Ginger McDonnell

#20 in my 365 Kids Books challenge and request to GoodReads that the Top Readers, etc. lists be fixed. For a full explanation see my review for [b:101 Amazing Facts about Australia|21332402|101 Amazing Facts about Australia (Countries of the World)|Jack Goldstein|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1394253825l/21332402._SY75_.jpg|25417728] You can see all the books on their own shelf.

Colorful book with high visual appeal. This would be great as an early show more reader. As information it's the kind of children's book that makes me crazy. There is a little bit that says you may think pirates when you hear Caribbean, and in fact, tall ships sid once sail there. With a lovely picture of a tall ship. But no context: no time period, no explanation that warring countries encouraged pirates to steal from one another's ships, or explanation that the ships were doing big business carrying cargo (new spices are always popular) from the Americas to the European countries that had laid claim to different islands, or that pirates could easily run away and hide if they knew the islands well, and avoid the military ships meant to protect the cargo ships, or that Creole is a lang that allows people with different native languages to easily speak to one another without complications like gendered nouns or irregular verb tenses. You don't have to explain that African slaves were imported because the native population came so close to being eradicated by novel European diseases and murder. You can keep the tone light.
Children are so easy to engage, and can learn so much, but information is so often presented as discrete factoids short and simple, when all that is needed is a simple vocabulary to explain the context.

Clearly I am on the cranky pants end of the spectrum today.

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