IronThunder

Avi.(2007). //I witness: Iron thunder: The battle between the Monitor & the Merrimac.// New York, NY: Hyperion Books for Children.

Set during the Civil War, this book provides the account of a young boy working to build a ship for battle. Tom works closely with the inventor leading the building of the ship and is approached by spies for inside information. When the ship is complete, Tom heads into the war and a battle that is still looked at as having changed naval war.
 * Summary:**


 * Grade Level:** 4-7
 * Reading Level:** 4.3


 * Curriculum Connection:** This text should be used in a classroom studying the Civil War. It provides a perspective that is often over looked (that of the naval side of the war). The text is also grounded in a great deal of research that Avi details in the Author's Note. He also provides a glossary for readers to gain understanding of the new vocabulary.

This fascinating adventure taken from U.S. history begins in Brooklyn in 1862, when Tom Carroll, 13, is hired at the Iron Works in Greenpoint for a secret project, derisively known around the borough as "Ericsson's Folly." John Ericsson, a Swedish inventor, is trying to build an ironclad ship that can battle the Merrimac, a Confederate ship being outfitted with metal plates in Virginia. Working to support his widowed mother and ailing sister, Tom becomes Ericsson's aide-de-camp. His insider status makes him a target of Secessionist spies, who offer gold coins in exchange for details about the ship; when Tom refuses, the bribes escalate to threats. Additionally, there's intense pressure to get the ship finished-Yankee spies report the Merrimac is almost done-and concerns persist about whether it will actually float. When the Monitor leaves port, Tom's aboard, safe from rebel spies, but nervous about heading into the war that has already claimed his father. The spectacular clash with the Merrimac caps this intense and action-packed account of a battle that changed the course of naval warfare. Illustrated with period engravings, this is gripping historical fiction from a keenly imagined perspective. An endnote detailing Avi's research at the Mariners' Museum in Newport News, Va., makes this a book that could launch a thousand field trips.
 * Publisher's Weekly Review 2007: (from Mackin)**