RUSH: I am holding here now in my formerly nicotine-stained fingers the book, number two, ladies and gentlemen. We inside refer to it as book two. Rush Revere and the First Patriots is out. This is it. This is the day it’s available. And I just want to tell you, your kids are going to love it. If they liked book one, they are going to like book two.

Now, as you know — well, maybe you don’t know if you’re a new listener. These books are part of a mission. I’d done a couple of books in the early nineties, and since then people have been urging me, Vince Flynn, good friend, the late Vince Flynn, “Rush, you gotta do another one.” We were running into the 2012 election: “You’ve got to do another one.” I said, “Vince, I’ve been there, done that.”

Kathryn came to me and said, “You know what? You are very concerned about education in America and what’s happening, what’s not being taught, what’s being lied about. Why don’t you write the truth of American history for kids?” And that turned the light on. I mean, that was exciting on a number of levels. A, the purpose. But, B, the challenge. I’d never written children’s books before. I never even thought about doing it.

So we were off to the races. The first book came out last October, Rush Revere and the Brave Pilgrims, the true story of the first people seeking freedom arrive at the New World. That story has been so bastardized and taught wrong and purposely mistold. The mission is educating young people to the truth of this country because it’s a great country. The history of this country is wonderful. The history of this country is the blessing of God. The history of this country is something to be extremely proud of. Being an American is something to be extremely proud of.

There are too many people in the education system today who simply don’t look at America that way. They don’t look at America as anything special. In fact, some of them look at it as a problem in the world. There are certainly people who do not believe the founding of this country was as I believe, miraculous. I believe it was a miracle, and preserving it for people who will come after us is important. We were all born with golden opportunity and freedom just as our parents and grandparents had found. They fought, and they sacrificed, and many of them lost everything to preserve the basic foundations, the institutions, the traditions that define America and its greatness.

\We want to do the same. I want to do the same. I want to do what I can to see to it that people who follow me have the same opportunities that I had. So that’s the mission behind these books. These books are written for ages 10 to 13, but everybody will enjoy these books. Everybody that’s read them does. In fact, even adults who have read these books have told us that they are learning things they didn’t know about the Pilgrims and things that happened either before they set sail, while they were en route, and after they got here.

Now, there were always going to be two books. What we didn’t know and what we ultimately decided against was releasing both at the same time. It turns out that both were not ready at the same time, but there was the thought at the beginning it might be cool to have two of them out at the same time at Christmas. And then we said, “Nah,” because we don’t want to rush — no pun intended — the second book.

Now, the reaction, every metric that’s used to measure feedback on a book for the first book has just been over the top and gratifying like I can’t tell you. So the second book, I mean, this is hard to say, because I don’t want to do anything at all to diminish book one, but every time you do something, you want the next time you do it to be better. Just like I want this radio show to be better each day, each month, each year than it used to be. Ditto with the second book, Rush Revere and the First Patriots.

Now, the organizing event in this book is the Boston Tea Party. However, there’s much more to it than just that. Introductions to famous, key figures in American history. Let me give you the premise, for those of you new, ’cause I want everybody to clean out these bookstores today. I want you to get out there. I want you to make Amazon run dry. I want you to — Barnes & Noble and Books-A-Million, all over — just wipe ’em out: No stock left after today. People need to read this stuff, folks, if I do say so myself. Kids need to see this. They need to read it, and I guarantee you they’re gonna love it. It’s maybe the first time in their lives that history is something they want to absorb, that they want to learn. That’s the feedback we got from the first book. They love it. You’ve heard them.

So here’s the premise. Rush Revere is our logo icon for the best iced tea in America, TwoIfByTea.com, which, by the way, is where the Adventures of Rush Revere and everything related to the books is found, TwoIfByTea.com. So Rush Revere, even though we work him hard as a spokesman, as an icon for Two If By Tea, is also a substitute teacher, substitute history teacher. He has a horse named Liberty. It’s a special horse. The horse talks. The horse is kind of a smart aleck. Our young readers’ favorite character is the horse. Liberty also has the ability to time travel anywhere that American history could take someone, including Holland, including England.

Rush Revere is able to take students, a few students, with them on their time travels. And Rush Revere — is this not a brilliant concept or what, folks? I mean, this kind of a vehicle provides creative opportunities galore. Rush Revere is able to take his smartphone, a built-in video camera, with him as they time travel back to American history. They’re able to videotape what actually happened, bring it back to the classroom, and without giving away that they time travel. The whole class doesn’t know this, just a select few know it. And it’s the mixing of the secret of the time travel with two or three, four students involved, everybody keeping it a secret and yet the truth of American history being taught in a genuinely fun, truthful, informative way.

I’ll give you a couple things about the second book that we’ve done here that were not in the first book. Well, actually, one. And this was fun. Wherever you go in life there are nonbelievers. In whatever you’re doing, wherever you go, there are the snarky. Wherever you go are the troublemakers. Wherever you go are the ego-maniacal, self-centered creeps.

We put one in this book. We created, among the students, a villain who attempts to expose it all, and undermine and sabotage good old Rush Revere and Liberty and the students. That’s as much as I will say, but I’m gonna predict that young readers will end up having vastly different emotional reactions to this character. Another thing (and I’ve mentioned this before): Remember, the mission is to teach.

