Victorian Days: Discover the Past with Fun Projects, Games, Activities, and Recipes [Paperback]

David C. King (Author), Cheryl Kirk Noll (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0471331228 | ISBN-13: 978-0471331223 | Publication Date: January 10, 2000 | Edition: 1

American Kids in History?(TM) Share the Fun, Challenges, Dreams, and Adventures of Life in Victorian America What would it be like to grow up in New York City during the exciting Victorian era? Travel back to 1893 and find out. Join the Kadinskys, a family of Polish immigrants working hard to start a new life, and the Hobarts, a well-to-do American family living in a large house near Central Park. Steam into New York Harbor with eleven-year-old Mary Kadinsky and share her thrilling first sight of the Statue of Liberty. Start a new school year with twelve-year-old William Hobart and discover a game called basketball. Be a part of their daily lives during this time of remarkable growth and change with fun and easy projects, recipes, activities, and games. Make cinnamon bread sticks and play Polish checkers. Decorate Easter eggs and prepare for a Victorian Christmas. Create Polish paper cutouts and cook up your own rock candy. Share the Victorians' love of nature and collecting, and learn to make plaster of paris casts of natural objects like autumn leaves--or animal footprints. Experiment with snowflake impressions, learn to measure the distance of lightning, and unlock the secrets of electricity.. From Mary's inviting kitchen and William's basement workshop to the bustling beach resort at Coney Island and ice-skating in Central Park, Victorian Days will take you back to a fascinating period in American history. Watch for World War II Days, the next exciting book in the American Kids in History?(TM) series! Also available: Civil War Days, Pioneer Days, Colonial Days, and Wild West Days for Children Ages 8 to 12

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 4-6-Children can experience Victorian New York through more than 30 fun activities. The sections center on the lives of two fictional families: the Kadinskys, who have recently arrived from Poland, and the wealthy Hobarts. Snippets of historical information on home life, school, street vendors, settlement houses, inventions, the changing role of women, and the "Gay Nineties" are interspersed with detailed directions for the projects. The book is arranged by seasons, and follows the families through the year 1893. Crafts include paper flowers, shadow puppets, decorating Easter eggs, Polish checkers, embroidered bookmarks, a seashell display case, a decoupage box, a tin-can telephone, a Victorian folding fan, and Christmas ornaments. A bounty of fun recipes includes biscuits, cinnamon bread sticks, deviled eggs, corn oysters, New York cheesecake, rock-candy crystals, holiday fruit punch, and candy-cane sundaes. Wherever adult help is needed, it is suggested. The black-and-white drawings are adequate, but not particularly notable. This title fills a curriculum need and will appeal to fans of the "American Girl" series (Pleasant Co.).
Jennifer J. Gallant, Cleveland Public Library, OH
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From the Back Cover

American Kids in History^™ Share the Fun, Challenges, Dreams, and Adventures of Life in Victorian America What would it be like to grow up in New York City during the exciting Victorian era? Travel back to 1893 and find out. Join the Kadinskys, a family of Polish immigrants working hard to start a new life, and the Hobarts, a well-to-do American family living in a large house near Central Park. Steam into New York Harbor with eleven-year-old Mary Kadinsky and share her thrilling first sight of the Statue of Liberty. Start a new school year with twelve-year-old William Hobart and discover a game called basketball. Be a part of their daily lives during this time of remarkable growth and change with fun and easy projects, recipes, activities, and games. Make cinnamon bread sticks and play Polish checkers. Decorate Easter eggs and prepare for a Victorian Christmas. Create Polish paper cutouts and cook up your own rock candy. Share the Victorians’ love of nature and collecting, and learn to make plaster of paris casts of natural objects like autumn leaves—or animal footprints. Experiment with snowflake impressions, learn to measure the distance of lightning, and unlock the secrets of electricity.… From Mary’s inviting kitchen and William’s basement workshop to the bustling beach resort at Coney Island and ice-skating in Central Park, Victorian Days will take you back to a fascinating period in American history. Watch for World War II Days, the next exciting book in the American Kids in History^™ series! Also available: Civil War Days, Pioneer Days, Colonial Days, and Wild West Days for Children Ages 8 to 12

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 8 and up
  
• Paperback: 112 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (January 10, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471331228
• ISBN-13: 978-0471331223
• Product Dimensions: 10.2 x 8.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,051,650 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great and useful tool for the classroom!, June 5, 2006

By 

Sylviastel - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Victorian Days: Discover the Past with Fun Projects, Games, Activities, and Recipes (Paperback)

This book by David C. King who has written similar books really has provided an entertaining and informative way of educating students about the Victorian era without them getting bored by predictability or turned off by the subject. These books in his series allows us to help students understand life before television, radio, telephones, etc. in another time. This book answers the questions about life in the Victorian era where life was so proper.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Victorian Era History for Children's Projects, September 22, 2000

By 

Michael S Roberts - See all my reviews

This review is from: Victorian Days: Discover the Past with Fun Projects, Games, Activities, and Recipes (Paperback)

This book is another in a series that includes very easy activities for children to do in class. Working with these activities children will be able to discover a different lifestyle than they are used to today. David King has written a book that would be perfect for culminating activites to demonstrate this historical period of time.

5.0 out of 5 stars A delightful invitation to history!, July 13, 2008

By 

J. Arena (Williamsburg, VA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Victorian Days: Discover the Past with Fun Projects, Games, Activities, and Recipes (Paperback)

Enter the wonderful world of Victorian New York! If your child is studying this period of history, there can be no better way to encourage greater exploration of history than with this amazing publication.

This is an opportunity to see the era through the eyes of the Hobarts, a very wealthy family and the Kadinskys, a recently arrived family of immigrants from Poland. The families are fictional, but the history is quite real and well researched. You can experience their era in great detail as the seasons pass and their work and play change accordingly.

You can make the same arts and crafts that the Hobarts and Kadinskys make, including a Victorian folding fan, a decoupage box and some Christmas ornaments. You can also taste the same food that they ate, including bread sticks flavored with cinnamon, rock-candy, and "New York cheesecake!"

This is a learning experience that will change your child's appreciation of history and be cherished forever. Could you ask for anything better?