Virginia Bound

The fifth grade teachers at my school have used this book for a "read aloud" for several years. It has adventure, sympathetic characters, and action. The kids love it and the historical context helps them understand the challenges the Jamestown settlers faced as well as the havoc that they wrecked on the Native American population. It has been a great way to launch our unit on colonial America.

This hard-to-put down book tells the story of Rob, an English orphan, who is kidnapped and sold as an indentured servant to a cruel Tobacco farmer in colonial Virginia. The story is so well-paced and action-packed you don't even realize you're learning quite a bit about American history as you tear through the pages. An excellent choice for summer reading!

Virginia Bound is a great story! It grabs you quickly and makes you care about the characters. It's got suspense and adventure and hard hard decisions for the main character to make. Rob's choice ends up making this a book with an important moral, but rather than the book lecturing or seeming saccharine, it shows Rob's dilemma and his decision as part of his growing up-- just the kind of thing that makes kids feel grown up themselves. This book is also amazing in the way it depicts the history-- not one bit boring, the author brings the time and place alive with amazing details she's gleaned from the best research on Virginia. Who knew that to grow tobacco people had to hoe dirt up over their leg until it reached their knee, jerk their foot out of the pile, and put the plant in that hole? Any kid who reads this book will know a whole lot more about hard labor, hard times, and the complicated history of the beginnings of our country than most adults do...and they won't even realize they're being taught. One last note...don't think this is just for boys-- there's a strong female character to match Rob, and girls will enjoy her skill, courage, and intelligence.