Customer Reviews

Roanoke: The Lost Colony--An Unsolved Mystery from History

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

 

 

This is a wonderful book for children ages 7 - 12. The historical information is presented in an organized way that captivates one's imagination. The illustrations keep a child's interest and the notebook pages help the reader try to solve the mystery.

This book was amazing! Full of interesting clues about the never-answered questions, "What really happened? Who is to blame for George Howe's death? And where is the colony now?" Jane Yolen brilliantly tells the story about how George Howe died, shot with arrows while fishing for crabs, and how the colony Roanoke disappeared twice without a trace.
A brilliant tale of mystery. (...)

I purchased this book for my niece before she visited us on the outer banks. It was a little hard for her to read. She is just finishing the 4th grade. We wanted her to know some of the history of this beautiful place before she missed a week of school. It was a good challenge for her. She gave a book report with pictures from the area today and received an A+.

I gave this to a reading teacher to use in her 6th grade classes. She had the other mysteries and does a short unit with them so this was a new addition. She was very excited and grateful! I have subbed in her classroom and her students enjoy these lessons.
Great book!

My nephew just purchased Sabotaged by Haddix, which is also about Roanoke. It's a time travel story. I haven't read it yet, but reading the two together might be an interesting undertaking.

Speculating on what could have happened to the colonists of Roanoke is intriguing, and Jane Yolen makes the problem accessible, while stimulating the imagination.

Personally, I find the story of Roanoke intriguing, so three stars may be too generous.

My daughter (age 8) liked the lead-in to the story about how the girl is trying to be a detective with her notebook and timeline, but it left me feeling a little cheated since we aren't introduced to the father (at least not in this volume, I haven't seen the others) and the girl's character is not fleshed out at all. There is nothing really personalized about her "notebook," and realistically, it's nothing like a notebook a girl would actually keep.

After the girl-detective's introduction, we delve into the story of Roanoke, but then almost immediately, the very next page, we get hit with the glossary words and the "notebook" sidebars. I found them to be distracting as an adult reader, and the notebook completely derailed my daughter off the narrative. The effect is really "busy"--- too much information, some of which is important, some which is less important or redundant, so the reader is encouraged to skip much of the content. The illustrations are not interesting enough (according to my daughter and I agree) to pull you back into the narrative.
I like the ending, how the book encourages the reader to discuss theories on what happened to the lost colony; however, I don't see other kids making it that far through the book. I know my daughter didn't.

Another thing, this is an odd observation, but rather important... the typeface is difficult to read. The font size is huge, with just a few words on each line, but the columns aren't justified like a newspaper column and sentences are broken up oddly. Especially with having so many sidebars on each page, the main text is discouraging for the grade level targeted because of the ill-conceived visual presentation.