Paul Revere's Ride

Paul Revere's Ride (Graphic History)Paul Revere's Ride is another entry in the graphic history series appropriate for Patriot's Day.

Xaviar Niz does a fairly accurate job in presenting Revere's Ride. He only credits Revere with saying the British were out once, which Revere would never have said. He does give accurate credit to the multiple riders and the urgency to provide warnings to protect both the munitions the British Regulars were after and the people they were seeking to arrest.

The book loses focus after the colonists are warned. It provides a very confused accounting of the battles fought at Lexington and Concord. This was not as strong an addition to the series as some of the previous titles I have reviewed. However, considering how many inaccurate accounts of Revere's ride I have read, I think this one is worth reading because it does provide details not included in many of the other books available for children on this topic.

The Mystery of the Roanoke Colony

The Mystery of the Roanoke Colony is another history title in the Graphic Library series.

When I saw our local library had access to this title, I was anxious to review it. Since there is a mystery about what happened to the colonists who settled Roanoke, some textbooks provide extremely limited information on an important historical event and other books are filled with speculation and gossip. I am pleased to say this book focused on the facts and only at the end provided some logical explanations as to the possible outcomes of the colonists who stayed behind.

Having looked for resources that focused on the early settlements when I taught colonial history, I would have added this book. As with all books in this series, it picks it areas of focus. It skims over the purposes for the establishment for the colony, which did not bother me as that is an area I can find material that is age appropriate. This book focuses on the time line of the establishment of the colony, the relationship with the local native tribes that led to issues, and the wars and other factors that prevented the colony from being resupplied.

The book does gloss over some of the challenges between the Native populations and the colonists, but it does address that there were issues that led to conflicts. Considering the format, I was pleased to see that they raised the issue.

One very strong point I appreciated about this book is it emphasized the time involved. Since Roanoke is often given a paragraph to a page in textbooks, the timeline is often compressed such that children often do not understand the time involved. It often is presented as if the colonists land, there is some magic involved, and they disappear never to be seen again. This book does a good job in presenting the elapsed time between arrival and the realization by those who left the colony to resupply it that it was gone. Even if the people who left to resupply the colony returned as quickly as they could, there would have been a substantial amount of time for disasters to have occurred. However, due to weather, damaged ships, and war, Governor White was gone for three years before he could convince Sir Walter Raleigh to release ships for him to return to Roanoke to provide relief to his family and the other settlers. Sadly, when he returned he was unable to find his family and the mystery is still unsolved today.

Winter at Valley Forge

Winter at Valley Forge (Graphic History)is another book in the graphic library history series.

Matt Doeden does a quick introduction to the American Revolution and settles into explaining what happened to the colonial troops during the winter Washington spent camped at Valley Forge. His details and descriptions are age appropriate for elementary students to understand the hardships and challenges faced by the soldiers without exposing them to details that younger students are not prepared to handle.

He introduces Lafayette and Von Stueben to the reader with a brief introduction. The author presented more information than I have found in many children's text on these men. However, I am beginning to suspect this series has a text limit because there always seems to be an emphasis in one area that is well written and detailed. Then other areas seem to get a quick pass.

Told in graphic novel format, this is a way to engage students in reading about Washington's winter at Valley Forge. This book works differently than other books on the topic, since the focus in this book is on living conditions and survival during the winter at Valley Forge. I would include it with other resources to give students a broader picture of life during the American Revolution.

The Battle of Bunker Hill an Interactive History

There are not a number of books available on the Battle of Bunker Hill for children and The Battle of Bunker Hill: An Interactive History Adventure (You Choose Books) (You Choose: History)happens to be a good one. Students are not just presented with the dry, dull facts of the event. They are asked to participate in the event by taking on a role.

Like the previous books I have written about in the series, the book begins with an introduction to the events leading up to the Battle of Bunker Hill. Then readers are presented with three character options. They can be a colonial soldier, a British soldier, or a civilian watching events unfold. As the story unfolds, more choices are made and the reader can see how some choices have major consequences and how others still lead to similar outcomes based on events that individuals can't control.

