A review by nerfherder86
Gingerbread for Liberty!: How a German Baker Helped Win the American Revolution by Mara Rockliff

4.0

What a fun and clever book! The little-known story of Christopher Ludwick, a German immigrant to America in the 18th century who bakes for a living, and how he joined the Revolutionary cause and became the chief baker for the Continental Army; he talks to the hessian mercenaries to try to convince them to switch sides, and even ended up baking bread to feed the defeated British soldiers. I love this book, not only for the cool German-American connection (my dad is a Hessian too! :-) but for the colorful, cheery, stylized illustrations that make the characters look just like gingerbread. I liked the short, succinct, simple text with repetition ("Not in my America!"), and the amusing comments of the general's underlings and the King's underlings--they all have something to say to echo or to question their leaders. It also has three very big German words in it (for Revolution, Independence, and Liberty), which I've certainly never seen done before in an American picturebook. Kudos! The afterword gives nice details of Christopher's life, and lists the author's sources.