Liberty, Franklin, and Jefferson: The Birth of a Nation

Why I Wrote This Book

When I was six years old, I used to follow my grandfather into the bathroom at dawn to keep him company while he got ready for the day. As he shaved, he'd have me recite the Pledge of Allegiance, the Boy Scout Oath, and the Preamble to the Declaration of Independence. Then he'd make breakfast and let me pick a book from the dining room table that we'd read together to start the morning. Those quiet mornings gave me a foundational love of country and a deep respect for our Founding Fathers.

When my own daughter turned three, I knew it was my turn to pass those lessons on. To my dismay, as I went looking for books that could teach her the timeless values my grandfather had given me — honor, integrity, dignity, loyalty, respect, and pride of country — through the heroic deeds of our Founding Fathers, I found the selection sorely lacking. The titles I remembered had been crowded out by less worthy options, and the ones still worth reading were scarce.

So I wrote the book I couldn't find. My intention was simple: to give parents a tool — a bedtime story — that instills in their children the virtues of integrity, courage, honor, and leadership through the deeds of America's Founding Fathers, and gives them a foundation of national pride. An understanding of who we are as Americans, what we believe in, and what is worth fighting for: the greatest country on Earth, the United States of America.

Freedom was never free — and it endures only when each new generation chooses to guard it.

In the story, three friends gather a circle of young animals beneath an old oak and walk them through how our nation came to be — the stand against a distant king, the brave souls who refused to back down, the writing of the Declaration, and the birth of a republic built on law and liberty. Meet the three who tell the tale:

Whether it becomes part of your bedtime routine or a lesson in your homeschool day, my hope is that it sparks the same kind of conversations my grandfather started with me — about who we are, the Founders who made it all possible, and why this country is worth loving and protecting for generations to come.