Just a warning to parents, while death was addressed in the The Boston Massacre: An Interactive History Adventure (You Choose: History)title, this is the first book I have read in the series where two of the characters that a reader can choose to follow actually face that outcome depending on the choices selected. As with any book, I suggest you preview it and decide if how you want to approach the topic with your child.

Three Young Pilgrims

I have been previewing Pilgrim books to add to my Thanksgiving box and came across Three Young Pilgrimsthrough our library network. While this book may not make this year's purchase list, it will be on next year's list.

This picture book focuses on telling the story of the Pilgrim's journey to the New World and their life here through one family's experience. Bartholomew, Remember, and Mary Allerton arrive in Plymouth and face many challenges.

The best parts of this book are the beautiful illustrations and the maps that provide extra information that the prose does not. The maps add details and added specific information that does not quite fit into the family's story.

While this is written as a picture book, this could be a good teaching tool for older elementary students if approached in the right way. A discussion about the additional information, the illustrations, and the characters can make this a much-needed addition to many dry textbooks that are on the market. However, it is also a perfect match for the target audience of primary readers that generally study the Pilgrims.

I will be putting this on my search list for next year's Thanksgiving mailing.

The Revolutionary War An Interactive History

As I have mentioned in several previous blogs I have been trying to locate history books that present accurate, but interesting presentations of American history to children with the hope that they will actually engage in learning it.

The Revolutionary War: An Interactive History Adventure (You Choose: History) provides an interesting format for learning about the time period of the American Revolution. I thought the introduction was rushed. However, I did like the format of allowing children to choose a path and follow it through the story making choices and following those outcomes.

Three original paths are provided to the reader, the daughter of a colonial militia captain, a young Connecticut Patriot who chooses to fight, and a loyalist who sides with Great Britain.

The girl is presented with original choices of following her father to war to care for him or staying with her mother to care for the family. That original choice provides the next choices available to the reader. The young Connecticut Patriot must choose between joining the Continental Army or going to sea and becoming a privateer. The loyalist lives near Charleston, South Carolina. He is presented with the options of staying on his father's plantation or joining his Uncle's business in Charleston. Once the reader chooses the character to follow, additional choices are presented and the reader follows the path that these choices create.

Years ago, we tried to create these types of scenarios manually for history units and it was a great deal of work. I think this book would work wonderfully as an independent book for parents who want their children to understand the different perspectives and choices people made during the Revolution. I think homeschooling parents would also find it an asset for their educational purposes. However, I also think this book has specific applications in the classroom or group setting. This book would be a great choice for a cross unit literature circle. It would make a great gateway to discussing cause and effect, choices and consequences of choices. Children could meet in-group with students that represented all three paths and meet with students from their own paths to discuss the various choices and consequences.

This is not a book that will teach children important dates and times. However, it does add a layer of perspective that is often lacking in the books that do teach those concepts. This helps kids to look at how people approached the event from an individual life experience, not a homogenous group. History books often group people without teaching children that even in groups of people those people are individuals, not identical clones.

After previewing the library copy, this book made it to my Christmas giving list for this year.

The Dreadful, Smelly, Colonies

I came across the Fact Finders Disgusting History series and decided to preview The Dreadful, Smelly Colonies: The Disgusting Details About Life in Colonial America (Disgusting History)prior to purchasing it. It sounded like it would be similar to the You Wouldn't Want series in providing an entertaining but informative look at American history for children. However, I have bought on impulse and been disappointed with the outcomes. This would have been a good impulse purchase.

Unlike the You Wouldn't Want series, this book uses more realistic drawings and photographs to illustrate the topic. While the title is designed to be shocking, the information is accurate and factual. The first section of the book discusses the shelters that were built when settlers arrived in the various areas of the country and why those shelters were chosen. The author discusses topics like disease, insects in your food, and the building of privies for bathrooms.

The book also addresses indentured servants and the fact that slaves originally could purchase their freedom until laws were changed that took away that possibility. This is an area not often discussed in history texts for children, which made it an interesting choice to add to my purchases for Christmas.

Challenges with diseases, travel, and the relationship with Native populations are not ignored in this book. For a short book that could pass as a picture book from the outside, it covers a good deal of historical information in an appealing format for children. While I passed on it when purchasing some other books, I will be adding this to my list of Colonial History books to pick up for Christmas.