Classics, Nonfiction, and Children's Literature
Now that he’s reading a mile a minute, it’s time to hear from my six-year-old again! The Falling Raindrop by Neil Johnson and Joel Chin. This is a picture book. It is fiction. It is a story about a raindrop. In the book, a raindrop got born and fell into a fire and he turned into
And the Winner Is… by Etta Kaner (Kids Can Press, 2013) is a clever look at animals by looking at some of the extreme things they are able to do, from sprinting and high jump to weight lifting and swimming. Subtitled “Amazing Animal Antics,” this book is both informative and fun. The illustrations by David
I spent a few months reading about the Native Americans last fall, so Native Americans: A Visual Exploration by S.N. Paleja (Annick Press, 2013) caught my eye on Netgalley. As a brief visual overview to the subject, it was a nice book for young readers. In general, however, it provided too little to be an
When I saw Faces from the Past on the Netgalley catelogy, I was excited, since my recent read about forensic anthropology was such a delightful read for me. My son and I have been studying early American history as well, so it fits in well with my current interests. Once again, I have to say how
For our Thanksgiving homeschool unit, we learned more about Squanto by reading Joseph Bruchac’s masterpiece Squanto’s Journey (Harcourt Children’s Books, 2000). Illustrated by Greg Shed, this gorgeously illustrated book tells the story of Thanksgiving from the perspective of a young man who had grown up in the area that became Plymouth Bay. Squanto was kidnapped
Alice Dagliesh’s The Thanksgiving Story (illustrated by Helen Sewell) is nonfiction picture book about a child’s family traveling to Plymouth. Because it is has dated illustrations, it was not a favorite for my son. Ironically, The Thanksgiving Story won a Caldecott Honor for its illustrations. The Thanksgiving Story has lots of details, and we read it over
For my personal history education, I enjoyed the longer children’s nonfiction book (almost middle grade nonfiction) and detailed The Lost Colony of Roanoke by Jean Fritz. Fritz has a way of making history come alive. Her writing is geared for upper elementary school students or middle school students, and her book subsequently provides an increasing amount of
My son (age 5) and I read about the mystery of Roanoke in Jane Yolen’s Roanoke, The Lost Colony: A Mystery from History. Told from the perspective of a fictionalized child with a detective father, Yolen’s picture book had just enough information about the colony of Roanoke to interest my son, but without too many
Before I dove into the history of America with my homeschooling son, we did a general overview of the geography of the country. Although my son loves maps and would have had a great time pouring over maps of the states, I thought it would be more helpful to begin looking at the landforms of
There seem to be a variety of ways of approaching explorers to America. Share superficial information? Delve into the negative facts about the explorers? Although I’m not keen on focusing on the negative colonial aspects of American history, it is important that my young kindergartner(age 5) get some type of overview of the various explorers
I have to say that I may be one of the most unusual homeschooling/classics reading/living books-loving moms out there for this reason: I really do not like D’Aulaire’s book about Leif Erikson (Leif the Lucky). And this is not just the case with Leif Erickson. The more of the other D’Aulaires historical books I read (Pocahontas, Benjamin Franklin, Abraham
Although it seems that Native American culture is a topic that is covered in detail in various books that study each individual tribe, there seem to be few books for early readers celebrating the entire existence of Native American Indians. We did find one fantastic book to celebrate Native Americans: Many Nations by Joseph Bruchac
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