Customer Reviews

Who's That Stepping on Plymouth Rock?

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We read this for Social Studies this week. It is the history of Plymouth Rock. This was a really good factual book that was told in such a way that my 8 year old really enjoyed it. Who know that it traveled? It was recommended in the book Social Studies Through Children's Literature by Anthony D. Fredricks and is recommended for grades K-3rd.

In this book, you get to watch a bit of history making itself, and remaking itself. This book sort of breaks the highly reverent attitude of those Daughters of the American Revolution types by taking a straight look at the circumstances surrounding how the rock that became Plymouth Rock was treated as the centuries went by by the town that grew up around it.

While many people have heard the story of Plymouth Rock, no one much thinks about the idea that maybe it isn't exactly true. Everyone knows the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock and that's where they're first steps were made. It's pretty much historic fact in most people's eyes, but as this book points out, that's not exactly the case. There's absolutely no evidence that the rock was memorable for any reason at all until they decided to build a wharf where the rock stood in 1741.

This book does so much more than give the history of Plymouth Rock and all the moves and changes it's undergone. It also encourages children to think about history in a more objective way. It states that this whole story of the rock is treated as fact because a 95 year old man declared it was truth, and as his father knew some of the First Comers (Pilgrims), it was taken as fact. In truth, there's no hard evidence beyond this story, so there's every chance it could be completely untrue! Doesn't that teach children to think a little more critically and to research everything before they take it as a hard and solid truth.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to teach their children to think a little deeper into "historic fact", as well as anyone who has visited, or plans to visit Plymouth Rock. It's great to know the actual history behind a landmark you've been to or will soon visit.

It is funny how a rock can move from place to place and got broken two times. First, it was on the beach. Then the Pilgrims saw it. When they tried to move it broke. The top of the rock got all the fame. Then they cemented both pieces together and it stands under a special place.