Claudia Lewis

I want to give this (mostly) light, sweet, gracefully written historical fiction 4 stars, but I can't because of the illustrations. They're fine, of themselves, but they're soft and almost colorless, which puts a 'mists of time' distance betwen Lewis's story and the reader.

The thing is, the people who lived in the old days are not 'historical figures.' They are not abstract, iconographic. Most especially, they are not distant, different, & irrelevant. Their world had colors.

They simply are real people who lived in another time. The children loved their mamas and squabbled with their siblings and feared for their papas who were off to war. They loved sweets, and school vacation, and sometimes school, too. I firmly believe that history should be taught with immediacy, and illustrations depicting the past should be drawn in a style that makes them authentic and alive for the reader.

Rant over. I do recommend the book for the text.… (plus d'informations)

this book did not receive any awards. This book can be used for first graders and up to fifth graders because the words might be too difficult for any child under first grade and it would be too simple for any grade over fifth. This book had a collection of poems that are related to either the river or the to the boat. Some issues in this book are responsibility of owning something whether it be a real boat or a toy boat. And it also deals with patience because the little girl in the pictures is always waiting for the boat to return from its journey. When reading this book to first graders you can point out how non of the poems rhyme but yet they are still considered poems. Show them the pattern of poem and the different styles of the poems. The older children can make their own short non rhyming poems about something involving the ocean or the river.… (plus d'informations)