Will's Story, 1771

Simply put, this is Nixon at her best. And when at her best, she stands among the greats in modern literature. Joan Lowery Nixon's pen is mightier and more lethal than anyone else's pen. She is a master, and Will's Story is her masterpiece. The story here is Will's, the jailer's son. (Interestingly jail was spelled gaol in colonial America.) Nixon leads us along as Will grows into a mature and capable young man in colonial Williamsburg, VA. His story is every bit as engaging as Huckleberry Finn, but without the problematic ending. While Twain's text may have been more seminal, Nixon's novel is more involved. Painstaking research and perfectly executed prose form Will's Story. It is, without a doubt, the best in Nixon's Young Americans series. It is, without a doubt, the best in Nixon's entire ouvre. It is, without a doubt, the best novel about colonial America in existance. It is...fantastic.

In Young Americans: Colonial Williamsburg, twelve-year-old Will's father works for the city of Willliamsburg and Will still feels uncomfortable with the prisoners they are housing beneath his family's living quarters. His friendship with a runaway slave leads to a dangerous involvement in this moving story of responsibility in early American life.