Ruffles and Drums

by Betty Cavanna

During the year following the April, 1775, American-British skirmish at Concord's North Bridge, sixteen-year-old Sarah Devotion Kent learns the necessary lessons of war and womanhood

Genres: Young Adult, Historical Fiction, Historical, Fiction

222 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1975

About the author

American juvenile author (full name: Elizabeth Allen) Betty Cavanna suffered from a crippling disease, infantile paralysis, as a child, which she eventually overcame with treatment and exercise. During her convalescence, attentive adults read to her until she was old enough to read to herself, beginning a long love affair with books.

Cavanna majored in journalism at the New Jersey College for Women in New Brunswick, from where she received the Bachelor of Letters degree in 1929. She also took art classes in New York and Philadelphia. Cavanna's first job was as a reporter for the Bayonne Times. In 1931 she joined the staff of the Westminster Press in Philadelphia and over the next ten years served as advertising manager and art director. She also wrote and sold material to Methodist and Baptist publishing firms. In 1940 she married Edward Talman Headley, with whom she had a son. They moved to Philadelphia. After her husband's death, she married George Russell Harrison, a university dean of science, as well as nonfiction writer, in 1957. He died in 1979.

Cavanna became a full-time writer in 1941. Since then she has written more than seventy books under the name of Betty Cavanna as well as two pseudonyms: Betsy Allen, under which she wrote the "Connie Blair Mystery" series, and Elizabeth Headley, under which she wrote several books, including the Diane stories. As Betty Cavanna she also published the nonfiction "Around the World Today" about young people living in various countries.

Cavanna's juvenile fiction, about the difficulties of adolescenc, appealed to generations of teenage girls. Her characters confronted loneliness, sibling rivalries, divorce, and tense mother-daughter relationships. Her books, although characterized as pleasant, conventional, and stereotyped, have been extremely popular and recommended by critics for their attention to subjects which have reflected girls' interests. Going on Sixteen and Secret Passage were Spring Book Festival honor books in 1946 and 1947.

In the 1970s Cavanna turned to writing mysteries, which she termed "escape fiction," because she said she felt out of sync with the problems of modern teenagers. Two of her books have been runners-up for the Edgar Allan Poe Award: Spice Island Mystery in 1970 and the Ghost of Ballyhooly in 1972.

She died in France (2001).

Reviews

[Carolynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the flurry of excitement and terror of the start of the Revolutionary War, Sarah Devotion promises to marry her neighbor and childhood friend Tom, but the intelligence, sensitivity, and good humor of the captured British soldier who is recovering in her home make her question her decision. Against the backdrop of Revolutionary Concord, Massachusetts, Cavanna has written a competent historical novel that is considerably more substantive than most of her teenage romance novels.
This oldie is worth finding.

[Jeanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

We just loved this when I read it in 1991 to Amber and Jasmyn. I found it and read it again to Heather and Giselle in 2004 and it was pretty sappy.Did we really get too sophisticated for a sweet Revolutionary love story in so short a time or did I just have a shortage of good books on that subject?

[Krista Stevens · Rating 3 out of 5]

Recommended by Amanda. Predictable love story wrapped in the package of the Revolutionary War in+ 1885 outside of Boston. Good details about life in this time. Set in Concord (Andover is mentioned once on page 140). Strong message about the danger of being caught up in the "romantic"-ness of men leaving for war and women "promising" to wait for them. Sarah Devotion is feisty and chafes against having to stay home, but stay home she mostly does. And stamp her foot in frustration. Especially at the wounded British officer who ends up being nursed by Sarah and her mother.

[Misti · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book as a teenager. I re-read it again as an adult and I still like it but I'm not sure if it has more to do with the nostalgia factor or not. Still, it's a fun book about a girl trying to make it through the revolutionary war with her family as they end up with a wounded enemy soldier in their home.

[Regine Theodat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although this book isn't the most notable book written this last century, it is my all time favorite book. I read it in the 4th grade, and it was the first historical fiction book I ever read and it kicked off my love of this genre.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was given to me when I was young, and I remember enjoying it. I read it to my 9 year old, and he enjoyed it too. I was impressed with the amount of revolutionary history it contained. I didn't realize ruffles had to do with drums as well as dresses.

[Deb · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read all of the Betty Cavanna books I could find in the 1970's.

[Patriot · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVED this book, it's a lot of fun! But it hold a lot of drama too!

[Kelsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is a quick romance novel set in the Revolutionary War. It's cute and fun! I recommend it to anyone who likes historical romance novels.

[Bookworm · Rating 3 out of 5]

A simple story about an impulsive, headstrong girl growing up quicker during the Revolution.
Few places of annoyance-mostly, the fact that the family seemed a bit dysfunctional in their relationship with each other, (everyone just assumes the brother is ok in New York-at least, they think he's there and not dead. ) and it ended quickly without wrapping up what happened to her brother and the girl who loved him, or the family's outcome after the war. In fact, it seemed more like the entire story was written just to talk about the girl and the two boys-without really caring about the war.
I liked James a lot. And her mother, and Mary, and Obadiah the dog. I even liked Tom. I feel like we should have gotten a little more at the end.

[Sunni · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book absolutely wonderful. A work of historical fiction that brings the characters to life, and makes them real.

Sarah is 16 and living with her family in Concord during the revolutionary war. Her brother and father are off fighting the war, when the war comes too close to home for Sarah's comfort. A British soldier named James is wounded, and despite Sarah protests her mother takes him in and nurses him back to health. After some time the soldier gets better, and Sarah realizes that it isn't hate she feels for him.
This is a wonderful story, and one that is very believable. This is a definite must read for all ages.

[Emmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this in middle school and have been searching for a copy since to see if it measured up to my memories. At age 30, it's still an engaging teen historical romance though a somewhat contrived one. Still, I appreciate that Cavanna doesn't just center the story on what boy our heroine will ultimately choose; it's more about a young woman coming of age during the American Revolution through the lens of Second Wave Feminism. The characters and chemistry is developed at a good pace, and there are just enough real facts about the events of 1775-76 to make it feel grounded in reality. A fun read.

[Chrisangel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a pretty good story (and the Rev War days are one of my fav time periods), though Sara Devotion could get on my nerves a bit at times. Ms. Cavanna gives her readers the HEA she knew they wanted, though I have a feeling that had this all happened in real life, the outcome would have been different.

Not a bad way to kill some time on a lazy day.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think that I was never convinced that I was in Revolutionary times; the dialogue was more evocative of Cavanna's era, more modern. The plot was predictable, and I just didn't enjoy it as much as most of her other books I've read.

[Julie Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

A cute story about an American girl who falls in love with a British soldier during the Anerican revolution. Fun read, I curled up and read it through in one day.

[Bethany (CozyLittleBookNook) · Rating 4 out of 5]

this was so fun. Stories like this always get me and always will, they just don't make story's like this anymore. I will be reading and rereading this book. and some day my kids will do the same.