Anna Strong: A Spy During the American Revolution
by Sarah Glenn Marsh, illustrated by Sarah Green
Age Range: 4-8 years old
Hardcover, 40 pages
Publisher: Abrams Books for Young Readers
$18.99 on Amazon
Just launched today is the new book, Anna Strong: A Spy During the American Revolution by Sarah Glenn Marsh. Anna Smith Strong (1740-1812) was a brave woman who helped the American Revolution by being a spy for George Washington. Anna joined the Culper Ring, a group of American Spies where she worked to pass information to other American spies to try to defeat the British. One of the ways she delivered messages was through the laundry hung on the clothing line. If a black petticoat appeared that meant that there was an important message to be delivered to George Washington. If handkerchief appeared on the clothing line, that meant that told them of the location of a boat hidden in a nearby cove. Since Anna's family were Loyallists, she was able to spy on news on the British army for the Americans.
It's great to have a book like this finally tell the story of the American Revolution with a female hero. Anna Strong was one of two female spies int he Culper Ring (the other Agent 355 is unidentified). The illustrations in the book by Sarah Green is beautiful and I like how she discusses at the end of the book how she illustrates Anna in a different floral pattern for each page of the book to explore the themes of camouflage as she was in plain sight in front of the enemy. Each illustration also included the number code that defined the words the spies were passing along.
Also at the end of the book is full "The Culper Ring Code Book" where kids can write their own secret messages using the number codes for different words. There's also a recipe on how to make your own invisible ink!
Here's a peek inside the book Anna Strong:
Buy Anna Strong: A Spy During the American Revolution by Sarah Glenn Marsh on Amazon.
Review book provided by Abrams
