Lucille Recht Penner

This book, intended for children ages 7-11, includes some recipes that might be fun for elementary students to try. However, the volume is seriously flawed by historical inaccuracies and poorly chosen illustrations. Even an amateur historian can recognize factual errors in the text (for example, Winslow's portrait was painted in London, not in America as the author implies). Also, the book's illustrations stretch the boundaries of Plymouth Plantation (and the credulity of the reader) well show more beyond acceptable limits. That is, the author included illustrations of a gravestone, as well as a harpooned whale, from Salem, MA; portraits of famous Puritans from Boston; and even several drawings from Colonial Williamsburg in her book. Little wonder that American school children know little about their country's history, never mind its geography, with books like this one appearing in the classroom. Worse, a selection from this book appeared in the reading section of the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment in recent years. Shame on the MA Department of Education for spotlighting shoddy work by a careless author. show less

As part of the Step-into-Reading series, this book does a good job of presenting a basic, readable text for young readers age 5-8 to enjoy. The problem is that none of the information presented here is cited. Many generalizations are made. Pocahontas is called an "Indian Princess." This book reinforces stereotypes and does little to promote critical thought. While it serves its purpose as a tool for students learning how to read, I would not recommend using it with any student due to its show more very questionable content. While the text is a step above Disney's "Pocahontas" film, the illustrations are far inferior. show less

I liked this book because it wasn't too detailed but gave a baseline of simple information for young kids learning/reading about dinosaurs. It was an easy read for beginners and had illustrations that were easily identifiable. I also liked how with each picture of a new dinosaur, the book gave the name and in parenthesis the pronunciation of each animal. It helped add to the informational side of the text. The message of this book was to help give children a baseline understanding of show more dinosaurs, how they raise their babies, and a brief example of different types of dinosaurs. This book is historical fiction and does include parts that show that there is no certainty of if it is correct or not seeing as how no one lived with dinosaurs. The book starts off with the lines "Squeak! Squeak! Is that the sound of a baby dinosaur calling to its mother? Nobody knows. Nobody has ever heard a baby dinosaur. Nobody has ever seen one." From then it describes how finding fossils and different artifacts has taught us the things we know about dinosaurs today. show less

a. I really enjoyed this story for many reasons. First, the writing style was super easy to follow and easy to understand. This would be a great book for a first through third grade reader. The writing style also accurately describes the life of Pocahontas without ever being boring or uninteresting which describing a historical figures is extremely important to keep the young reader interested. For example, the story opens with an extremely brief background about Pocahontas and her cultures show more and then jumps right into when the English invaded her land. After that the story quickly flows for one important event to the others with spending just the right amount of time on each events. Another reason why I liked this story was the layout of the book. The book had 42 pages but included detailed and descriptive pictures on every page and the illustrations took up most of the page anyway. The font used was large and the structure was short, to-the-point sentences, perfect for an early reader. There are several main ideas of this story. The first is to love and appreciate nature and be one with the environment. Another main idea could be standing up and fighting for what you believe in as Pocahontas did with the English settlers. show less