Sal Murdocca

I have always been a huge fan of the magic tree house series, especially their chapter books. This one in particular sounded interesting to me, and it was! I can see how this text would be super helpful to kids who are learning about this topic, doing a project on it, or are just interested in learning more about it. There are many visuals like maps, charts, diagrams, and more that really help those visual learners. On many of the pages there are also fun facts on the side or definitions show more that can help those unfamiliar with the terms. The text itself is written easily and accurately in a way that many reading levels or ages will be able to understand it. I was engaged throughout the book because of how exciting they made the material seem. Overall, the big idea behind this book was to give kids some great information on a very important time in history. I believe they achieved this successfully. show less

Sonny has a new baby in his family who cries and eats a lot. He asks his mother why babies eat so much and she tells him that it's because babies are growing so fast. Sonny doesn't see her growing but his mother tells him that she grows at night when no one is looking. That night Sonny goes to baby's room and finds that she has grown to be the size of her crib, the next night the size of her room. When Sonny tells his mother about how fast baby is growing she simply agrees and Sonny has to show more keep watch of baby until she reaches for the moon.
This is a cute book that fits neatly into the fiction/fantasy section as Sonny's dreams of baby getting larger becomes the reality of the reader. Almost as if the reader and Sonny are the only ones who understand what is happening.
I would read this to Early elementary students through middle school student age. show less

A stoic Grover contorts himself for your benefit. Kind of hilarious.

This book would be good to use in an older elementary classroom during social studies. I would use it to introduce talking about the government and what America stands for