Historical fiction is often just fiction in a different time period, and sometimes incorrect. In Sophia’s War, Avi closely follows real life events and people to create an accurate story of revolutionary spying. The book takes place during the initial stages of the Revolution, and focuses on a young patriot girl recruited as a spy. Avi’s depiction of the war, including the coffee shop and revolutionary spying tactics were historically accurate in terms of events, people, and places.
The first example is that the King's Crown coffee shop was, in fact, a real and significant component of continental spying. In Sophia’s War, the King's Crown was an important meeting spot for the continental spies to leave and receive notes under false names. In the book, when Sophia is running an errand to the coffee shop, she recalls that it was, “Mr. Rivingtons establishment, the one that Mr. Townsend secretly owned with the Tory printer”(Avi 136). In actuality, Mr. Townsend did partner with Mr. Rivington to prove…show more content… In Sophia’s War, Avi describes many methods that the characters use to conceal and send messages. One of these methods were leaving messages under false names. An instance of this in the book was after Sophia gained an important piece of knowledge. She, “slipped a message under the door of the Kings Crown, saying that [she] must speak with “Culper”(Avi 175). To avoid identities from getting exposed, Sophia used a name that wasn't recognizable to the public. To elaborate on this, spies of the revolution actually did use cover names. They were only known by their cover names to create a valuable alias that could save their lives if caught. An informational source states that, “Culper Jr. was Robert Townsend”, the person Sophia addressed in her letter. ( Allen 53) This verifies that Avi is using accurate facts because Sophia did address that letter to Culper, really meaning
