Customer Reviews

Story of Chocolate (Dk Readers Level 3)

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

 

 

The first thing C.J. Polin informs us in telling "The Story of Chocolate" is that the average person eats 11 pounds of chocolate a year. That would be the equivalent of 100 chocolate bars a year, or one every 3.65 days (impressive how I worked the math for that out in my head, huh?). I think I am behind at this point in the year, so I decided to make a yellow cake with chocolate frosting last night for the Super Bowl, but that meant I had to share with others and I did not make up as much ground as I was hoping. I just hope white chocolate counts towards the total.

The amazing thing is that chocolate is made from seeds called cocoa beans that are inside pods that grow on cacao trees in the rain forest. Not even Jack from the fairy tale had magic beans like these. No wonder the Swedish scientist Linnaeus gave the cocao tree the scientific name "Theobroma cacao," which means "food of the god." Obviously the man liked his chocolate. "The Story of Chocolate" begins with the history of the cocoa bean, which goes back to the ancient Olmec people of Mesoamerica and the Mayans and Aztecs that followed them. When these "almonds" were discovered by Christopher Columbus' son Ferdinand no one knew this was the start of a beautiful friendship and while Hernando Cortes was getting ready to conquer the Aztec nation his men also added sugar to the bitter tasting chocolate drink they were served to sweeten it up (not that this balances the cosmic scales of justice). It is not surprising that for a century the Spanish kept the secret of the cocoa bean to themselves, but eventually drinking chocolate at fashionable cafes became the rage in Europe.

Once the first American chocolate factory opened in Massachusetts in 1765, Polin turns to how chocolate became a treat for the masses. Sure, James Watt made a steam engine that could power a locomotive, but it was powering Coenraad van Houten's chocolate press that really made the world a better place to live. Solid chocolate was not invented until 1840 in England and then in 1875 the Swiss came up with milk chocolate. Polin details each of the improvements that have resulted in the aspects of chocolate that we take for granted today. The book ends by looking at what it means to make chocolate today and all the kinds of chocolate that exist today, and if you did not know that you should not be reading this book without chocolate on hand, it will be painfully clear to you at this point (I planned ahead and you should too).

The book is filled with contemporary and historical illustrations of chocolate and the back has a Glossary of key terms. Young readers will certainly learn the basics of the history of chocolate and if they are doing this for class then eating chocolate would constitute homework, right? This is a level 3 Reading alone DK Reader (the level between beginning to read alone and being a proficient reader), which means more complex sentence structure, information boxes and alphabetical glossary, and comprehensive index. Other Level 3 DK Readers include "Spacebuster: The Race to the Moon," "Movie Magic," "Abraham Lincoln: Lawyer, Leader, Legend," and "LEGO: Mission to the Arctic." So you can see there is a wide range of titles available that should include a topic appealing to your young reader.

This book is intended for those that are no longer beginners at reading alone, but are not yet proficients. The sentence structure is becoming more complex. An analysis of four paragraphs resulted in a Flesch Kincaid Grade level of the middle of 6th grade. There are an index and glossary to practice working with those. So, overall this book is best suited for reading alone by upper elementary and middle school children, but it's well suited to a read aloud for the younger ages. There are plenty of pictures scattered throughout and the text is large and easy to read.

Most people enjoy chocolate, and its story is fascinating. The reader learns about where cocoa beans come from, the beginnings of chocolate with the Mayan and Aztec civilizations, its adoption and the addition of sugar by the Spaniards, etc, progressing into modern chocolate. There are lots of interesting details, like the fact that Aztecs used cocoa beans for money. There are the details that are not important to know, but are interesting to readers, like the pictures of chefs pouring chocolate into a heart mold 7 feet long and 5 inches deep!

I'd recommend this book as a read aloud to elementary age children, or as a read-alone book for 5th-8th grade. The topic is one that most children will enjoy. We used it as a supplement to our study of Cortes and the Aztecs, and made the Aztec/Mayan chocolatl and then sweetened it like the Spaniards did. My elementary children loved it, and even the preschoolers enjoyed the taste-testing!

A lot of great background in the history of chocolate. It was a gift and the only disappointment was that the pages were not lickable.

We enjoyed this book. It was very basic and educational. It covered the discovery of chocolate and the early use of it as money. Nicely illustrated.

This has the complete and very interesting story/history of chocolate in an easy to understand format. Perfect for grade schoolers on up who want to know more about chocolate's origins and history.

I bought the book for my 11 year old granddaughter who is interested in Chocolate to decorate and eat. The book was easy for her to read. She loved it.