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Writing is Like Sculpting
The Summer of ’76 follows a young girl as a secret time machine sends her from Bicentennial-era Massachusetts into the American Revolution, where she must protect her family’s farm and uncover its buried legacy. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
I began this story remembering an abandoned shed hidden in the woods behind my childhood home in Massachusetts. My friends and I used to imagine who lived there and why. While I was writing, the words of Longfellow’s poem, “Paul Revere’s Ride”, played in my head. I learned it when I was Betsy’s age and am still in awe of the brave people Longfellow memorialized. I knew I had to pay them tribute.
How did you balance the novel’s time-travel adventure with its more emotional story about family, healing, and legacy?
Reading each chapter out loud helped me think like a reader. I also asked for feedback from other authors I trust and respect. Writing is like sculpting. Little by little, I removed details that didn’t move the plot forward and added others that did until I knew I was done.
Betsy feels curious, impulsive, funny, and authentically twelve. How did you develop her narrative voice?
I was Betsy’s age in 1976. It was a more innocent time, which is why I picked it. I relied on my inner child to craft her point of view. Betsy comes to believe we can each make a difference, as do I.
What kind of historical research did you conduct to make Colonial life accessible and engaging for middle-grade readers?
I researched everything! The topics included the American Revolutionary War, life in Colonial Massachusetts, the Massachusett people, and the battles of Lexington and Concord. I visited Revolutionary landmarks in both towns and spoke with a number of people to get the details right.
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Twelve-year-old Betsy Ross thought the worst thing about the summer of 1976 was missing camp and being stuck on her grandmother’s farm in Lexington, Massachusetts. Her father has suffered a devastating emotional breakdown, her family is on the verge of losing their New York apartment, and now Betsy is trapped cleaning horse stalls and breathing through the smell of manure.
But the Ross Family Farm has secrets.
Hidden beneath the barn is a mysterious cellar, a forbidden button, and a journey through history Betsy never meant to take. When greedy developers threaten the farm and corner Betsy and her new friend Nate underground, they make a desperate choice that sends them hurtling back in time-to April 19, 1775.
The day the Revolutionary War began.
Now Betsy and Nate must survive Colonial America, avoid suspicion, and uncover the truth about Betsy’s family legacy before history-and their own future-is changed forever. Along the way, Betsy begins to realize that healing her father’s broken spirit may depend on understanding the generations of Rosses who came before him.
Blending heart, humor, mystery, and adventure, The Summer of ’76 is a fast-paced middle-grade novel about courage, family, friendship, and discovering where you truly belong.
The Summer of ’76
Liz Bieler’s The Summer of ’76 is a lively middle-grade historical fiction novel that mixes a time-travel adventure, a family mystery, and a coming-of-age story. Twelve-year-old Betsy Ross arrives at her grandmother’s Lexington farm in the Bicentennial summer of 1976, worried about her father’s emotional breakdown and her family’s uncertain future. She soon discovers that the farm holds a secret time machine, and a confrontation with ruthless developers sends her and her new friend Nate into Revolutionary-era Massachusetts. The premise has plenty of momentum, but the personal stakes give the story its real pull.
Betsy is an engaging narrator because she’s curious, impulsive, funny, and convincingly twelve. Her observations about farm chores, crushes, adults, and Colonial life keep the voice conversational even when the plot grows dangerous. Her friendship with Nate develops naturally through shared work and increasingly risky adventures, while Granny Rose brings grit, humor, and a strong sense of duty to the family dynamic. The historical figures and settings are woven into Betsy’s experience, making this Revolutionary War fiction for kids feel accessible and energetic.
The novel’s strongest theme is legacy. The Ross Family Farm represents more than land or money. It carries a promise to feed the community, along with generations of choices, sacrifices, and unresolved family pain. Betsy begins the summer focused on finding a quick way to fix her father’s life, but her journey teaches her that healing can involve purpose, belonging, and reconnecting with the parts of oneself that have been buried. That emotional thread gives the middle-grade time-travel novel warmth beneath its mysteries, escapes, villains, and historical surprises.
The Fox brothers operate with broad, storybook villainy, and the plot packs in a lot of problems for Betsy to solve. Still, that larger-than-life energy suits the novel’s adventurous tone and keeps the pace moving. The ending brings the farm, Betsy’s father, her ancestry, and her growing confidence together in a satisfying way, with the final image offering a particularly fitting sign of continuity. The Summer of ’76 is an upbeat historical adventure for middle-grade readers that combines humor, suspense, family drama, early American history, and a thoughtful message about deciding which traditions are worth carrying forward.
Pages: 268 | ISBN: 099876518X
