Junior book Biography
. This biography explores the details of Paul Revere's famous horseback ride during the American Revolution,
. a. Appeal
b. The author of this book presents factual information in a way kids will be interested,
c. As children learn about Paul Revere, they are also entertained because she uses child appeal to communicate the story.
. This book can obviously be used to provide a creative twist of Paul Revere, Students can relate this book to what they learn about the American Revolution, I remember having to read And Then What Happened Paul Revere by Jean Fritz when I was in elementary school.
It was one of a number of books we had to read when we were learning about Revere and his contemporaries.
While the book did teach me a great deal about the life of Revere I found it's saccharine cheerfulness to be unsettling especially at times when the book is covering the number of deaths in the revere family especially those of Revere's young siblings, many of whom died as children or infants.
Now as an adult going back and rereading this book I found the disjoint between the serious subject matter and the almost comic book style of art unnerving.
History books can be interesting to children without having them always completely upbeat, Paul Revere was an important historical figure but he is not a superhero! Another great book by Jean Fritz.
We enjoyed learning about Revere, not just his famous ride, but his family and all the things he did.
He had some great character traits we discussed he worked hard, even if bad things happened he kept going, he took care of his family instead of relying on charity, etc.
We had many great discussion while reading this, I think it took usordays because we wanted to talk about it instead of just plow through it.
Highly recommended. I don't usually review short/picture books here, but this one by Jean Fritz is meant to represent ALL of her American history books, including ones about Sam Adams, Ben Franklin, King George III, Christopher Columbus, etc.
We've been very impressed by them, Some are longer than others, some hold the kids'andinterest better, but I'm always surprised at Fritz's knack for including details that delight and interest children.
And best of all, she's a good writer! I highly recommend these books, illustrated by various artists, including Tomie dePaola and Margot Tomes, among others, as a great supplement to American History studies.
GradesJean Fritz has an amazing way of writing history facts that makes it entertaining for young readers, The biography of Paul Revere and his famous rides are expertly detailed in a story that is both amusing and colorful, with factual information and an appendix of additional notes from the author.
The story is told from the timeline of Paul Revere's parents to his grandchildren, The setting is Boston and the many jobs that Paul had over his lifetime to support his large and growing family.
By the end of the book, Paul hadgrandchildren and numerous, uncounted, greatgrandchildren, Margot Tomes is the pen and ink illustrator and the illustrations depict small events and scenes, The vocabulary and writing is true to form for an average higherrd grade to lowerth grade reader.
This book would make an excellent read for students learning to use biographies for writing and pulling facts from text.
Accelerated Reader Level.Critique Junior Book/Biography
This is a story about the life of Paul Revere, It starts from his childhood, to his important ride to Lexington at the start of the American Revolution, and follows him into his old age.
a. Accuracy
b. Accuracy is an important element in biography, This is what separates fiction and nonfiction, In the case of this story the author has taken simple facts about Paul Revere and presented them in a way that young readers can easily follow and learn about this important American.
The story also tries to be entertaining to keep the readers attention, This can be challenging to do with nonfiction and biographies since the material can sometimes be a little dry.
However, the author provides additional information that she was not able to include in the context of her story about Paul Revere.
c. On page, the author talks about Paul Revere and how he had a page in his Day Book for doodling, but then goes on to discuss the important changes that were effecting Pauls life around this time and how he became involved in some important events in American history.
This provides a way for students to relate to the character, but also learn about significant factors in his life and in our countrys history.
I think this book is appropriate for readers in grades, It would be a great addition to a lesson on important Americans or the American Revolution,
A true American story for young readers by the NewberyHonor winning author!
Everyone knows about Paul Revere's midnight ride.
But not everyone knows the harrowing details and narrow escapes that occurred along the way, This timeless and witty book highlights littleknown facts about patriot Paul Revere, A simple, somewhat conversing narrative about the life of Paul Revere, Fun details about his life included,
Ages:
Cleanliness: the word dmn is used,
Like my reviews I also have hundreds of detailed reports that I offer too, These reports give a complete breakdown of everything in the book, so you'll know just how clean it is or isn't.
