THE BOSTON COFFEE PARTY

A letter from Abigail Adams to her husband, quoted in an author's note, is the basis for this fictional reconstruction of an incident during the American Revolution: When one merchant (disregarding a public plea to control prices) hoarded a quantity of coffee, more than a hundred women belligerently confronted him and seized the coffee. Here, two young girls are credited with the idea of paralleling the famous Tea Party, with an important difference: apparently, the women kept the coffee rather than destroying it. McCully's drawings, brightened with red and blue, have a good feel for revolutionary Boston; the text, while somewhat wooden, is clear and serves its purpose.