I chose this book to start with because A) it is short and I am a little swamped today and B) because it is a social studies book and I've been looking to expand my social studies library. All in all, it was a very cute book. Jean Fritz tells the story of Sam Adams leading up to Independence from Great Britain. To keep the story interesting, she focuses on the story of how Sam Adams finally comes to ride a horse for the first time, while interweaving the story of how he agitated for independence. Fritz does a nice job of including interesting personal details (such as telling what his dog, Queue, would do while he spoke to people) and telling about his actual personal accomplishments (riding a horse, instigating the Boston Tea Party)
I thought this could be a good entry point into learning more about Sam Adams, so if I were using it in a classroom, I might read this story to launch a short unit on him. In the past, I've thought about including a biographies unit in writing, reading, and social studies, so I might also use this book as a mentor text in writing, for gathering background knowledge in social studies, and for skills in reading biographies in reading.
Outside of the classroom, I'm not sure most students would enjoy it. The sentence structure and language can be a little difficult, so it is a solidly fourth grade level text (an R on the Fountas and Pinnell Reading Levels). It's also pretty short, though, so it might not feel very beefy to a fourth grade reader and make them feel like there won't be enough intrigue to keep them interested. Therefore, I don't think most fourth graders would choose to read this book independently.
All in all, a great book for integrating social studies background knowledge; probably won't get much use in a standard independent reading library.
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