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Walter Edmonds was a writer who lived almost as long as the 20th century lasted, from 1903 to 1998. He mainly wrote historical novels, for adults and for children. His best-known adult novel was Drums Along the Mohawk. He wrote several children’s books, most in a picture-book format but with many more words and more sophisticated text than is usual in what we expect from picture books. His best-known children’s book was The Matchlock Gun. You can get a feel for the type of children’s book he wrote by noting that The Matchlock Gun was in this format and won the 1940 Newbery Award, awarded for a junior book, not the Caldecott Medal, which is awarded for a picture book. The reading level is probably upper elementary school.
The Matchlock Gun is set in Dutch New York, along the Hudson Valley in the pre-Revolution days, 1756 or so, when defending against attacks by raiding Native Americans still was important. News of raiding parties draws Edward’s father, Teunis, away from home to join the other militiamen who were going out to keep the Indian warriors away. Edward, who is about 10 years old, is left at home with his mother, Gertrude, and his little sister, Trudy. A raiding party gets through, and Gertrude makes a daring plan, using herself as bait and the Spanish gun, an old heavy blunderbuss, and Edward, as the trap. Gertrude and Edward are very brave. How events unfold in this story, which is based on a true event, is exciting indeed. The pictures, made by Paul Lantz, are charming lithographs, in color and in gray scale, that give the feeling of an old story from the past that is being told in modern times. Lantz’s illustrations also convey the drama and tension of the events in the book.