William Henry Harrison, second book in the Young Patriots Series, doesn't disappoint, but makes an excellent read, and both entertains and educates. The illustratins are simply wonderful and truly enhance the story. Geared to the 8 to 12 year old, it's a must on every family bookshelf!

William Henry Harrison holds the distinction of being the United States President who delivered the longest inaugural address and served the shortest time (30 days) before he also became the first president to die in office. William Henry Harrison: Young Tippecanoe is a superb biography for young readers ages 8 to 12, written by the late Howard Peckham, and originally published in 1951. Featuring the childhood adventures of our ninth president (including the thrilling rescue of his sister from drowning when he was only seven, and the courageous capture of a British soldier just one year later when he was eight, William Henry Harrison is a welcome, very highly recommended addition to school and community biography collections for children and part of the Patria Press newly designed "Young Patriots" series.

For a shorter paperback work, this was a most impressive piece. Not only was the author complete in his explanation of Pontiac's War, but also gave all points of view. Many times Pontiac's own words were translated to get the effect of the messages he was trying to relay. It was very detailed in explaining The Ottawa Chief's influence over many tribes, including the western tribes of Illinois. He almost singlehandedly destroyed the English western frontier of the Great Lakes, Unfortunately as readers know, logistics win wars, and his lack of supplies did him in. The book also touched on many roles key English officers and civilians played in the developing peace, and also what role the French continued to play even after their defeat in the French and Indian War. Pontiac's defeat was the beginning of the end of the Native Americans control of this land, as sad as it is. Enjoy this wonderful book.

The North American colonial wars between Great Britain and France that flared repeatedly through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries have long been hidden in the great shadow cast by the American Revolution. How many people today remember King William's War (1689-97), or Queen Anne's War (1702-13), or King George's War (1744-48), or the French and Indian War (1755-62)? But these conflicts should be better known, because in actual fact they determined the cultural fate of most of North America. Howard Peckham's volume, first published in 1964, is the best short survey of all of them.

Beginning in the 1600s, Great Britain began to colonize the eastern seaboard of North America from Maine to Georgia. Even earlier, France had begun to occupy the valley of the St. Lawrence and to spread westward into the Great Lakes and then south to the Mississippi. From the late 1600s to the mid-1700s, conflicts in Europe between these two colonial powers (and between the Protestant and Catholic worlds they represented) spilled over into North America. Indian tribes played both sides off against each other, forming shifting alliances in an attempt to retain their own independence. Because of disputes over who should occupy the Spanish throne, for example, farmhouses were burned in the New England countryside, and Indian villages were destroyed in the woods of Maine. In the end, Great Britain and her colonies gained ascendancy, and France was forced to cede all of her Canadian possessions. The last of these imperial conflicts, the French and Indian War, set the political and military stage for the American Revolution which began only thirteen years after the French and Indian War had ended.

Why should anyone remember these ancient battles? One simple reason is that they have left their mark all over the cultural landscape of eastern North America. They explain why there are lakes with names like "Champlain" along the borders of states like New "York"; why the eastern United States is dotted with towns named "Amherst" and "Pepperell" and "Shirley" (all generals in the colonial wars); and why so many people in French-speaking Quebec, more than 300 years after the colonial wars began, are still trying to secede from English-speaking Canada.

For a short work, this was interesting and exceptional reading. Mr.Peckham's accounts of the four Colonial Wars was accurate and complete. The struggle between France,England and Native Americans for control of North America is lost in schoolbooks and classrooms of today, because it was prior to the Revolutionary War. But the impact that these Colonial Wars had on the forming of our country is unmeasurable. Quality reading for those who want to turn the clock back a bit farther than the Boston Tea Party, and Bunker Hill.