The Storm Breaks (Stories about the American Revolution Book 1)

Commonwealth Books is pleased to begin its “Stories for Young Readers” series with Jim Bayne’s illustrated narratives about the American Revolution. This edition remembers the “shot heard round the world” that marked the beginning of the War for American Independence, the siege of Boston and the misadventure in Canada all of which took place between April 1775 and March 1776. Subsequent editions will remember the war in New York and New Jersey (June 1776 – June 1777), the loss of Philadelphia and the stunning American victory at Saratoga (July 1777 – May 1778), the alliance with the French, wintering at Valley Forge and the end of the war in the Northeast (1778-1779), the war in the Carolinas (1780), and General Cornwallis’s surrender at Yorktown in October 1781.

Readers of all ages will see history unfold in the pictures of dozens of renowned illustrators and artists as they relive the failures and successes of General George Washington and the determined men who filled the ranks of his Continental Army.

We have created Captain William Mackay to narrate these stories. As a member of George Washington’s staff, Captain Mackay followed the progress of the war through the reports and dispatches that arrived daily at the general’s headquarters.