Boys on a prison ship, 1779

Five 4ths of July

By Pat Raccio Hughes

Viking Juvenile. 278 pp. $16.99

Reviewed by Katie Haegele

Philly-area writer Pat Raccio Hughes has breathed new life into an old conflict with her historical novel Five 4ths of July.

Set in 1777-81, the story follows Jake Mallery, a nervy young teenager from a Patriot family who live on the coast of Connecticut, where they operate a ferry across Long Island Sound.

That first year, Jake and his friends begin a tradition of celebrating Independence Day with a basket of oysters - caught on the sly, during a regulation off-season, and enjoyed in the summer sun. It's picturesque, but even before the war escalates Jake's life is not without problems. His father works him hard and belittles his opinions; his brother Ethan is the golden boy who gets sent off to Yale, leaving Jake to do twice the chores. He has a hard time holding his tongue.

Jake's frustration at being a kid trapped at home while the wide world waits is one of a few things that make him feel relatable, even modern. If that doesn't do it, any present-day reader should respond to the passion of his fraught love for Hannah, who works as an indentured servant in the kitchen of his best friend Tim's family.

Jake wants to run away and become a privateer, living free and making money. But at his father's stern insistence, he joins the minutemen, learning to hold, load, and fire a musket. As the years pass, he grows into the expectation that he be ready to fight for American independence, and by the third Fourth he finds himself in battle, for real. A fleet of 48 British ships has sailed toward East Haven, and soldiers come pouring out onto the shore, guns firing.