Adventures of Rush Revere Books in Order

The Adventures of Rush Revere series drops a modern substitute history teacher and his talking horse into some of the biggest moments in early American history. The stories are written for middle grade readers who like humor mixed with real events and people.

Rush Revere teaches at Manchester Middle School, where his students are curious but not always thrilled by dates and textbook summaries. His horse Liberty was struck by lightning long ago, which somehow left him able to talk and to open portals into the past. Together they can carry small groups of kids back to specific years, as long as the trip connects to American history.

In Rush Revere and the Brave Pilgrims, the crew sails on the Mayflower, meets families searching for religious freedom, and sees up close how hard life is when they reach Plymouth and try to survive that first winter. Rush Revere and the First Patriots moves the action to Boston in the 1760s, where protests over British taxes fill the streets and meetings with figures such as Samuel Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and Paul Revere show how talk of liberty spreads.

Rush Revere and the American Revolution drops them into 1775 as war breaks out. The kids watch lanterns hung in the Old North Church, witness the battles of Lexington, Concord, and Bunker Hill, and meet leaders like George Washington and Dr. Joseph Warren. Back home, one student, Cam, is struggling with his father’s deployment to Afghanistan, and seeing earlier soldiers changes the way he thinks about service and sacrifice.

Rush Revere and the Star-Spangled Banner and Rush Revere and the Presidency carry the series into the early years of the republic. The time travelers visit Philadelphia for debates over the Constitution and Bill of Rights, watch Dolley Madison race to save an important painting as the British burn Washington, and stand near Francis Scott Key as he witnesses the bombardment that inspires the national anthem. Later they shadow George Washington, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson through key moments of their presidencies, lessons that feed directly into a hotly contested student election back at Manchester Middle School.

Across the arc of the series the tone stays light even when the history is serious. Liberty cracks jokes, complains about snacks, and banters with the kids, while the students argue, tease, and occasionally get scared. They are allowed to ask blunt questions, make mistakes, and admit when the past looks more complicated than a simple patriotic story.

For families and teachers, the books offer a straightforward way to put faces and settings around names children may have seen only in class notes. Read in order, they trace a path from the Mayflower through the founding era and early presidencies, inviting young readers to imagine what it might feel like to stand on the deck of the ship, in a crowded colonial street, or under a sky lit by rockets over Fort McHenry.