It is 1620, and fourteen year old Dickon Whitcomb and his thirteen year old sister Patience have been living in Leyden, Holland, since moving there from England with their parents eight years previously. However, the Whitcombs return to England because Mr. and Mrs. Whitcomb are to sail with the Pilgrims on the Speedwell to the New World, while the children are to be left in England with their grandparents because of the danger. The brother and sister do not want to stay behind. Fortunately for them, there is a series of mishaps which cause the parents finally to decide to take Dickon and Patience with them on the Mayflower. 

We Were There With the Mayflower Pilgrims is Volume #7 of the “We Were There” Books, a series of excellent historical novels that were written for children. The original set consisted of 36 titles, first released between 1955 and 1963 by Grosset and Dunlap. This book is a fictional retelling of the coming of our Pilgrim forefathers. The Whitcomb family is fictitious, but all the other characters mentioned and most of the events described are historically accurate. These books typify the wonderfully well-written, attention-catching kind of historical fiction with exciting stories which young people devoured and by which they absorbed history in previous generations. It is too bad that such things are not as readily available today.