RUSH: We have another young reader on the phone. By the way, I just had a couple of e-mails, but I should address this. We are not stacking the deck here, folks. We have never done it. We do not plant phone calls. The only thing that’ll happen is that if we have somebody on hold I really want to talk to but we don’t get to ’em, we’ll ask for the number to call ’em back the next day.

And there are certain other indications of that, certain instances where we will ask to call back if we don’t have enough time to finish with somebody. But we never stack them. There’s no friend of mine that gets in here. Nothing gets stacked. So we have Megan here from Greenville, Ohio, and she just called and she happened to get through and Snerdley answered and he put her up. Here she is. Hi, Megan. Great to have you here.

CALLER: Hi, Rush!

RUSH: Welcome to the program.

CALLER: Thank you! I’m so excited to talk to you.

RUSH: Well, no more than I’m excited to talk to you ’cause I know you’re gonna talk about the book.

CALLER: Yes! I’m so excited about your book. I love your book, and I’m so excited ’cause the second one is supposed to come today. (giggles)

RUSH: Oh, yeah. Where did you get the second one? Did you order it online?

CALLER: Amazon.

RUSH: Amazon. Okay, cool.

CALLER: Yeah.

RUSH: So you got Amazon, and it’s gonna arrive today. Have you finished the first one? You probably have by now.

CALLER: Yes. I’m so excited because I did it for a little bit of my homeschool schooling history.

RUSH: Well, what did you like about it?

CALLER: I liked how it’s more like a story instead of just the facts of history —

RUSH: Yeah.

CALLER: — ’cause then you actually get into it, and it’s a story.

RUSH: You know what I like about it?

CALLER: What?

RUSH: Naturally I would say this ’cause I wrote it, but you know what I like about it, Megan?

CALLER: What?

RUSH: Actually taking you to the events. You’re there while they happen. You’re not told about them. We actually transport you there. If you use your imagination, you’re there with Liberty and Revere and the other students while these things are happening. You’re on the boat, on the Mayflower. You’re at Plymouth Colony. You’re there. It puts the reader right in the event as it happens, and I’ve always thought that is, A, entertaining; B, fascinating; and therefore, it’s easier to learn it.

CALLER: Yeah, it’s so fun, ’cause you do feel like you’re there with Rush Revere watching all this happen.

RUSH: Yeah, you are. I’m so happy to hear that you’re excited for the second one. How long did it take you to read the first one?

CALLER: Not very long. I can’t remember. (giggles)

RUSH: Did you take the pop quiz that I put at the end of the book? Did you?

CALLER: Probably half of it. (giggles)

RUSH: Why only half of it, Megan?

CALLER: I don’t know, I —

RUSH: You gotta tell me the truth. Was it boring?

CALLER: No!

RUSH: Did you know the answers? Was it not challenging enough? Why did you only do half of it?

CALLER: Because I was too excited when I saw that there was a second one coming out. I started bugging Mom to buy it. (giggles)

RUSH: Okay. All right. Well, did your mom get you the audio version of the book?

CALLER: No. She just got the normal hardback copy.

RUSH: Well, there’s nothing wrong with that.

CALLER: (giggles)

RUSH: But, I’ll tell you what. I’d like to send you the audio version, read by me. Even though you’ve read it, this is an entirely new way to experience it. It’s a bunch of CDs, and if you started and didn’t stop, it would take about you 4.5 hours, maybe five hours. So you don’t have to listen to it all at once, but whenever you’re in the car you could have your mom pop it in and listen in the car, wherever you want to. So, if you’ll hang on, Mr. Snerdley will get your address and he’ll send you that, so that you’ll get the audio version. Maybe we can get it out today

CALLER: (giggles)

RUSH: I can’t guarantee that. But we’ll get it out soon, and it will come in very close to the time you get the second book.

CALLER: Thank you!

RUSH: You are more than welcome. It is I who thank you. Have you told other kids about the book?

CALLER: No, but I wish you’d make it into a cartoon so my little nephew could watch it. (giggles)

RUSH: Make it into a cartoon. You mean like animate it?

CALLER: Yeah, like a movie.

RUSH: Like a movie, an animated movie. Hmm. Hmm. You know, that’s an interesting thought, Megan. We’ve bandied that about. You never know. You know, we’re just in the beginning phase of all this. I mean, this is just the second book coming out. So who knows what’ll happen down the road? I appreciate your feedback. I’m glad. I’m really glad you liked the book, and don’t hang up the phone.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: You notice how well spoken all of these kids are that call here to talk about the book? Megan was really — I mean, you know how fast she recovered when I asked her about the pop quiz and she’d only taken half of it. She recovered, “Oh, I was so excited for the second book. That’s why I didn’t finish the pop quiz.” But she had a very good point, and I’ve not mentioned this. I assume too much when I talk about this. But these books, when the Mayflower lands, you’re there. The story is not told from a classroom. What these books do is take you there. Like the second book, the primary event in it is the Boston Tea Party. You’re there, Rush Revere, these people are there throwing tea into the harbor. They’re there, they’re helping. Well, they’re watching, but they’re there.

The reader is taken to the event, not told about it. It’s not that Revere and Liberty go and come back to the classroom and tell the class about it. They actually take members of the class, and it is written as though it is happening today in real time, although it’s understandably history. But every primary event in each book, the reader is taken to each event. The first Thanksgiving, when the Pilgrims first encountered Native Americans, it is actually the event the reader is taken to as it happens. And that’s another really fun thing to try to re-create and be historically accurate at the same time.

When you hear these young kids call and talk about how much they like it, that’s why. It’s not history presented in any traditional way. And, as such, it makes it more interesting, and the reader is actually in it, involved, so to speak.