My kindergartner (age 5) and I read aloud Pedro’s Journal by Pam Conrad (first published 1991), a fictionalized middle-grade novel from the perspective of a young cabin boy who attended to Columbus on the voyage. My son really liked this book because it seemed like a fun adventure! He loved the chapter when young Pedro sank the ship! He also inexplicably found Columbus and Pedro to both be rather nice “because they took some natives home to Pedro’s mom.” Ok, so he has a little bit of trouble understanding the complexities of this issue at age 5.
In reality, Pedro’s Journal obviously shows Columbus as rather a paranoid and insensitive man. My son liked him anyway, even though he realized that taking the natives from their homes was not a nice thing to do. At any rate, this read-aloud was a wonderful success! It formed the bulk of our week of studies. My son did not want to do any of the craft projects I found, but he did want to read more of our chapter book.
Because the book does present a somewhat unkind view of Columbus, I did not have qualms about reading it to my son, even though he seemed to completely misunderstand the perspective. I imagine that the next time we read it or the next time we discuss Columbus, he’ll understand a little more that Columbus was not a nice person. We start at his level and go from there.
