Stonewall Hinkleman and the Battle of Bull Run

Stonewall Hinkleman and the Battle of Bull Run

By: Michael Hemphill and Sam Riddleberger (former pen name of Tom Angleberger)

I am pretty sure you have heard of the book The Strange Case of Origami Yoda and Horton Halfpott by Tom Anglebeger.  You may not have heard of Stonewall Hinkleman and the Battle of Bull Run.  Well it is your lucky day. I will tell you all about this wonderful middle grade novel. HOORAY!

Stonewall Hinkleman is named after the Civil War General Stonewall Jackson.  His parents are both crazy into Civil War reenactment, so Stonewall has to follow them around to pretty much all summer to these reenactments.  He was cool with that until he gets a little older.  By the time he is 12 these reenactments are torture, and to make matters worse he has to be the bugle boy.  How are you going to pick up chicks when you have to spend every weekend as a bugle boy?  Ladies, would you want to date a bugle boy?  Not likely.

 

Things change for Stonewall when he forgets his bugle one weekend.  He is forced to purchase a new one from a shady individual at the reenactment.  When he blows into the bugle he is no longer in a reenactment, he finds himself in the actual Battle of Bull Run.  Unfortunately, he is not the only person that ends up going back in time.  A crazy guy from the reenactments also travels back in time, but crazy guy has a plan to change the Battle of Bull Run to make the history of the war to change forever.  Can Stonewall stop crazy dude, or will history be changed to help the Confederates win the Civil War?

I know you are ready to order this book from your local Indie bookstore, but wait it gets better.  Middle readers will love this book.  They are constantly embarrassed by their parents, and Stonewall has the ultimate nerdy parents.  Kids will also relate to the early interest in love, with a character that has no idea how to talk to the opposite sex.  I wonder if Tom Angleberger is an adult trapped in a middle grade body, because his characters jump off the page and it feels like they are students in my  classroom.

Sorry Tom, but this picture was too good to pass up!

I like to keep my post under 400 words, so I won’t go on and on anymore about how wonderful this book is. PLEASE read it, and let me know what you think.

Happy Reading!

(darn 416 words)