Stonewall Hinkleman

Coming Spring 2009! It’s an Historically Accurate Civil War Time Travel Thriller with a hero like no other …

Stonewall Hinkleman!

 

Stonewall Hinkleman is the world’s most reluctant Civil War re-enactor … until he becomes the world’s most reluctant Civil War soldier.

This dude is bored-out-of-his-gourd by the Civil War, which his parents are obsessed with. (That’s why they named him Stonewall.)

But his book isn’t boring, because he gets sent back in time to fight the real Civil War.

See he’s at a re-enactment. Complaining a lot and vaguely pretending to be a bugle boy. When he blows the bugle he goes back in time to the real battle. And he’s standing there in the middle like an idiot while soldiers from both sides are running right at him with guns, bayonets, cannons and all that.

It gets worse. See, there’s this insane lunatic racist guy also from the present who has gone back in time to help the South win.

Now you and I and Stonewall know that the North needs to win the Civil War, right? Freeing the slaves is a bigger than big deal. But Stonewall’s stuck back in the past in a Confederate uniform, fighting for the South —  side-by-side with Cyrus Hinkleman a way-too-brave young soldier who’s related to him in some confusing super-distant way.

Stonewall’s no longer bored. He’s scared to death. But then he finds someone who might be able to help him. Ashby Dupree, the daughter of the crazy lunatic guy. Turns out she’s okay. Better than okay, she’s awesome.

Together, can they stop the nut, save history and avoid  getting shot?

Find out April 2, when Stonewall Hinkleman and the Battle of Bull Run is published by Dial Books for Young Readers. It’s a mid-grade, historically accurate, time-travel adventure novel by Sam Riddleburger and Michael Hemphill. 

Ask your local bookseller or order online* today!

*Available from Amazon or B&N or ask your local independent bookstore to order it or ask your library to buy it.

 

Here’s an excerpt:

CHAPTER ONE

All right, let’s get the whole name thing out of the way quickly.

My name is Stonewall Hinkleman.

No, it’s not a nickname. It’s my real name. Like I tell my parents – even Stonewall Jackson’s real name wasn’t Stonewall. But they don’t listen and it’s too late now anyway. I’m stuck with it.

So, you’d think I could at least go by my middle name, right? It’s Traveler, after Robert E. Lee’s horse. Yeah, that’s right, a horse!

I’m Stonewall Traveler Hinkleman and if you think that’s as bad as it gets, you haven’t heard the worst part.

You see, both of my parents are Civil War reenactors. This means my dad – who’s really a boring insurance salesman – dresses up in a uniform and runs around in fields with a bunch of other boring guys who are all pretending they are in the Civil War. My mother pretends she’s a nurse, even though in real life she faints at the sight of blood.

Going to reenactments is my life almost every weekend. I have fought, I have cried, I have argued, I have resisted, but they make me go, too. I am twelve years old and I am the bugle boy, probably the dorkiest thing you can be. Even if I wanted to – and I don’t – I’m not old enough to march with the troops and shoot a gun. And I’m too old to still think all of this is cool.

……

Sometimes when I’m complaining about my crappy life, some kid at school will say, “What’s the big deal? Reenactments sound cool and it’s got to be better than sitting at home all weekend.”

Wrong! Sitting at home all weekend rocks compared to going to a reenactment.

Think about all the things that are good in life: DVDs, TV, PlayStation, Dr. Pepper, ice cream, French fries, YouTube and MySpace, Taco Bell, comfortable chairs, sleeping late, mattresses, Reeses Puffs cereal, Lego robots, Japanese comic books and clothing that doesn’t itch like holy heck.

None of those had been invented yet when the Civil War happened. Or even if they had you couldn’t get them while fighting the Civil War. So that’s why you can’t have them at a reenactment.

Yes, he’s got a bad attitude … but it’s nothing a little time in the real Civil War can’t fix!

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