Have you every heard of Christopher Ludwick, the real world German immigrant who aided the American colonist army by volunteering to bake and cook? I must confess that I had never heard of this forgotten hero until I found this wonderfully cheerful book, Gingerbread for Freedom by Mara Rockliff with pictures by Vincent X. Kirsch. When the American colonists were struggling to defeat the British in the Revolutionary War, Ludwick tells his wife that he is going to close his bakery and enlist in the war effort. His wife laughs at him and reminds him that he is old and out of shape, surely of no use to the soldiers. He goes anyway. When he gets to the front lines, he sees that the soldiers are starving with no quality food to eat. Instead of pick up a musket, he picks up his oven mitts and works night and day to feed the troops. Ludwick wasn't just a war hero. He was also beloved in Philadelphia for his kindness to the poor and needy. To this day, the Christopher Ludwick Foundation gives hundreds of thousands of dollars to underprivileged children in Philadelphia each year. This is just a feel good story that would be great for some Fourth of July reading.