived.  It has gotten so bad that he can now quote parts of his favorites.  My husband and two of the older teens listened to one of the CD sets on a recent road trip, but they did say that the talking horse was a little much for them.  Party poopers!

A cool addition is that on the website you will find activities, games,  and even quizzes that correspond to the books.  You can submit things to the site and even win prizes.  While I do not let my 4th grader on random websites without supervision, this is one he has free access to.

If American History and adventure are your thing, or you just want to get your kiddos reading quality historical fiction, the Adventures of Rush Revere Book Series is a great place to start!