Illuminations Literature

An exciting mystery for your homeschool library: AD 79, following the eruption of Mount Vesuvius and the destruction of Pompeii. Among the thousands of people huddled in refugee camps along the bay of Naples are Flavia Gemina and her friends Jonathan the Jewish boy, Nubia the African slave-girl, and Lupus the mute beggar boy. Their discovery that children are being kidnapped from the camps--among them the daughter of the powerful Publius Pollius Felix--leads them to solve the mystery of the pirates of Pompeii. A terrifically exciting and dramatic story and a brilliant picture of the aftermath of a great disaster.

The Secret Soldier is based on the true story of Deborah Sampson. Deborah wanted to travel and have adventures, but since she had no money, the best way to do that was to join the army. This is the exciting true story of a woman who became a soldier during the American Revolutionary War, by dressing and acting like a man. In real life, Deborah fought for her country and was injured in battle, but received an honorable discharge at the end of the war because she not only fought valiantly, but she did so with honor while "at the same time preserving the virtue and chastity of her sex, unsuspected and unblemished".