The collective American perception of the Revolutionary War, and the one we pass to our children, tends to resemble a synopsis of Return of the Jedi: a scrappy band of rebels, devoted to their cause, rises up against an evil Empire; in the end the rebels prevail, the Empire is defeated, and there are fireworks. In reality, the war lasted eight years; word of the revolution spread slowly through the colonies, carried on foot and confusing many; and instead of fireworks, there was dysentery.
Master storyteller Gary Paulsen has written a novel designed to shake American perceptions of the founding of our country and to deepen the respect for the sacrifices and courage of those who dared to defy the most powerful military force in the world. In his author’s note to Woods Runner, Paulsen states:
I wrote Woods Runner because I wanted the Revolutionary War to be seen in its reality. I wanted to dispute the mythic, clean, even antiseptic qualities in many histories, because war is never, not ever clean. The people of the United States have had patriotic blinders on for so long about that gut-wrenching war, which killed or maimed a huge number of our nation’s young men, as did Vietnam and World War I. As do all wars. Of course, there’s much to be proud of in terms of the outcome of the Revolution, but the reality of fighting this war was horrifying. Our independence was hard-won, paid for with the blood of innocent, and very young, people. Too many lives were lost or destroyed during the battles.
In Woods Runner Paulsen has crafted a tale that manages to be thrilling, shocking, informative, poignant, and hopeful at the same time. The story of 13-year-old Samuel Lehi Smith is told with tension, passion, and a note of admiration. The title hearkens back to the French courier du bois for one who ran through, and who was of, the forest. "He was not sure exactly when he became a child of the forest. One day it seemed he was eleven and playing in the dirt around the cabin or helping with the chores, and the next, he was thirteen, carrying a .40-caliber Pennsylvania flintlock rifle, wearing smoked-buckskin clothing and moccasins, moving through the woods like a knife through water while he tracked deer to bring home to the cabin for meat."
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