What happened on the Fourth of July long before there were fireworks and parades? Alice Dalgliesh takes young readers back to revolutionary times, back to the colonists' desire for freedom and the creation of the Declaration of Independence.

Simple text captures the excitement of the era, telling how word of Independence travelled up and down the thirteen colonies, touching the lives of everyday people throughout the land. Like all of Alice Dalgliesh's work, The Fourth of July Story remains an American classic.

About the Author: Born October 7, 1893, in Trinidad, Alice Dalgliesh was a woman of letters all her life. The daughter of a Scotsman and an Englishwoman, she grew up with Sir Walter Scott's novels and her father's stories of how "Wattie" Scott would visit her great-grandfather and sit in the kitchen exchanging stories. An avid reader, she started writing when she was six and at age 14, after the family had moved to England, she won a five-pound box of chocolates from a magazine as a prize for her writing. In 1912, she traveled to America to attend the Pratt Institute—she wanted to learn how to be a kindergarten teacher. She took her master's degree at Teachers' College at Columbia University. Soon thereafter, she began teaching a course in children's literature at the same college while she taught grade school. Eventually she became the children's book editor for Charles Scribner and Sons. Her nonfiction was praised by critics for its "casual" yet factual and detailed style. Her historical fiction is cited for its accuracy and detail as well as her creation of believable characters and dramatic plots. Two of her works of historical fiction, The Courage of Sarah Noble (1954) and The Bears of Hemlock Mountain (1952) won Newbery Honors. Ms. Dalgliesh died in June of 1979. —Vicki Palmquist, The Children's Literature Network