The True Story of Pocahontas (Step-Into-Reading, Step 3)

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 very questionable content. While the text is a step above Disney's "Pocahontas" film, the illustrations are far inferior.

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 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 show more 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

This is a story about Pocahontas- starting when the first settlers arrived in Jamestown and going to her trip to England where she "lived for the rest of her life" (which wasn't very long because she died of a disease, but the book doesn't mention that...) Some of the history is questionable, but many of the facts about Pocahontas are unknown, so who's to say?

This is a biography of Pocahontas for readers in the first to third grade. I was interested in learning more about Pocahontas, I think there is lots of good information, but I also think the flow and plot of the story was choppy and a bit dry. It covered a lot of events, and would have been easier to follow if it had more details, I felt as if it jumped around too much and there were some holes in the story. I think this is an interesting topic, but the writing style did not appeal to me. The main idea of this story is about Pocahontas’ life, and how it changed forever when the English came to America.

This book is great for young readers wanting to learn about our history. For those that have seen the Disney version of Pocahontas (myself included), it does a good job with setting the record straight on what actually happened since the movie is so inaccurate and that is the majority of the information we receive on the account of Pocahontas. It also does a very nice job of softening some of the more violent aspects of the events without completely excluding them. Great for a younger student's social studies project, a start on a biography study, or just if they are interested in history.

This "Step into Reading" book is aimed for readers in grades 1-3. However, as an adult this book seemed like it was too long to read for that age group. The story is written in simple vocabulary which children would understand. However, unless they have a good amount of prior knowledge about this time period in America, the story can be hard to follow. They draw the story out so long that I was getting confused about all the different names and Indian words that they were using. This book could have been written better if it was a more abbreviated version of the story that was easier to follow along. It also should have included more about Pocahontas and less about American history because her character was not even introduced until the show more middle-end of the story. show less

Summary:
A young girl in a Native American tribe is the chiefs daughter and shows her life in a different society and how she handle her daily tasks and interactions with the Americans

Personal Reaction:
This book was different than what i thought it was going to be. I knew about Pocahontas, but it was interesting to see it from a different perspective.

Classroom Extension Ideas:
1. This book could be a way to introduce Native American Culture into the classroom especially around thanksgiving. Children could make headdresses like she wore and even shoes out of fabric. The children could pretend that they were living in a Native American Tribe