Customer Reviews

A Weed Is a Flower : The Life of George Washington Carver

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What my (now 6 yo) daughter likes is a good story. She can learn anything if there is some dramatic action involved. This story of George Washington Carver's life is just the right length for a young student (kinder to 4th grade). It starts with the drama of the baby GWC being kidnapped and returned. The illustrations are bold and capture the flavor of the text. It's everything you want in a child's book, educational, morally inspiring, and yet a truly good to read story.

I just love Amazon! This book was part of our homeschool curriculum and was not available at our local library. I bought it at a reasonable price here and donated it! I can't imagine this book not being part of a library!

My 6-year-old son had to write an essay about George Washington Carver. I decided to purchase this book to get him interested in the life of GWC as well as a reference book for the basic facts. I was not disappointed. This well-written tale is very engrossing and my son had many questions to ask about GWC's life; he asked about slavery, about why GWC was kidnapped with his mother as a baby, as well as why young GWC was not allowed to attend school just anywhere, and so on. My son, who attends a school where he is a minority as a white child, was confused and horrified to learn that a time ever existed where people were owned and sold like property, a time when a child could not attend school based on the color of his skin. I'll admit I was a little uncomfortable at first with the deluge of questions. I was unsure just how detailed to be with a 6 year old, how to present the hard truths gently without blunting the reality that slaves faced. But amazingly, his new mind handled the concepts with amazing maturity, and his genuine shock made me grateful that he goes to a school where diversity is so strong that he doesn't even notice skin color; it is just natural variety in his young mind, like the color of your eyes or hair.

The illustrations are lovely and my son paused to look over them before and after reading each page. By the time we got to the end, I had tears in my eyes. What a moving story brought to vivid life with beautiful, colorful illustrations and simple, reverent writing about a man who rose above his humble beginnings and through diligence and perseverance became an inspiration for people of ALL colors.

Though this is a fact-based story, it IS a story, to be read and enjoyed from beginning to end, so it does not serve well as a quick reference guide--though it is by no means very long, and it does contain important factual details about GWC's life. However, for quick dates and specifics, you might have to consult other sources.

This is one of the books that has been written into the first grade common core. I read it to the class and it kept their interst. We also watched it on watchknowlearn. Students later wrote a sentence about one thing they remembered had been made from peanuts on a construction paper peanut. It made a nice hall display.