Chil­dren’s

Haym Salomon: Amer­i­can Patriot

Susan Gold­man Rubin; David Slonim, illus.
  • From the Publisher
November 14, 2011

Although Jews have been part of Amer­i­can his­to­ry since 1654, their con­tri­bu­tions don’t often appear in school his­to­ry text­books and young Jew­ish read­ers can’t often find them in the sto­ry of Amer­i­ca. So, it is impor­tant to fill that gap with trade books for young read­ers about Jews who have played impor­tant roles in the build­ing of Amer­i­ca. Haym Salomon has become the icon­ic Jew­ish per­son­al­i­ty of the Rev­o­lu­tion­ary War. Born in Poland, he was a suc­cess­ful mer­chant, patri­ot, and spy who risked his life, home, and for­tune for the Rev­o­lu­tion. His dar­ing activ­i­ties have become a source of pride to lat­er gen­er­a­tions, plac­ing Jews in the com­pa­ny of our hero­ic Found­ing Fathers. Unlike oth­er Jews who fought and died in the war and are hard­ly remem­bered today, Salomon earned his place in his­to­ry— whether exag­ger­at­ed or not — as the patri­ot­ic ​“financier of the Amer­i­can Revolution.” 

With lit­tle actu­al­ly known about him, author Susan Gold­man Rubin has fash­ioned an accu­rate­ly researched and acces­si­ble account of Salomon’s life and expe­ri­ences. She skill­ful­ly and clear­ly weaves imag­ined con­ver­sa­tions with fac­tu­al infor­ma­tion to pro­vide an invit­ing view of Salomon, his accom­plish­ments and Jew­ish colo­nial life. The book’s light-heart­ed illus­tra­tions are col­or­ful and appeal­ing and the change of type­face through­out the book cre­ates a enjoy­able read, but the near-car­toon­ish style doesn’t seem to fit the more seri­ous text. Indeed, the pic­ture book for­mat itself may not res­onate with old­er read­ers who would prob­a­bly find the infor­ma­tion more rel­e­vant than the book’s younger tar­get­ed read­er­ship. The very use­ful author’s notes, glos­sary and end­notes pro­vide addi­tion­al his­toric infor­ma­tion and read­ers look­ing for more detailed fac­tu­al infor­ma­tion will wel­come the exten­sive bib­li­og­ra­phy. Ages 8 – 10.

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