Joining the Boston Tea Party

Joining the Boston Tea Party (The Time-Traveling Twins)is part of the Time Traveling Twins series.

I liked the book because it provides picture book readers with a fantasy connection to history that the Magic Treehouse series provide to chapter book readers. The concept is much simpler, but the readers are younger. Grandma has a magic hat that allows the children and Grandma to travel to historic time periods. In this book, the children arrive in Boston and actually participate in the Boston Tea Party.

Two criticisms I have read of the book are that the brother calls his sister a dummy and that the children don't tell their grandmother they are going to the Tea Party with a relative because they believe their Grandmother would not let them go. I certainly don't approve of children calling each other names. However, having four brothers this struck me as fairly realistic behavior between brothers and sisters. I must say sometimes that the relationships between book brothers and sisters seem overly pleasant to be believable. As with all things, parents can choose how to address this issue. Some will choose to censor the book; others may use it as a teachable moment, asking their children if it is OK for him to say that to his sister. I think the second is likely to be more effective.

The second criticism is the children defying Grandmother. Again, this struck me as realistic. Given a chance to head off with a historical figure and experience the Boston Tea Party as a child, I too would not have told my Grandmother and risked her anger later. As a child, I would not have processed or thought through the dangers involved in this activity. Ultimately, experience and my parents’ interventions got through to me and I learned about cause and effect, dangerous choices, and consequences. That is what makes this moment in the book a teachable one. What a great time to discuss the risks and dangers that the children did not think about and why talking with their Grandmother would have been the right choice. I think it is important to try to put a little reality into children's books. If we only ever write a cleansed version where children are all well behaved, do the right thing, and never defy authority, it is hard to teach kids the reasons why we want them to behave.

One of the reasons I like this book for discussing the Boston Tea Party is that it makes the topic approachable for young readers. The issues of the tension in Boston, the tax on tea, and the disguises used by the Sons of Liberty are all addressed in age appropriate terms. The cartoon illustrations and the thought bubbles will grab children’s attention as they read the text that provides most of the factual information about the topic.

I picked up the three titles in this series for a younger relative's birthday. I love finding picture books that are accurate, make American history approachable and fun.

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 Story of Jamestown

It's book sharing Monday at Canadian Home Learning.

We were asked for specific quotes for the Monday book sharing, but the format of this book did not lead to amazing quotes. The artwork and the word bubbles blended to create a surprisingly accurate account of the history of what would become Virginia. I tried to go back and update this with specific quotes, but it really is not any specific quote that makes the book. What makes this book worthy of mention is the format that brings history to life in a different way than most kids see it in traditional textbooks.


I am always on the lookout for accurate and interesting history books for children. I ran across a listing for The Story of Jamestown (Graphic History)and realized it was part of a series of graphic histories for children. I decided to start with Jamestown because I have not found lots of quality literature for children on the topic. The topic is generally tucked into a history book chapter that often lacks accuracy and interest leaving children uniformed about the topic.

I was pleased with this choice and have several others checked out to preview before making a purchase. The material was presented in graphic novel format focusing on content and storytelling so the reader is engaged in learning more about the material. The formatting makes the book appropriate for young readers or older readers who may need material at a more accessible reading level.

Some of the strengths of this book are that it presented the challenges the colonists faced, was honest about their relations with the Natives, and it foreshadows the challenges that are coming as the colonial population expands into Native territories regardless of treaties and promises that have been made. It explains why tobacco becomes a major product of Virginia and the introduction of slavery into the Virginia colony. It also talks about how government evolved in Virginia as the colonists struggled with adapting to life in an environment they were not prepared to handle. I was pleased to see these issues addressed in a manner children could understand and process.

It is nice to see a book for a child that focuses on the history of the colony. I have read far too many accounts of the love story of Pocahontas that teach children little about the formation of Virginia. I am looking forward to previewing more books in this series.

Samuel Eaton's Day

Samuel Eaton's Day: A Day in the Life of a Pilgrim Boyis the second of Kate Water's books I borrowed to review. While it is too late for this year's Thanksgiving purchases, I am always trying to find new books to put on the list. You never know what you might find at sales during the year before I place next year's order.

As with Sarah Morton's Day: A Day in the Life of a Pilgrim Girl the story uses the real life of a Pilgrim boy as interpreted at Plimoth Plantation to create a picture book for children.

Like Sarah, Samuel has also lost a parent, in his case his mother. He is approaching his first rye harvest with the hope that he can demonstrate his worthiness to be allowed more adult tasks and responsibilities. The two characters meet and greet each other in the book and the books share a similar format. Children are introduced to Samuel's clothing, his chores, and his family life. According to the author's notes, the child that portrayed Samuel in this book was not an interpreter at Plimoth Plantation, although his mother was at the time the book was written in the late 1980's.

I have to reserve the last two books in the series from the library to refresh my memory about them. However, the first two have convinced me to put them on my list of books to acquire.

Sarah Morton's Day A Day in the Life of a Pilgrim Girl

I first came across Sarah Morton's Day: A Day in the Life of a Pilgrim Girl while on a field trip to Plimouth Plantation. The book uses one of the interpreters and the location shots for the illustrations of the story.

While not a new story, the original book was published in 1989, this book retains the ability to introduce children to life in Plimoth Plantation. For students who will be visiting on a field trip or those too far away to ever go, this series of books is a wonderful way to visit through the real life stories being retold by children working as interpreters at the historic site. This story focuses on the real life of Sarah Morton who lives with her Mother and Stepfather. The pictures are taken at Plimoth Plantation using a historical interpreter who works at the site to tell her story.

While the book is often marketed to younger audiences because it is a picture book, the pictures actually do make it valuable for upper elementary students as well. While the story is not complicated it provides valuable information about living conditions, the way children lived, and visual information from the recreations at Plimouth Plantation not always used in other resources for children about this period. One basic issue this book addresses is the stereotypes about the clothing the Pilgrims wore. Plimoth Plantation has done a great deal of work to dispel the myths of the Thanksgiving Pilgrims found on all our decorations. The colored photographs in this book that show children and adults in multi-colored costumes without a buckled hat among them can go even further to help children understand the difference between the myths and facts about the Pilgrims.

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.