Armed with a long knife, flint-lock musket, and his father’s medical bag, fifteen-year-old Lorenzo Bannister sets off to fulfill his father’s last, deathbed wish. Lorenzo joins a secret flatboat operation delivering much-needed medicine and gunpowder to George Washington’s army, leading the reader on a romping ride from the docks of New Orleans to the battlefields of the American Revolution.
Trained as a medic by his father, Lorenzo makes his way up the Mississippi and the Ohio rivers, witnessing the horrors of slavery and political warfare. Constantly hoping for a better future, Lorenzo recounts his adventures, including his involvement with famous people that he meets, including George Washington and Bernardo de Galvez, the Spanish governor of Louisiana who helped the American rebels.
This action-packed historical novel for young people tells the story of the Spanish contribution to the American Revolution. Filled with adventure and the questions of freedom that plagued the beginning of the United States, the reader cannot help but be captured by Lorenzo’s zeal for life and his crusade for a better future not only for himself, but for the people that he loves.
Click here for a history lesson behind the Lorenzo book series by Líla Guzmán and Rick Guzmán.
2nd Place Winner, 2004 Arizona Literary Contest and Book Awards-Published Children’s Literature Category; Finalist, 2001 ForeWord Magazine’s Book of the Year Award in Young Adult Category
“Highly recommended for its sweeping narrative, its realistic and energetic style and its unexpected and somewhat startling conclusion.”—School Library Journal
LILA GUZMÁN is the co-author of Lorenzo and the Turncoat (Piñata Books, 2006), Lorenzo’s Revolutionary Quest (Piñata Books, 2003) and Lorenzo’s Secret Mission (Piñata Books, 2001). She is also the author of Green Slime and Jam (Eakin Press, 2000), a middle-grade fantasy novel. She translated A Royalist Volunteer (Mellon University Press, 1993) and Campaign of the Maestrazgo (Longwood Academic Press, 1990). Guzmán is the recipient of several awards for her writing, including Honorable Mention in Fiction, Dorothy Daniels Honorary Writing Award from the National League of American Pen Women.
Learn more at lilaguzman.com.
RICK GUZMÁN is the co-author of Lorenzo and the Turncoat (Piñata Books, 2006), Lorenzo’s Revolutionary Quest (Piñata Books, 2003) and Lorenzo’s Secret Mission (Piñata Books, 2001). A former army officer, he graduated from Rice University and the University of Houston Law Center. He practices law in Austin and lives in the Hill Country area of Texas, outside Austin.
Accelerated Reader Quiz #60436 | ATOS English: 4.8 | ATOS Interest Level: Middle Grade
