This book is a 2006 Cybil Award Nominee for YA Fiction.
Eighteen-year-old Lorenzo Bannister is a doctor working in New Orleans with happiness just within reach. Secure in his friendship with Spanish Colonel De Gálvez, and with his wedding just days away, Lorenzo has resigned his commission from the Continental Army, and hopes to live in peace as a civilian. However, war is still on the horizon, and once again fate intervenes to squelch his happiness. His bride-to-be, Eugenie , vanishes, and a hurricane wreaks destruction on the great city of New Orleans. As the waters recede, Lorenzo finds that not only is his home destroyed, but Eugenie has been seen in the company of a British man in Baton Rouge. Could she be a turncoat, a spy for the British cause? Lorenzo has to find out. Reluctantly, he joins the Army… just in time for them to attack the British all over again.
A chance to discover the Latin American flavor of American History, Lila and Rick Guzmán’s Lorenzo Bannister series is an engaging narrative aimed at depicting the cultural diversity of America, from its roots up. Instead of feeling like a social studies book, Lorenzo and the Turncoat reads like an adventure with myriad characters and descriptions of locations that spring to life. This series would be a great companion to any classroom study of the Revolutionary War and its causes.
