If You Sailed on the Mayflower in 1620

This book was originally written in 1969 and to me reads a bit like a fairytale. My children enjoyed it and it helped us discuss our early history but is best used with other more up to date sources of information. In particular it downplays the role of the Native Americans, refers to them as Indians and Indian braves, but never by tribe name. It mentions that the Pilgrims stole corn but makes no connection between the Native Americans attacking and the theft. In describing the first Thanksgiving it mentions the surprise of the Pilgrims when Massasoit arrived with 90 "Indian braves" but fails to discuss that there wouldn't have been enough food for that many people if the Wampanoags didn't contribute their own food to the feast. What show more the book does fairly well is to describe the hardships that the pilgrims would have endured on the Mayflower as well as during the first winter in Plimoth. It provides a good description of what a day in the life of a Pilgrim looked like during those first months.

The book was good in that it gave us an opportunity for discussion as we noticed inconsistencies between this book and other resources that we have explored. On a final note: "And there was popcorn too." This is a common myth but there is no evidence that popped corn was present in North America in the 1620's. Lovely thought but unlikely. show less

A couple of years ago, I wouldn't have bothered to review this. I might have picked it up off of the kids' reading stack, paged through it, maybe even enjoyed it, but then would put it down without further ado. These days, however, since I'm reading all sorts of kids' books and posting my reviews on LibraryThing, I'm more inclined to put in my two-cents worth. Anyway, this is a nice little illustrated book that gives kids a peek into what life might have been like for a Pilgrim boy or girl aboard the Mayflower and later in the Plymouth colony. It gives a good overview of the time, mentioning the hardships and personal conflicts as well as the triumphs of The Mayflower Compact and the first Thanksgiving celebration. It helps make this show more bit of history come alive and is worth checking out if you have young'uns who need to study their history.
--J. show less

WOW, I had completely forgotten about this book until I saw it online a few minutes ago! This used to be my VERY favorite book when I was a kid! The pilgrims and the Mayflower were my favorite parts of learning about history, and this book made that learning even more fun. It's filled with wonderful illustrations and simple but interesting facts and Q&As. I very, very much recommend it.

This is a very kid-friendly book published by Scholastic. I read it to my students when we were studying Plymouth. This is a good read-aloud book as well as a book for independent readers. The book is organized into sections based on questions about the Pilgrims such as "Who were the Pilgrims?" and "What rules did people have to obey?" Each section answers a question about the Pilgrims in a straight-forward manner. The book touches on the subject of the colonists taking the land from the Native Americans but only very briefly. There is no glossary, bibliography, or further resources in the book- it is strictly a quick read for the classroom.

This is a great book to explain about the time when The Pilgrims were coming to America. It tells about the Mayflower Voyage and how they become accoustomed to thier new life. The illustrations add to the detail of the story. How they dressed, lived, and survived. It also gives interesting facts and tidbits about thier lives.

I would use this book during the month of November. I would leave it out on the independant reading shelf.

This book is about the Pilgrim's voyage on the Mayflower and their first year in America. It's a fact filled book with answers on why the Pilgrims left England to come to America. It also talks about everything they had to go through on their way here.

I enjoyed this book mainly just for a book to use during a thanksgiving unit. It was very factual but I didn't think it would really interest the students.

I would use the book in class during a Thanksgiving unit to inroduce how we got Thanksgiving, then I would have the students plant corn as a little field trip.

Table of Contents:
Who were the Pilgrims? -- Where does the Pilgrim story begin? -- What kind of ship was the Mayflower? -- How many people sailed on the Mayflower? -- Who sailed on the Mayflower -- Were the people on the ship friends? -- What could the Pilgrims take with them? -- What would you eat and drink on the Mayflower? -- Where would you sleep? -- Would you be able to keep clean? -- Was it a safe voyage? -- Would you have had any fun on the Mayflower? -- Would you get into trouble on the Mayflower? -- When did the Pilgrims first see land? -- How did the Pilgrims feel when they saw land? -- What were the first laws the Pilgrims made -- even before they left the ship? -- What was the first thing the Pilgrims did when they got on show more shore? -- What did the Pilgrims find on Cape Cod? -- Why didn't the Pilgrims stay on Cape Cod? -- What happened on the last exploring trip? -- Did they land on Plymouth Rock? -- Why did the Pilgrims decide to stay in Plymouth? -- How did the Pilgrims plan to build their town? -- What was the first building in Plymouth? -- Did they work every day? -- How did the Pilgrims spend their first Christmas? -- What was one of the biggest problems in Plymouth? -- Did the Pilgrims have any medicine? -- Who were the Pilgrims' first friends? -- What did the Pilgrims learn from Squanto? -- How did the Pilgrims and the other Indians get along? -- What were the terms of the peace treaty? -- Would you live in a log cabin? -- Where would you sleep? -- What kind of furniture did the Pilgrims have? -- What kind of table manners were the children taught? -- What did the Pilgrims wear? -- Were there special jobs for boys and girls? -- Did children go to school? -- What rules did people have to obey? -- Did people break the rules? -- What happened to the Mayflower? -- Were there special days for fun? -- What did the Pilgrims have to be thankful for? -- What day was the first Thanksgiving in the New World? -- Who took part in the holidays? -- What did they eat for Thanksgiving? -- How did the Pilgrims spend Thanksgiving? show less