Billy and the Rebel ─ Based on a True Civil War Story

This story is based on the life of Billy Bayly, a real boy who lived in Pennsylvania during the Civil War and had an unlikely friendship with a Southern soldier.

Ready-to-Read books offer children a world of possibilities at four different reading levels:

Pre-Level 1 Recognizing Words

? Word repetition

? Familiar words and phrases

? Simple sentences

Level 1 Starting to Read

? Simple stories

? Increased vocabulary

? Longer sentences

Level 2 Reading Independently

? More-complex stories

? Varied sentence structure

? Paragraphs and short chapters

Level 3 Reading Proficiently

? Rich vocabulary

? More-challenging stories

? Longer chapters

Deborah Hopkinson is the author of numerous award-winning children's books, including Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt, winner of the International Reading Association Award, Girl Wonder, winner of the Great Lakes Book Award, and Apples to Oregon, a Junior Library Guild Selection. She received the 2003 Washington State Book Award for Under the Quilt for the Night. She lives in Oregon. Visit her on the Web at www.deborahhopkinson.com.

Brian Floca is the author and illustrator of?Locomotive, winner of the 2013 Caldecott Medal;?Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11, a Robert F. Sibert Honor Book and a New York Times Best Illustrated Book;?Lightship, also a Sibert Honor Book; and?Racecar Alphabet, an ALA Notable Children’s Book. He has illustrated Avi’s Poppy Stories, Kate Messner’s Marty McGuire novels, and Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan’s?Ballet for Martha: Making Appalachian Spring, a Sibert Honor Book and winner of the Orbis Pictus Award. You can visit him online at BrianFloca.com.