Secrets of American History World War II Secret Agents! Sharks! Ghost Armies!

Secret Agents! Sharks! Ghost Armies!: World War II (Secrets of American History)is a Level 3 Ready to Read non-fiction book.

I am always pleased to see authors taking on the challenge of providing accurate age appropriate history books for children. Ready to Read has developed the Secrets of American History series to address this need. This is the first one I've encountered and I was interested to review it.

The leveled reader format is always a limiting one, as it forces the author to control the reading level, vocabulary, and format of the material. With that in mind this book was strongest when it focused on limited topics. The introduction to the war was weak as it was hard to explain within the limits of a leveled reader format. However, the sections that explained the attempts at shark repellent and the Ghost Army were strong. I recently read an adult book about the Ghost Army, I haven't seen much in children's lit that addresses this so I found the information presented here quite interesting and it was written in an age appropriate manner that students could understand.

The section on the female spy Virginia Hall was strong because it took the limited time it had to focus on one spy instead of spying as a general topic. It also addressed a topic not generally found in children's literature women in World War II, which makes it a unique resource for World War II literature for children.

Sadly, the book ends on a weaker note going off topic with a page about sharks and then trying to move back on topic about with two more short biographies of Josephine Baker and Roald Dahl's spying during the war. If I'd been an editor I'd have left out the sharks and increased the information on Baker and Dahl, which was relevant and interesting.

While I think the series could be improved with some editing, I am pleased to see a move towards more non-fiction leveled readers. It gives children access to material written at levels they can read. I do think with editing these books can get better and be an even better resource for educating children about a variety of non-fiction material.

Fly Guy Presents Castles

Fly Guy Presents: Castles (Scholastic Reader, Level 2)covered quite a bit more material than I'd expected. I'd been pleasantly surprised when I reviewed Fly Guy Presents: The White House (Scholastic Reader, Level 2)to find it was a well researched book that despite its short leveled reader format managed to provide a rather detailed description of the White House.

I came to the Castle book hoping for a similar treatment of the topic and wasn't disappointed. Castles is again a Level 2 Reader and it while the narrator is clearly fictional the information is actually quality non-fiction material for early readers. As I said in my previous review of the White House book, while this is a leveled reader, I do think most kids would benefit from either a shared reading or some discussion after the fact to understand all the material being presented. The author covers a wide range of topics.

The book begins with a description of what castles are and why they were built. The author uses photographs through out the book to help students realize that castles aren't just make believe stories but real buildings that had a specific purpose. The author continues with a brief history of the age of castle building and then moves on to the vocabulary and structures of castles. This is where using real pictures I though made a huge difference. Children can see where these places existed on actual castles. Once the author finishes describing the defences of the castle, she then moves on to how castles could be attacked, once again defining terms with pictures where possible.

This was the strongest part of the book. The author continues on to describe Medieval society, knights, servants, animals, and famous castles. These topics were a little more complicated and tough to cover in the two pages each was alloted. Still not a bad introdcution to each topic, just not as strong as the earlier introduction to castles.

I'm hopeful the author continues to explore non-fiction topics as I think they make strong additions to the options for history and science reading for students who need a variety of materials available with accurate information written at varied reading levels.

Fly Guy Presents the White House

I am always on the look out for books that present non-fiction material accurately, but in ways kids will want to read. That is often a hard balance to achieve. I'm always willing to look at author's who make the move from using their fictional characters to introduce non-fiction material, but I have a high standard for accuracy and age appropriate material.

While searching our libraries new available titles I ran across Fly Guy Presents: The White House (Scholastic Reader, Level 2)and decided to preview it to see if it met my standards.

I know several younger readers who love Fly Guy although he's never been on my favorite character list, so I thought he might draw readers into non-fiction topics. With the election year being in the news I thought parents and teachers might want some age appropriate material to discuss with children.

One of the strengths and the weakness of this book is it attacks a wide range of topics. From a leveled reader perspective I'm not sure this would hold the reader's attention. As a shared read with the teacher or parent, I think this book might be more effective in discussing the amount of information the author has embedded in this short book.

The book begins with an introduction to the White House, using a map to show where it is located in the United States. From there the book goes on to discussing the various people who live and work in the White House. I though this was rather an interesting point as I know as a child I never thought much beyond the President and his family. It never really occurred to me how many people it took to run the White House and the governmental staff. This is only a brief introduction, but it is better than just saying this is where the President lives. The book continues by discussing the role of First Lady and in light of the current election situation, what that role would be should a woman be elected.

From there the book provides a brief discussion of the election system, bypassing the electoral college, which was likely deemed to complicated to explain for a Level 2 reader.

The book continues with a brief history of the White House including portraits of all the Presidents. I liked the map of the White House and the stories of the President's children that were included in this section.