RUSH: This Melinda, Lyndhurst, Virginia. Thank you for waiting. It’s great to have you on the program. Hello.
CALLER: Hi, Mr. Rush. It’s such an honor to talk to you.
RUSH: I appreciate that. Thank you.
CALLER: My three children and I just got back from the bookstore and got your brand-new book. And we just wanted to say thank you, we enjoy them so, so much.
RUSH: Thank you. Wait, you only bought one?
CALLER: Yeah, we bought one today, but we have all of them.
RUSH: I’m just kidding. I’m grateful beyond my ability to express. I really hope they like it.
CALLER: They absolutely love them. Matter of fact, my husband came home from lunch and we read a couple pages already. We have to read them together as a family because my husband and I enjoy them as much as the three children do.
RUSH: Well, you know, we hear from people this kind of story all the time, that there are some adults learning things they weren’t taught about American history as they read these books, and that’s been an added bonus. But, look, I’m so appreciative you went out and bought the book and then went to the trouble to call here and tell me about it. I can’t thank you enough.
CALLER: Can the children say hello to you?
RUSH: Sure, absolutely.
CALLER: Okay, here they go.
CHILD: Hi.
RUSH: Hi.
CHILD: Hi.
RUSH: What’s your name?
CHILD: Sterling.
RUSH: Marilyn, is it? Is that what you said?
CALLER: This is Sterling.
RUSH: Oh, Sterling. Sterling. Well, hi, Sterling. Well, look, I’m very happy you enjoy these books and I really hope you enjoy this new one ’cause we had so much fun writing it.
CHILD: Thank you.
RUSH: You’re welcome. Thank you very much. In fact, Melinda, are you back on the phone?
CALLER: Yes, sir, I’m here.
RUSH: How many kids did you say you have?
CALLER: I have three. I have two girls, 11 and nine, and I have a little boy that’s eight.
RUSH: Well, I mean, that’s right in the wheelhouse. I mean, that’s the target area that we’re aiming for. I’ll tell you what, I want you to stay on hold. I want to send the three of them — we’ve got this brand-new Liberty stuffed animal.
CALLER: Oh, my goodness.
RUSH: And by popular demand, the kids reading these books have been asking for one of these, and we’ve been testing them. We had many different designs and samples and we finally settled on one, and we have ’em. So if you hang on, Mr. Snerdley can get your address and we’ll get some stuff sent out to you and the kids as a token of appreciation. Thanks so much for calling and I really do hope you enjoy the book. As much fun as we have putting these books together, and they are, they’re crafted, they’re put together, it’s really gratifying to hear people like ’em. Just is.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Just a brief, brief, brief little self-indulgent reminder. This is opening day, this is release day for the fourth in the series of Rush Revere Time-Travel Adventures with Exceptional Americans series. It’s a series of children’s books on American history and the truth about it. This is Rush Revere and the Star-Spangled Banner, and it’s got some new directions from the other four books. There’s time travel back to the Constitution as it’s the written.
This is the great thing about these books, if I may say so, is that these great moments in American history are relived because of the time-travel capability of Liberty, the talking horse. Rush Revere, the substitute teacher, is able to take students back anywhere in American history. In this book they go back to the actual battle where our National Anthem, the Star-Spangled Banner was written. Francis Scott Key writes it and explains why, what moves him, the whole story behind it.
Stop and think for a second, the World Series is tonight. The National Anthem is gonna be played before the game, as it always is. It’s gonna be televised nationally. Everybody knows the words, but I wonder how many people, particularly young people, know the story behind the National Anthem, how it was written, why it was written, what it signifies. Really, I wonder how many people now, even including into adulthood, were actually taught the story versus had it glossed over or just highlighted or what have you.
But it’s something that’s part of our culture. It’s played before every seminal event, sports and otherwise, and it’s become almost just rote that people recite the song, cite the lyrics. But the real story behind it is another one of the amazing miracles of American history and the founding. They also go back to when the Constitution was written. James Madison, the father of the Constitution, students get to ask questions. He explains things at their life level, questions they would have in ways that they would understand what’s going on. Profound events are brought to life in these books and that’s how they’re learned and experienced by actually taking the reader and placing the reader at that moment in time.
The stories of the American founding are miraculous, a series of miracles that took place for this country to come into existence and a series of miracles that structured this country to give it staying power, if you will. Imagine a document written hundreds of years ago that still is the shining jewel of the world in terms of self-government. Timeless, despite the fact that there are Americans that don’t like it and want to get rid of it, all the more reason for young people today to understand it. That’s the task that we have undertaken, make it interesting, enlightening, fun, and real.
So the fourth book in the series, Rush Revere and the Star-Spangled Banner is on the shelf today. It’s been in pre-order for a month, but now you can actually go in there and get it. And you know what I’m gonna do? I keep referencing these e-mails that we get from people, some of the pictures that they send us. I’m gonna start reading these just now and then. I’m not gonna overwhelm you with it, but it’s amazing the degree of involvement that people are having and the involvement their kids are having in American history reading what they heretofore had no interest in, so say their parents. It’s all been extremely rewarding, and if you don’t mind, folks, you know, I love sharing my passions, and I really do love sharing this experience with you, as I have most everything else that’s happened in the course of my life on this program.
So I just wanted to let you know that it’s out and it’s just something that we believe in totally, and the feedback that we get is more reward than we ever expected. So happy with the way things are working out with it. Rush Revere and the Star-Spangled Banner.