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The Revolutionary War is won, but for Massachusetts shipbuilder Nicholas Drury, the real battle has just begun. The docks sit empty, the economy in ruins, and no one wants ships anymore. Yet Nicholas cannot stop building, it is in his blood, in his hands, in the very identity passed down through generations of Drury men. When a wealthy merchant offers a contract that could save everything, it comes with a price Nicholas may not be willing to pay. Cornelia Meigs renders 18th-century America with the tactile precision of someone who understands craft: you will smell the tar and oak, feel the strain of hauling timber, hear the arguments in town meetings where futures are decided. This is not a nostalgic portrait of a young nation but a hard-eyed reckoning with what it costs to believe in something when the world has moved on. A Newbery Honor winner that understands perseverance is not the absence of doubt but the decision to keep working anyway.