Nevada (America the Beautiful, Second) [Library Binding]

R. Conrad Stein (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 2000 | Age Level: 10 and up | Grade Level: 5 and up | Series: America the Beautiful, Second

Describes the geography, plants, animals, history, economy, religions, culture, sports, arts, and people of Nevada.

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Gillian Engberg
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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 10 and up
  
• Library Binding: 144 pages
• Publisher: Children's Press (CT) (March 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0516210416
• ISBN-13: 978-0516210414
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 8.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,361,951 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars There is not much to Nevada but you would not know from this book, August 29, 2005

By 

Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Nevada (America the Beautiful, Second) (Library Binding)

I finally made it to Las Vegas a couple of years ago. It is not really in between any two places, so you cannot really drive through it on the way from some place that is not California to someplace in California the way you can drive through Reno. You really have to go to Las Vegas on purpose. The question then, of course, is how did you do at the tables, on the slots, etc. The answer is I did not gamble when I was in Las Vegas. Why not? Because the first time I was ever in Nevada I was at a gas station in the middle of nowhere (not on the way to Las Vegas), and there was a slot machine. So I took out a quarter, put it in and yanked the bandit's arm. I won two quarters back so I immediately quit, one of the few people on the face of the planet who can honestly say they were to Nevada and doubled their money on the slot machines.

R. Conrad Stein is aware that his audience is too young to gamble, so Chapter One in this America the Beautiful Second Series look at Nevada introduces "The Silver State" a place where very little come easy. Once the mines played out it was tourism that became the engine that made Nevada once of the fastest growing states. The history of Nevada as part of the American West is detailed in the next three chapters. Chapter Two, "Nevada's Distant Past," begins with the ancient peoples who left petroglyphs and ends with the first explorers from Spain and the United States. Chapter Three, "Pioneering in the Silver State," tells of the Comstock bonanza and the silver mines led to statehood for Nevada. Chapter Four, "Twentieth-Century Nevada," establishes a clear contrast to the past with the Hoover Dam, gambling, and atomic bomb testing.

The geography of Nevada is presented as "Sagebrush and Open Spaces" in Chapter Five, as Stein describes the lay of the land and the hot, dry climate. Chapter Six, "Quiet Villages and Bright Lights," establishes the contrast between the northern part of the state where the cowboys reign, the area around Lake Tahoe in the Sierra Nevada, and the Mecca that is Las Vegas. "Governing the Silver State" is covered in Chapter Seven, and if young readers do not anticipate the state metal being silver, then they are just not paying attention. More interesting is the Tule duck, a duck decoy made 2,000 years ago that is the state artifact.

Chapter Eight, "Nevada at Work," start off talking about the service industry in the state, but covers other aspects of the economy as well. Chapter Nine, "A Look at Nevadans," explains what the population explosion in the state has meant, which has 90 percent of the citizens living in city areas (only California, New Jersey and Hawaii have a greater urban percentage). This is also the chapter where we finally get to this volume's recipe, which is for Basque Garlic Soup (warning: it involves not just garlic but eggs as well). "Entertainment and Fine Arts" is the province of Chapter Ten, which covers basket weaving and literature to go along with leisure activities.

This look at Nevada is filled with full-color photographs, helpful maps, and dozens of informative sidebars. With these latter young students will find some of the most interesting things that Stein has worked into this book, such as the Lost City Museum, the ill-fated Donner Party, the Gridley sack of flour, Benjamin "Don't Call Me Bugsy" Siegel, and the E.T. Highway. A Timeline contrasting U.S. and Nevada state history is provided in the back of the book along with several pages of Fast Facts, and a list of books, organizations, and Internet sites where readers can go To Find Out More about Nevada. What stands out with this particular volume is that Stein sticks a bit more to the modern history of the state and that since there is not as much to say about Nevada as there is about a state like California, there is a bit more depth than we normally get.