I also have Clean Guides downloadable PDFs which enable you to clean up your book before reading it!
sitelinkVisit my website! This month, while the Old School Kidlit Reading Challenge has been focusing on nonfiction, I decided to finally sit down and read a stack of the late Jean Fritz's books about the history of the United States.
In total, I readtitles:
sitelink And Then What Happened, Paul Revere illustrated by Margot Tomes
sitelink Why Don't You Get a Horse, Sam Adams illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman
sitelink Where Was Patrick Henry on theth of May illustrated by Margot Tomes
sitelink What's the Big Idea, Ben Franklin illustrated by Margot Tomes
sitelink Will You Sign Here, John Hancock illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman
sitelink Can't You Make Them Behave, King George illustrated by Tomie dePaola
sitelink Where Do You Think You're Going, Christopher Columbus illustrated by Margot Tomes
sitelink Shh! We're Writing the Constitution illustrated by Tomie dePaola
All of these except the last one are biographies of key figures in early America.
In each biography, Fritz focuses on a representative quirk of each individual she profiles, which serves as a unifying thread for the important events of that person's life.
For John Hancock, whose signature looms so large on the declaration of independence, this is his desire for attention and the ostentatious ways he went about trying to get it.
For Sam Adams, it is his refusal to learn to ride a horse, for Columbus, his terrible sense of direction and tendency to stumble upon good fortune, and for King George, his blind paternalism toward the colonists, even when they have made very clear their disdain for him.
In the last book, Shh! We're Writing the Constitution, Fritz tells the story of the difficulties and compromises that occurred among different historical figures as the U.
S. Constitution slowly took shape.
In both types of books, Fritz focuses heavily
not just on historical events, but on the personalities of the key figures who contributed to the outcomes of these events.
Fritz does not simply idolize these men for their greatness instead she shows both how they were ordinary stubborn, foolish, insufferable, laughable, quirky, selfish, etc.
and extraordinary. No one is treated as all good or all bad, but instead they are portrayed as very human, For a reader like me who reads books mainly for their characters, I found this approach refreshing and endearing.
Whereas I struggle to focus on lengthy informational texts that try to drill details into my memory, the "characters" in each of these books were fascinating to me.
As I read in the evenings, I kept saying to my husband, "Hey did you know, . . " and "I never knew that, . . "
None of these books is enough on its own to convey all the details of the discovery of America, the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the Revolutionary War, or the drafting of the Constitution, but every single one of them provides context for understanding those events on a more personal and emotional level.
The straightforward facts which are included alongside the biographical details are made more memorable by Fritz's engaging and humorous writing style, and everything she writes about comes to life in a way that school textbooks never could.
They would make wonderful readalouds for elementary kids who are studying colonial America, but they are just as entertaining as independent reads for older readers who want a refresher.
Also wonderful are the illustrations for each volume, There are three illustrators for these books: Margot Tomes, Trina Schart Hyman, and Tomie dePaola, Though all three artists' styles suit the mood and content of the books, my personal favorite is Hyman, Her pictures have the most detail, and in my opinion, the most personality, Tomes is a close second I especially like the way she draws children but found that I associated dePaola too much with other books and other genres to feel like he was a good fit for this subject matter.
Still, I think the designer for these books did a great job of keeping a consistent look to the whole series that places the reader in a particular frame of mind regardless of who drew the pictures.
Now that I have read all of these books, I understand why they were so popular in my school library during childhood and why I hear so much about them in homeschooling circles.
I plan to use them with my kids when we study U, S. history and I hope they will learn to love history as I never did as a child by observing how much fun Fritz clearly had writing about it.
This review also appears on my blog, sitelinkReadatHome Mom, .