By the way, let me say that you will not see the word “conservative” or “liberal” or “politics” here. It’s much more subtle than that. Simply teach the truth. Simply inform accurately. Simply use common sense. One of the things I try to do in these books is constantly harp on freedom as something as important in life as anything is, material or otherwise.

Freedom is a constant, never-ending theme and how fragile it is and how precious it is and how rare it has been for most living human beings in world history. The books attempt to explain all of that in an understandable way to 10- to 13-year-olds and to give voice to oppressors, but not calling them that. Just let it be figured out and assumed. So one of the key elements or parts of this book is when Rush Revere and Liberty time travel back to England.

Revere ends up in George III’s palace and ends up giving him all kinds of crap for what he’s doing to the colonists. In this little part of the book, the personality of a totalitarian — the meanness of a dictator — is all on display for anybody who reads it to conclude, without the king ever being called a liberal or a communist or any such thing. It’s just an inescapable conclusion. That’s the way we employ the art of persuasion here.

So there are a lot of elements, because the mission is something we’re deadly serious about. Look at what’s happening in New York with this idiot mayor. Kathryn and I were watching the news last night to try to get the latest on this plane crash in Malaysia, which nobody can get their arms around. We were watching Fox News, and there was a story about how liberals in New York are mad as hell at the new mayor and what he’s doing in charter schools.

I looked at Kathryn and said, “I don’t understand. I really don’t. You elect a communist; you get a communist. Why are they mad?” Did they not know? I mean the guy’s wife is a Sandinista. He honeymooned in the communist paradise of Nicaragua with the Sandinistas presiding! The guy is a socialist-communist. He wants to get rid of the horses in Central Park. Even Liam Neeson, the actor, is defending the horses and trying to save them.

But the story said all the liberal Democrats like the charter schools, and why does he want to get rid of the charter schools? (sniveling voice) “‘Cause it isn’t fair that some students would have better schools than others,” and he’s gotta pay his price to the unions for helping him get elected and they preside over the bad schools. But the real truth is, “It’s just not fair for people to have better schools than others. If everybody can’t have a good school, nobody can.”

So rather than try to find a way to expand the number of charter schools or to improve education in New York, this guy is dumbing it down to mediocrity for everybody under the name of egalitarianism, fairness and equality and all that. The guy was elected by people that think this way, yet he’s employing it now — doing everything they knew he was gonna do — and they’re mad about it.

But that’s a great illustration of why doing these books was such an exciting prospect for me. To counter that kind of thing… Everybody does what they can. I do this radio show 15 hours a week. But I had a friend who worked for the Kansas City Royals, groundskeeper George Toma, and I was at one of the Super Bowls in Atlanta. I guess it was the Cowboys and Bills.

I’m up in the press box before the game and Toma is on his hands and knees on the sideline, walking around on his hands and knees. Now, from that distance, I thought, “What’s going on here?” I went down to the pregame before the game and I ran into George. I hadn’t seen him in a while, since my days at the Royals. I said, “What are you doing, crawling around on the field and the sideline?”

He had all kinds of Velcro and tape on his hands and knees and elbows, and he was getting up lint. It was artificial surface, the old Astroturf stuff, and he said, “This is the Super Bowl. This is THE game. This is the biggest audience. I’m getting this field in as great a shape as I can.” He said, “You know me. My philosophy is: Always do everything you can, and then a little more.”

Well, that’s what Rush Revere and the Brave Pilgrims is. I do the radio show 15 hours a week, but, let’s face it: 10- to 13-year-olds are not gonna listen on their own, unless their parents have the radio on. They’re starting to now, by the way, because of the Rush Revere series. Now they’re starting to. But the odds are they’re not gonna do it on their own. So how do I reach them?

Look, I love very much what I do here. I’m very proud of what I do, proud of what I’ve become, and I’m really proud of being an American and proud of what I believe. How to get it to ’em? Bingo! Rush Revere and the First Patriots, the second book. Today’s the first day that it’s available. The pre-order has been around for a month or so, but it’s now actually in stores.

You can get it delivered tomorrow if you buy it any online place: iBooks, Amazon, Books-A-Million, Barnes & Noble, any number of places. There’s an audio version. We just happen to have that. It’s not abridged. It’s a full, every-word version of Rush Revere and the First Patriots, as read professionally by me. I’ve had people say, “You know, you didn’t have to do this. Do you realize what a risk this is?”

What do you mean, risk?

“Well, what if it didn’t work?”

Oh. I didn’t think of that. I don’t think of the negative. I guess it’s a risk. What if people don’t like it? I’ve never written a children’s book before. So, yeah, I guess there’s some risk involved, but it’s worth the effort, folks. I’m just really proud of it. I wish everybody could read it. We’ve donated, what, 15,000 copies of the first book so far to schools that can’t afford to buy them or whatever.

We’ve found those schools by virtue of students applying, submitting why their school should be the recipient of a complimentary supply of books, and we’ll do that with this one, too. But it’s out there now, and I just wanted to let you know. I’m just extremely proud of it. It really is good. It was fun to write. I can’t wait for people’s reaction to a number of things in this one. Your kids are gonna love it.

I guarantee you they’ll love it; you will, too. I guarantee you they’ll read it. Grandparents, parents, just clean ’em out today, folks,. Go out there in a massive national effort to sell it out on the first day and be done with it for El Rushbo. It’s Rush Revere and the First Patriots. Thanks for indulging me on this, but you know me: I love sharing my passions with you, and this happens to be one of my latest.