Historical Fiction

My Brother Sam Is Dead
by James Lincoln Collier & Christopher Collier

Historical Fiction

Reading level: 5th and 6th

My Brother Sam Is Dead takes the reader back more than 230 years to the American Revolution. This story is a narrative that begins with Tim Meeker telling the story of his family in Redding, Connecticut.
Tim talks about how he idolizes his brother Sam telling him stories about his college days in Yale and New Haven. When Sam joins the Patriots (the Continental army) his father (Life) disagrees immensely, for Tim's father (Life) is a Tory. During the time Sam is away and joined the Continental Army Tim talks of life in Redding as a small town with houses, a school and a few merchants. The Redding tavern is owned by the Meekers and most the people are loyalists for the English. The war has hit the economic life with shortage of supplies and money.

Tim who is adventurous and a will of his own talks of wanting to grown up and be brave like his older brother. With Tim's father despising Sam for joining he continentals and the war sweeping the country how will the Meekers survive the war and will the family hold together through these hard times? (Jack McGuire)

Collier, Jame lincoln. My Brother Sam Is Dead. New York: Scholastic Inc, 1974.

ISBN: 0-439-78360-7