I have found that my kids’ interest often mirror my own. Even if but for a brief period.
So, it shouldn’t have surprised me when I started listening to the Broadway blockbuster, Hamilton that they too would find the story interesting.
“Who was Alexander Hamilton?” and “What is dueling?” became some common questions in our house.
But, unless you want to explain to your kids what the Reynolds Pamphlet was all about (ahem) one might want to find a kid-friendlier version of history than the musical–until they’re a bit older.
So off to the library I went to check out these wonderful picture books:
Duel! Burr and Hamilton’s Deadly War of Words and Aaron and Alexander: The Most Famous Duel in American History. Both books have delightful illustrations and detail the almost ironically parallel lives that Hamilton and Burr lived. Duel! also does a good job of explaining that both men could have made different/better choices than dueling, should they have wished. It wasn’t something they had to do. It also gives a short history of dueling in America and talks about other famous Americans who dueled (Andrew Jackson) or almost dueled (Abraham Lincoln).
So if your kids have caught Hamilton fever too, check out these books out!
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