California History for Children [Paperback]

Harr Wagner (Author), James Stevenson (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 9 and up | Grade Level: 4 and up

California History for Children is a non-fiction history book with short stories from Cabrillo in 1542 to the San Francisco earthquake and fire. Intended for children, parents, grandparents and classroom teachers.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9 and up
  
• Paperback: 79 pages
• Publisher: James Stevenson Publisher (February 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1885852126
• ISBN-13: 978-1885852120
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,468,037 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Disappointed, April 13, 2005

By 

M. Kragh "Average American Mom" (Monterey, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: California History for Children (Paperback)

I bought this book for our children to enhance their understanding of California history. My fourth grader complained that the first story which was about Jaun Rodrequesz Cabrillo was confusing. After reading it myself, I had to agree.

As per the preface, this book was written by "material adapted from the public school work" of the author, Mr. Harr Wagner. What a sad statement this book makes for our public school work. It is absolutely no wonder why our children cannot write when this is the type of material to which they are subjected.

Grammar rules are not followed. There are commas separating two compound verbs, colons used for quotations, and dashes where there should be none. I could overlook or at lease withstand the poor grammar except the paragraphs are also poorly constructed.

It is difficult to pull out the main ideas and supporting statements. Many paragraphs contain sentences that have no relation at all to the rest of the paragraph. The dates and thoughts jump often; thus resulting in incorrect inferences such as Cabrillo sailing from Natividad, Portugal and taking only five days to reach Santa Cruz. There is no explanation for children as to what is meant by "Lower California". My son naturally thought this the area south of the California Bay Area.

Quite frankly, the stories look like a collection of first or second draft fourth grader papers.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Publisher revised this book in 2006, February 24, 2011

By 

Chris "Chris" (Vacaville, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: California History for Children (Paperback)

A Monterey reviewer wrote a negative review about this book in 2005 which was noticed by my husband, who is the publisher. He checked the book, discussed it with some teachers, and decided that some of the complaints were accurate. Where errors found, they were corrected, and additional information about such things as the California state song or the state color, flower, animal or rock, etc., are listed. The additional information increased the page count from 79 pages to 108. (Readers will note, on the back of the title page, that the book was revised in 2006.)

I see that in 2011 there is still only the Monterey Mom's review of the book. Readers since 2006 have not offered their review. Hopefully there will be some comments from teachers or other users of this book who have the revised, longer version. If you have this book-with the 2006 revision stated on the "copyright page" please offer your opinion, whatever it might be.

My husband has mentioned that there are plans to make "California History for Children" available for the Kindle, at a lower cost than the print version.