Caleb's father, Elijah, is off fighting the British, while he tends the farmstead and looks after his mother and younger brother. He also keeps a regular lookout on Lake Champlain, where he can watch the movements of the British and the American "rebels," the Green Mountain Boys among them. He meets an unlikely ally in the Frenchman, Captain Mallett, and together they forge a way through the early days of the American Revolution.
The Prize is one of a series of Revolution-era stories by Lars H. D. Hedbor, and it reminded me again that YA fiction is often underrated. (I had a similar thought when I read The Book Thief earlier this year.) I like YA because the story moves along briskly: one virtually never encounters page-after-page of finely written but ultimately unnecessary prose. Characters are developed, action commences, the story is resolved. Don't get me wrong, the prose can be nice, but at the same time, The Prize was a nice respite from my usual reading.
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