Verna Fisher

This book informs young readers (according the book cover it’s for grades 1 to 3, although I bought it for a younger child) about historical dress in the American colonies, covering European settlers’ clothing and fashion from the wig to the shoe and from production to wearing. It also has a few pages about Native American dress. It glosses over the negative history of the time period by simply mentioning things like slaves without any further context, but this is somewhat expected for a book with a narrow focus and for very young readers. (Although my favorite line in this regard read something like this: ‘Native Americans and European colonists started living closer together and trading clothing styles.’ Obviously, this is a very simplistic look at a very complex history.)

The book is formatted with lots of pictures and a minimal amount of text per page. Each page spread contains the main text, including highlighted words that are then defined on the top and/or bottom margins of the page (and also in a glossary at the back). Pages also contain little sidebars like “Did You Know?” and “Then and Now,” which include extra tidbits of information. All of this was a bit distracting for me, but it might actually work out well for the young audience it’s intended for as ways to hold interest.

Colonial Clothes ends with aforementioned glossary, an index, and some books and websites where more information about the time period can be found out. I paired this book with Little Colonial Girl Paper Doll to make a fun and educational gift.… (more)