The Journal of William Thomas Emerson: A Revolutionary War Patriot, Boston, Massachusetts, 1774 (My Name Is America) by Barry Denenberg

The Journal of William Thomas Emerson: A Revolutionary War Patriot, Boston, Massachusetts, 1774 (My Name Is America) Reviews

• 
  Meghan

  Loved the story but there are three reasons I couldn't give it five stars.
  1. The entries all had titles instead of dates. It only ever said the season and year.
  2. In general I am not a fan of the author's epilogues.
  3. Historical note wasn't completely accurate.
• 
  Brooke

  After reading "The Winter of Red Snow", I decided to read more Dear America books about the Revolutionary War. I usually love Barry Denenberg's books, but the book seems more about William than about the Revolutionary War. Also, the ending is hypocritical. On the bright side, I can understand both sides of the motive of that war.
• 
  Tori

  This one was pretty dark. Yeah, war isn't a light subject, but Will slicing open the British soldier's face and leaving him to die was something I'd expect in an adult account.
  
  Will also wasn't very likeable. There was no understanding of the other side, and having just read the Dear America diary of a girl who was part of a Loyalist/Tory family, it didn't bring my opinion of him any higher. Patriot he may be but did he have to delight at the tarring and feathering of a man, and the burning down of his home? There was also a point in which he threw a rotton egg at a prisoner's face. I really didn't like him.
  
  Also, this started with Will losing his whole family to...a lightning strike? That was bizarre.
  
  Oh, and having Will marry Becca, who not only had the same name as his dead sister, but who he also helped raised since she was under two years old was really creepy.
• 
  Amy

  
  This is written by Tommy, age 8.
  
  I read this book for school. It has information about what it was like before the Revolutionary War. My favorite part of the book is when Will (the main character) spies. People who like history and people who do not need a lot of action in their books would like this book.
• 
  **the True Snow Queen**

  Barry Denenberg is very hit or miss. I’ve read many of his Dear America/Royal Diaries/My Name Is America books. It’s apparent that he likes to be a bit more off the beaten path in his style (like the lack of entry dates, in this one). Sometimes his style is fantastic like When Will This Cruel War Be Over? or One Eye Laughing, the Other Weeping. Or dull, like in So Far From Home or Elisabeth: The Princess Bride. And then you have the ones that fall flat, like this one or Early Sunday Morning. Just when it’s getting good and you’re finally invested... you turn the page and it’s the epilogue :( Overall he’s pretty good, but I was disappointed this time. Too long warming up and cut the story too short. 3.5 stars
• 
  Emily

  It was weird how there were no dates ahead of the entires and instead they were told in groupings of like very very short stories. But it was still supposed to be a journal.
  Reading about this time period from the POV of a young boy instead of a girl was interesting too because they did different things in their day to day lives. This one being a young boy living in Boston. Also giving a different POV than some other books taking place in different locations. Life in the city of Boston was definitely unique and scary during the years leading up to the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
• 
  Joyce

  Even though this story is fiction, there is a lot of historical information here. Plus maps and Prints of battle and the town that were directly involved in the beginning of the war. The photograph on the cover is an actual portrait of a child of that era, his name was Sir Joshua Reynolds's William Charles Colyear, Viscount Milsington ( 1747- 1824 ) Later Third Earl of Portmore. The photo shows him as a boy in 1759, Talk about a name !!
• 
  Lauren

  The book ends when the war begins, so it is a good way to show how the city of Boston was changing leading up to the Revolutionary War. My students weren't as engaged in this as they have been with the Dear America books, but they still enjoyed it. The content of this book didn't lend itself to provide many opportunities to teach the state standards, but it was still enjoyed by my class.
• 
  Janis

  Book didn’t hang together that well. Tons of characters for a short book. An entry would be about somebody, and I couldn’t remember who they were. I’d do a kindle search & find they appear in no other entry of the journal, so there was a good reason I didn’t remember them. I found this to be very frustrating.
• 
  Stephanie

  I'd never read a boys' "Dear America" book before. I'm not sure if it was the style of this book in particular, or the whole series, but it was harder to follow. Instead of individual dates, each season was separated into chapters. This got confusing. Plus the end was rather abrupt, and the "epilogue" was just a list of who died when, not really a story.
• 
  Jenny Clark

  This was pretty good at showing how the Revolutionary War affected everyone in the colonies, even children. I liked the rather unique layout, breaking up into subjects rather than by days. Well written, again rather simple, as are most in the series, since they are aimed at younger children.
• 
  Jia ♥

  Way shorter than I thought it was going to be (or maybe I just read super fast :)) . But a really good book.
• 
  Karalynn Tyler

  I enjoyed reading this aloud to my 8 year old son.
• 
  Kate Standiford

  At times dry, but overall it was able to keep my kid half attentive.
• 
  Katie McAlear

  3.5/5
• 
  Nicole

  This character has no personality, so it made everything dull and uninteresting to read.
• 
  August

  While I've liked the other books Barry Denenberg wrote for the Dear America/My Name is America series, this one, even on the second read, didn't impress me very much. There was a moment, about halfway through the book, when I had a moment of "Oh! Maybe I did like this book last time I read it!" But I think it's much more likely that there's actually only one segment of about two or three pages in the entire book that I really enjoyed.
  
  I appreciate that the book goes into the build-up to the Revolutionary War, which I feel is often overlooked in favor of just cutting straight to the action of 1776, but overall, the book really feels like it's lacking some depth. I also couldn't figure out why the book - which is presented as a journal, and which Will himself (the main character) refers to at one point as a journal - is presented with chapter-like headings and subtitles. Some of the My Story titles (the UK equivalent of Dear America) use a similar technique, especially for the books aimed at boys, but I don't think it's used as effectively here.
• 
  Elaine Shipley-pope

  This book is set in the days leading up to the revolutionary war. The young boy, William, is an orphan/runaway. He leaves the farm that he lives on with his Aunt and Uncle when it becomes quite clear that they really just think that he is a burden. So he runs away and ends up in Boston. A young widow takes him in to help run her pub and help with her infant daughter. There is a man that lives upstairs who happens to run a patriot spy ring. Eventually William joins the ring and becomes a young spy after his friend is brutally beaten by a group of red coats. A quick and easy read and a great way to get a small history lesson.
• 
  Eddie

  I've read another title in the series and recommended the series to my son. He selected this on, and we both found it rather slow and wandering. The other title started that way and then ended with a bang, I found it very good by the end. This one never really congealed into what I was expecting. You're never sure if it's a patriot book, a heres how they lived back then book or something else. I think that really it tried to cover too many areas and never delved into one enough.
  
  While I won't knock the series as a whole yet, I wouldn't recommend this book in particular.