Everything about The Fighting Ground

For many years, schools have includ­ed this book in their Rev­o­lu­tion­ary War cur­ricu­lum because it engen­ders good dis­cus­sions, so in our tour of my books this sum­mer, we need to include The Fight­ing Ground.

Behind the story

At the time I was liv­ing in Lam­bertville, New Jer­sey, so it was easy for me to catch a bus and get into NYC for a meet­ing with my edi­tor. We were going to dis­cuss the new nov­el man­u­script I had sent her. I did indeed meet with her and learn that she was reject­ing my book. read more

Resources

If a vocab­u­lary list would be help­ful for your stu­dents, here’s one from Vocabulary.com.

Jade and Latrell at Jef­fer­son Ele­men­tary cre­at­ed a book trail­er. “And the award for most dra­mat­ic music goes to …”

Your stu­dents may find the video “Long Arms of Home­land Secu­ri­ty: the Brown Bess,” by Oleg Volk, to be of inter­est. A re-enac­tor demon­strates how to load the rifle used dur­ing the Rev­o­lu­tion­ary War.

Scott O’Dell Award for His­tor­i­cal Fiction

I was hon­ored to receive this award for The Fight­ing Ground in 1985, the sec­ond year the award was grant­ed. All togeth­er, this is a read­ing list that will keep read­ers young and old enthralled.

Dis­cus­sion

Small Plan­et Book Club offers a les­son plan with dis­cus­sion ques­tions and writ­ing prompts, as well as links to sites that offer infor­ma­tion about New Jer­sey’s role in the Rev­o­lu­tion­ary War.