Silver for General Washington was one of my very favorite books as a kid, and I can definitely see why I loved it so much. I enjoyed rereading it as a young adult, after all these years - I read it over and over again when I was a kid, but I hadn't read it in way too long. It was lovely to revisit one of the special books of my childhood and to reexperience a story I loved so much as a child.

Rereading the book, it wasn't as shining and wonderful as I remembered it being as a kid, but it was still a great book. The writing and story and characters were quite good, but not stellar - nothing special, but good, all the same. If I read Silver for General Washington for the first time as an adult, it wouldn't make a huge impression on me, but I still enjoyed many things about it. While the writing style was usually decent rather than amazing, the characters and their surroundings were described and portrayed well enough that they were often vivid and alive. I enjoyed the protagonist, Gil, and his family and friends, especially his relationships with his sister, his cousin, and the soldiers. And I really loved the bittersweet subplot of Gil and his violin. I really love the history and setting Silver for General Washington includes, and growing up, it taught me a lot about the events of the American Revolution during the months the book covers - and gave nice humanity and new detail to a part of the war I've been interested in lately. There were a few tiny things in the book that were lacking or didn't make sense, and at least one loose end that was never tied up, but not enough to be noticeable.

Much of this book's merit, for me, lies in the fact that it completely and totally captured my imagination as a child, and made history come alive. That shows that it's a good piece of juvenile fiction. Reading Silver for General Washington in elementary and middle school, I felt like I was there watching the ragged, barefoot soldiers plodding through the snow into Valley Forge, or sneaking through British-occupied Philadelphia. If I hadn't read this book as a child, I would never have known or cared about the winter at Valley Forge and the plight of the soldiers, and I would have seen it as a distant event that didn't matter to me or existed only in history books. But this book immersed me and made the setting and events and history come to life in a way that I could understand and care about. It's stayed with me ever since.

And the story itself captured me and inspired me as well - the sweet relationship between the cousins and siblings, the adventurous and daring journey they're caught up in, the desire of two boys to fight for their country's independence, the hardship and resilience of the American soldiers.

I was very much caught up in the story and setting of Silver for General Washington as a child, and that is worth a lot. It takes a special book to capture the mind and imagination of a child, to captivate them and engage them - and I was very much engaged by this book. To me, it was exciting and fascinating and accessible and easy to dive into, rather than boring and distant and dry like many historical novels for young readers. I read Silver for General Washington many times, and enjoyed it each time, and I always yearned for more fictional books by the same author - since I loved this one and one other by this author (By Secret Railway). I always loved coming back to reread Silver for General Washington, and I remembered it fondly my whole life. So many of the book's scenes and moments have remained vivid in my memory all these years, which is impressive on the part of the book.

Silver for General Washington earned a solid 4 stars from me this time. I would have given the book 5 stars a few years ago - and my experience reading it as a kid was deserving of 5 stars. I recommend it to fans of the Revolutionary War period or of children's historical fiction.

A fabulous historical novel to read along with this one is Rebecca's War by Ann Finlayson, which portrays the British occupation of Philadelphia the same winter, something that was touched on briefly in Silver for General Washington. ( )

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