RUSH: Here’s Jen in Pittsburgh. Hey, Jen, great to have you on the EIB Network. Hello.

CALLER: Hello.

RUSH: Hi.

CALLER: Hi. I am calling because a couple of weeks ago I took a picture of my three girls at their Halloween parade at school, and they were dressed up as colonial girls. I sent it to your website, and then I got an e-mail saying they wanted my address. I was expecting a little card saying, you know, thanks for sending us your photo.

RUSH: Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. Wait just a minute here.

CALLER: Okay.

RUSH: So your three daughters — is it three or four?

CALLER: I have three little girls and a boy.

RUSH: So you’re three little girls dressed up as colonial girls and you sent that picture to the Rush Revere website?

CALLER: Yes.

RUSH: And the people there e-mailed you back and wanted your address because — and you thought we were gonna send you a card?

CALLER: Yes.

RUSH: Did you really think that’s all we were gonna do is send you a card?

CALLER: Well, I have four kids, so yes.

RUSH: (laughing) Okay, well, what did you end up getting?

CALLER: Well, oh, my goodness, we got a bear for each kid, a notebook which I think will be the biggest hit because my girls love writing stories, they like reading stories, so they —

RUSH: Now, wait a minute. Who’s on the cover of the notebook?

CALLER: I believe it’s Liberty.

RUSH: That’s exactly right. Liberty.

CALLER: Yeah.

RUSH: The favorite character of the books.

CALLER: Oh, absolutely.

RUSH: It’s a Liberty notebook, exactly right.

CALLER: Yes. And they got stickers and a bookmark, and the audio version of the new book, which they’re gonna be just — they’re gonna jump higher —

RUSH: Oh, you have not let them see this stuff yet?

CALLER: No, they’re not home from school yet. My son opened his.

RUSH: Oh, it just came today?

CALLER: It just came today.

RUSH: Oh, okay. Okay.

CALLER: Yeah. I wanted to call and say thank you, because I am a Rush Baby, and I’m raising four Rush Babies, and hopefully —

RUSH: God bless you.

CALLER: — it’ll carry on down the line.

RUSH: God bless you. It’s great to have people like you in the audience.

CALLER: Well, it’s great to have people like you teaching our kids stuff —

RUSH: Well, I know, I know, but it’s especially —

CALLER: My older daughter, she has a word search for fourth grade, for Thanksgiving, and she had to find all the Thanksgiving words. And she’s doing this at home, and she looks at me, and she said, “Mom, they’re missing the most important word.” I said, “Well, who?” And she says, “William Bradford.” She goes, “Well, what about Squanto?” And she’s going down all of these words that she remembers from your first book. And she said, “I think that’s a little more important than turkey.”

RUSH: (laughing)

CALLER: She would have never learned that at school. She learned that from you. So I’m just so grateful.

RUSH: Well, that’s an excellent point, too. When I was taught the original Thanksgiving story, it wasn’t as butchered as it is today, but the version I was taught was a variation of the Indians saved the Pilgrims. If it hadn’t been for the Indians, there wouldn’t have been any Pilgrims, wouldn’t have been able to live and wouldn’t have been any Thanksgiving. I was taught that version.

I was not taught it under the rubric of America sucks as it’s sometimes taught today. I wasn’t taught that under the rubric of racism, and I wasn’t taught that the Pilgrims took advantage of and conquered and mistreated the Indians. But 55 years ago, 53, I was taught same way you were. My point is, I didn’t learn about William Bradford for years. William Bradford wasn’t taught to me, either. I didn’t learn about it until my first book in the nineties when I wanted to do, for a whole host of reasons, a chapter on the real story of Thanksgiving. That’s when I first learned about Bradford in detail and actually read the journal and learned what the real lesson was.

There are a lot of adults — this is one of the things that I am discovering here with these children’s books, there are a lot of adults who are learning things in these Rush Revere children’s books that they weren’t taught, either. You should see some of the e-mail we’re getting, folks, from adults. This is the one thing I did not expect, and I don’t know why, but I didn’t. I didn’t expect a lot of adults to be reading these. I thought they would read them to their grandkids or kids, but I figured this is all stuff that adults knew.

I can’t tell you the number of adults who are writing, thanking us because they’re learning things about American history they didn’t know, and not just the first Pilgrims book, but all three of them. The most recent one being Rush Revere and the American Revolution. So the whole thing has been really gratifying, and that’s why, when we get e-mails from people like you and your kids sending in pictures like this, we’ve got all these Ted-Tea Bears that we have and we send ’em out, and we’re encouraging all kinds of interactivity at the Rush Revere Facebook page and at the Rush Revere website.

So you’re making our day, Jen, with this, and having your kids interact with us. You really are. I can’t thank you enough. And I’m so excited that they’re gonna be excited by the little gift pack that we put together for ’em. So thank you much for taking the time to call. Are you gonna give ’em to ’em today when they get home from school or are you gonna wait and give it to ’em for Christmas?

CALLER: Oh, my goodness, I have to give it to them today. It’s gonna kill me knowing that they’re here and they can’t see them. So absolutely they will get them today, and they will just be absolutely ecstatic.

RUSH: Well, if I must say so myself, the audio version of the book — I did the audio for all three, obviously — but this one is really good, this I have to say. You get better hopefully each time you do something.