Customer Reviews

Hwys...Amer.West (How Would You Survive?)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a fabulous book. As a museum educator I am always on the look out for a children's book that will hold the kids interest and get them excited about history. This is the book!

The layout is great. It is almost as if the authors took the concept of computer interactives and laid them out on paper. That may not sounds terribly enticing but it is -- and it works. The information is thoughtfully prepared and presented in a way that kids should love. Questions at the bottom of each page encourage kids to jump from one topic to another as they make their journey, by covered wagon, across the American West. All the hazards and pitfalls are included, along with several vingettes of the daily life of various members of a wagon train. This is a book that shows history as vital, exciting and human.

The information in this book is very good and I haven't seen to much of it repeated in other books. I personally learned a great deal from this book but I was disappointed by the presentation. As an adult the layout bothered me because the pages were very busy. Maybe this is what they wanted for children but I can see children easily missing information because it is scattered all over the page. Other than the layout I really liked the book and would recommend it to others.