History Mystery: Traitor in Williamsburg: A Felicity Mystery by Elizabeth McDavid Jones

Before there were Red States and Blue States, even before there were Rebel States and Yankee States, there were Tories and Patriots. In Williamsburg, Virginia, the spring before the July 4 Declaration of 1776, conflict festered between those colonists still loyal to the British Crown and those who had cast their lots with the Patriots.

The clash between the two parties has already struck close to Felicity Merriman's home, when her best friend Elizabeth's loyalist father has been forced to leave Virginia for New York, leaving Liz and her mother without his support. Then a broadside claiming that that her friend Fiona McLeod's Scottish father is disloyal to the Patriots has forced the whole family to flee and their home and successful business to be sold at auction. When Mr. Merriman publishes a defense of Fergus McLeod's patriotism, he, too, falls under suspicion, and after another broadside accusing her father is published under the pseudonym "Mr. Puller," Felicity sees her father arrested for trading with the English forces and slated for trial.

But Felicity and Elizabeth suspect that the ledger entries and sales receipt signed by the British general are fakes, planted in Mr. Merriman's office while he was away on a secret trip to Portsmouth. Because Mr. Merriman's mission was to help supply the Patriot forces in the area, he refuses to testify about the purpose of his journey, and Felicity knows that it is up to her to prove her father's innocence or submit to deportation and confiscation of their home and store also.

With the loyal Elizabeth and her father's apprentice Ben as co-sleuths, Felicity sets out to do the detective legwork to identify the mysterious "Mr. Puller" and locate the evidence to clear her father's name. After inquiries at the local print shops and with a suspect in mind, the girls plant a message which leads the conspirator to a supposed midnight meeting in the graveyard. Hiding behind large gravestones to get a better look at the suspect in the flashes of lightning, Felicity and Elizabeth are spotted and barely escape, still unable to identify the caped figure. However, Felicity recalls that the man was wearing an elaborate "bob wig," and reasoning that he will have to have it restyled after its soaking in the rain, she traces him to the town's one wig shop the next day.

With the traitor's name and motive in hand, there only remains for Felicity and Ben to search his office for similar receipts for deals with enemy forces, and a dramatic entrance to the courtroom where Mr. Merriman is on trial stops the proceedings so that Felicity can present the evidence to the judges.

In this perennially popular American Girl series which begins with Meet Felicity: An American Girl : 1774 (The American Girls Collection, Book 1), the reader sees Felicity Merriman as she grows from an impulsive, horse-crazy nine-year-old to a responsible and thoughtful eleven-year-old who has become deeply involved with the historic events of the year 1776 in the American colonies. As always with this notable historical fiction series, the appendix describes the social and political events of the period, in this case the tension between the Patriots and Tories and the checkered history of the Committees of Safety which were the first civil rulers of the rebellious colonies.

An exciting and satisfying mystery story which draws the reader into daily life of a Virginia girl in the first year of the American Revolution, Traitor in Williamsburg: A Felicity Mystery (American Girl Mysteries) is a terrific choice for mystery fans and historical fiction fans alike.

Broken Arrow: The Arrow Over the Door by Joseph Bruchac

In October of 1777 a battle between a war party of Indians loosely allied with the English generals and significant assemblage of American settlers did not take place.

On the eve of the pivotal Battle of Saratoga, a confrontation between the English generals and the rebel forces seemed certain. Loyalists and rebels both sought support from Native American tribes in the regions, and innocent Indians and settlers were slaughtered in terrorist raids on small villages throughout the region. Indians loyal to the French in what is now known as the French and Indians War were being hastily recruited by both sides in the ongoing struggle with what the British held to be an insurgent rebellion.

Into this setting of hostility and unsettled loyalties Bruchac puts his two characters. Sam is a Quaker boy of fourteen, who is stung by the charges of cowardice hurled at his family by the supporters of the rebellion and who is determined to fight, against his faith's injunction against violence, in defense of his family. Stand Straight is an Abenaki boy of the same age, whose family was killed by the English, and whose uncle Sees-the-Wind is leading a scouting party in rebel territory in a loose alliance with these same English forces.

When the armed Indians, accompanied by two French allies, approach a large log structure filled with settlers, they do not know what to expect. Inside the rough shelter an assembly of Friends prepare to hold a regional meeting with the noted Quaker leader Robert Nisbet. As the Quakers wait in their customary silent worship, seeking inspiration from the "light within," the Indians approach the structure. Noting that the door has been left open and the settlers are unarmed, they enter quietly. Surprised to be welcomed with the usual egalitarian handshake of the Friends, the scouting party take seats among the congregation quietly and seem to join in the silent worship. Later they share a simple meal of bread and cheese with the Friends, and leaving an arrow shaft, feathered but with the point removed, over the door as a sign of peace, quietly leave.

The event, revered in Quaker history as the "Easton Meeting," is one of the few instances of peacful encounter in what was a series of bloody and vengeful skirmishes between the army of the Crown and the American rebels. Bruchac tells the true story simply and with insight into the minds of both sides through alternating narratives of the boys who witnessed the peaceful meeting. In a time of war, in which the combatants demonized each other as irrational, souless, and murderous, The Arrow Over the Door tells another story of thoughtful humans finding an inner light of peace and understanding in each other.

The Arrow Over the Door is a short, suspenseful piece of historical fiction which should appeal to middle graders because of its skillful use of exciting setting and characters who face the kind of moral decisions which engage young readers.