Once again, as in "My Brother Sam Is Dead" and "Jump Ship to Freedom," the brothers James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier place an ordinary fictional character smack in the center of an extraordinary historical event. [In "War Comes to Willy Freeman"] they weave a compelling drama that allows readers to experience the plight of blacks during the Revolutionary War….

"War Comes to Willy Freeman" makes the historical setting seem remarkably immediate. An afterword called "How Much of This Story Is True?" places the tale in a historical perspective that confirms its credibility. The facts are all here, and the authors' fictional interpretation is evocative and believable.

Marilyn Kaye, in a review of "War Comes to Willy Freeman," in The New York Times Book Review, May 8, 1983, p. 37.