Abigail Adams; Pirate of the Caribbean

Abigail Adams: Pirate of the Caribbean  (Mixed-Up History # 2) by Steve Sheinkin   160 pages 

Not sure why either the author or the publisher changed the name of the this series (it was originally Time Twisters), but it’s the same format, which I really like. I think that kids are gonna eat up learning about history in this manner.

Abigail Adams, our second First Lady, agrees with the start of Book 1, Abraham Lincoln. Why should they continue to do the same thing boring thing forever and forever. She had always dreamed of becoming a pirate, and after Lincoln’s successful adventure, she leaps out of Washington City and to the Caribbean.

Abby and Doc are back as the protagonists who must fix history and get Abigail back to the President’s House.

Author Sheinkin does a wonderful job in teaching kids about the Adams’ family, the pirate life, and the women who were pirates in only 160 pages. He also includes an epilogue that lets readers know what was true and what was false.

 The one thing that I was not crazy about was that there was really very little about Abigail after the first few chapters. Once she made the leap, the story was more about Anne Bonny and Mary Read, well-known female pirates. Although I learned something new, I was disappointed in the lack of Abigail’s history. Therefore, Abigiail Adams: Pirate of the Caribbean  receives 3 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

Abraham Lincoln: Pro Wrestler

Abraham Lincoln: Pro Wrestler (Time Twisters #1) by Steve Sheinkin    160 pages

I’ve been obsessed with Abraham Lincoln and his family since I was a kid; I can’t get enough of him and his wife, Mary Todd.

In this delightfully imagined work, the fourth graders in Ms. Maybee’s class hate history. “It’s BORING!” Step-siblings Abby and Doc, especially Doc, are the loudest opponents of history. When Lincoln hear how much all the kids don’t like history, he decides to teach them a lesson.

Thanks to time travel Lincoln shows up in current time to teach them a lesson. He’s decided that he won’t go back to Springfield, Illinois, to win the 1860 presidential election, but instead, he wants to pursue a different dream: that of becoming a pro wrestler. Wrestling was much, much different in the 1860s than it is today, and thankfully, Sheinkin doesn’t delve into that. But that means that history is broken if Lincoln pursues his dream

It’s up to Abby and Doc to get him back to Springfield and fix history. As they learn about Lincoln and his life, they experience life in the 1860s and unwittingly learn about our greatest president ever.

At the end of the book, Sheinkin adds a chapter that tells what aspects of the story are true and what are not.  I think that young readers will enjoy history in this manner, and without meaning to, learn something. Even I learned something! Abraham Lincoln: Pro Wrestler receives 5 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.