Roots for Kids: A Genealogy Guide for Young People [Paperback]

Susan Provost Beller (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1997

Roots for Kids is based on a twelve-week course the author developed for her fourth grade class. While the book is suitable for adoption by teachers seeking to supplement their middle school social studies curriculum with material on family history, its principal use will be by and with individual young people. The author moves slowly and carefully, as she takes young readers through an introduction to genealogy, to discussions of their families and their parents families . . . learning how to ask questions (oral history) . . . researching local, state and national records . . . using libraries and historical societies . . . much more. In short, Roots for Kids will teach youngsters how to create a simple family tree and give them both the tools and appetite to learn more about their roots and to uncover the stories and events that make them and their families unique.

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Genealogical Pub Co (February 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0806315253
• ISBN-13: 978-0806315256
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,361,375 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I grew up in New England and loved the history all around me there. Then I went off to college in Washington, DC, where I met my husband, an actual native Washingtonian, who loved history but from a whole other period of time. Here was my soul mate, and so it has proven for 41 years, three children and five grandchildren--we still regularly head off to somewhere new to learn something new from history, even heading to the tip of Newfoundland this fall to visit L'Anse aux Meadows and walk where the Vikings walked.

As a writer, I consider myself to be mostly a "teller of stories" and I find the true stories from the adventure of history to be the ones I most enjoy telling. I have always been a reader of history. I especially loved to read biographies during my childhood. As an adult, I began reading more of the actual primary source material of history--diaries and letters and reminiscences by people who were actually involved in an historical event. The stories I found in this reading, especially the ones from the Civil War and Revolutionary War were fascinating and much too interesting to be left to just adult readers. So I became a writer of history, in addition to being a reader of it. All I try to do is to take my favorite stories from history and share them with younger readers, using the words of the people who were really there as much as possible. Over the years I have expanded the history I enjoy to some parts of European history especially anything to do with the Romans, and anything from the Medieval and Renaissance periods.

However, as the years have passed, I find that all that I have learned and then shared with my readers stays with me and makes me only want to write more. This time I want to be able to speculate of what these real people were really thinking, and that means writing fiction. My writing will still be full of history--I couldn't get away from that if I tried! But now I'll have room to close my eyes and pretend that I am there back in the past, part of all that real history I still love!
www.susanprovostbeller.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A guide for children who want to trace their family histories through the centuries, August 14, 2008

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Roots for Kids: A Genealogy Guide for Young People. 2nd Edition (Paperback)

Where do we come from? The answer is more than a story about birds and bees. "Roots for Kids: A Genealogy Guide for Young People" is a guide for children who want to trace their family histories through the centuries. Encouraging children to learn everything they can about their history, "Roots for Kids" is tailored to elementary school age children and formatted in a manner suitable for adaptation into classroom lessons. Featuring a focus on internet research, "Roots for Kids" is a great pick for any parent with an inquisitive child.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The BEST of the genealogy books, January 8, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (WV, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Roots for Kids: A Genealogy Guide for Young People (Paperback)

Purchased this book on the recommendation of a genealogist. She was right. It is NOT just for kids. The charts in the back have been an exceptional help in keeping me organized.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Terrific, December 22, 2010

By 

.JT. (NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Roots for Kids: A Genealogy Guide for Young People. 2nd Edition (Paperback)

As I've worked on my genealogy projects, I've employed a jump into the deep end of the pool methodology and often have had to go back and learn the basics of various records sets after running into walls.

Lately I've been thinking of ways to teach my children about the family and my research and wondered how one might make a pile of papers and old photographs truly interesting to them.

Well, this book begins with a wonderful picture of putting together a jigsaw puzzle - you don't know what you really have until the pieces are in place. As the book works through the various topics and record types, the author does a great job of incorporating story and mental images into the process, making it more tangible and understandable to a young researcher.

I'd recommend this book to anyone hoping to pass on the genealogy bug to their kids or even to get adults started on the basics.