Customer Reviews

My America: Our Strange New Land, Elizabeth's Jamestown Colony Diary, Book One

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I will start my review off by saying that I am WAY older than the target audience for this book. However, I still found it to be an enjoyable and seemingly accurate portrait of the settling of Jamestown. The history is made accesible to the younger readers by telling the story through the diary of a child, nine-year-old Elizabeth Barker. Many of Elizabeth's concerns and feelings could belong to contemporary children - she misses her twin brother who was left behind in England, mourns the deaths of many of her friends, just wants to have a good time playing with other children her own age, and worries for her pregnant mother's safety. I think this would be an excellent book to start out younger children on historical stories, and would definitley appeal to fans of the American Girls series. I would have loved to have a book like this to read when I was younger.

While reading this book I could not think back to my childhood days of elementary school sitting in class learning about the Jamestown Colony and the settling of America. I heard about this book from NBC's "Today" show and bought it the same day. It took me an hour to read, and I could not put it down. I cannot remember a book written in such a way, diary, that kept me so interested. Even though the book is written for much younger persons, me being 35 and a father of two, I would invite all to purchase this book and share it with your children.

This book is fun, exciting, happy, and wonderful!! In this book a girl named Elizabith is on a ship to go to the " New World." She had to leave her brother Caleb back in England, so she took his drawing book to wright a journal for him. When they got to the "New World" a few men decided to go start a new settlement. To see if their settlement is succsesful read " Our Strange New World" Elizabeth's Diary. Read this book and you will read it over and over again!!!!!!!!

Once I got this book I couldn't put it down. It was so interesting that I did not want to go to sleep. I liked it when Elizabeth had to hide her journal from her mom and that her mom had a baby.One day Elizabteth asked Captin Jonh Smith to say hi to her brother Caleb.Whenever I read an interesting book,like this one, I never let it go until I finish it.I hope you read this book one day.

im 13 yrs old and love the dear america series. this is a cute book but i hate how it stops suddenly and then you have to wait to buy the second or third book. i ordered my book from amazon and my second book is coming soon. hope this review helps!

This seems to be a well written book and I understand that it is fiction meant to illustrate life in a new settlement but I think it should be known that there were not many women and girls in Jamestown until about 1620 when it was decided that the men needed wives to stabilize society.

I have just read a book called Our Strange New Land by Patricia Hermes. In this book Elizabeth is writing in a diary. In this book Elizabeth and her family travel to Jamestown in America from England, but sadly they can't bring Elizageth's brother, Caleb because he is sick and had to stay in England. In the book they lose their food, have many, many people die, and meet indians. They even meet Pocahontas. Elizabeth has adventures with her friend, Jessie. Also, Elizabeth's mom has a baby girl and they name her Abigail. I think this is a really good book because you learn a lot about the pilgrims that lived in Jamestown, Virginia. I hope you can take the time to read Our Strange New Land by Patricia Hermes.

In 1609, nine year old Elizabeth Barker's family sails from England to Jamestown, Virginia, establishing America's first English colony. In her diary, Elizabeth explains the hardships of daily life and the happiness of family. However she is also sad because her twin brother Caleb was left in England because he had bad lungs. Elizabeth and her best friend Jessie have fun and adventures in this new strange land. They befriend the Indian princess Pocahontas. Howeveer soon Elizabeth realizes life isn't all going to be great, as her family faces scarce fook, illness, even death. However Elizabeth is determined to make a new home in this strange new land.

I like this book because it is based on a true story about a girl named Elizabeth and her family at war. Her brother and father get dragged in to the war by some soldiers. Elizabeth gets very worried about her brother and father because they do not come back until a while.

This book was a diary written by Elizabeth. Elizabeth and her family and were coming from England to the new land of America. They had to built houses when they got here. Life was hard in the new land. They met Indians. Elizabeth liked the Indians but the other people were afraid of Indians.