Review of Sybil’s Night Ride
Reviewed By Merri Rosenberg
Sybil’s Night Ride
Written and illustrated by Karen B. Winnick
Boyds Mill Press: Honesdale, Pennsylvania, 2000: 32 pp
While most schoolchildren are familiar with the celebrated “midnight ride of Paul Revere,” I suspect that even in our post-feminist age far fewer would be familiar with the efforts of Sybil Ludington.
That’s too bad.
When the British attacked Danbury, Connecticut, 16-year-old Sybil valiantly rode her horse more than 40 miles throughout the Hudson Valley to alert other revolutionaries.
In this charming picture book by Karen Winnick, whose evocative illustrations echo the pre-Revolutionary period perfectly, young readers can follow Sybil’s suspenseful journey (will she and her horse, Star, be captured by British spies?) and admire her courage.
The daughter of a patriot, Henry Ludington, who served as an aide-de-camp to General George Washington during the Battle of White Plains, Sybil’s exploits are now recognized by trail markers in Putnam County.
Winnick’s engaging book, which would appeal to third-and fourth graders, would be an ideal way to introduce elementary school students to this captivating heroine of the American Revolution.#
