Did It All Start with a Snowball Fight?: And Other Questions About...The American Revolution

by Mary Kay Carson, Robert Hunt (Illustrator)

Overview

Could a snowball fight really have sparked the American Revolution? What made people get so steaming mad over the price of tea? And did it take a minuteman only a minute to join the fight? Step back into colonial America to find out about taxation without representation; why the British were called lobsters, the first-ever combat submarine, and whether Yankee doodles were really dandy!  This interesting take on eh American Revolution will attract young readers…even if they don't have to write a book report.

 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781402796265
Publisher:	Sterling Children's Books
Publication date:	08/07/2012
Series:	Good Question! Series
Pages:	40
Product dimensions:	10.10(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.40(d)
Age Range:	7 - 18 Years

About the Author

Mary Kay Carson is an award-winning children's nonfiction author. She has written more than forty books for kids about wildlife, space, weather, nature, and history, including Alexander Graham Bell: Giving Voice to the World, The Underground Railroad for Kids, and The Wright Brothers for Kids. Mary Kay also gives presentations at schools about writing and her books. She lives in Cincinnati, OH. For more information go to: marykaycarson.com.

Robert Hunt's work has received numerous awards and has appeared regularly in the New York Society of Illustrator's Annual exhibits at the Museum of American Illustration, as well as the Communication Arts, Graphics and Print Design, and Illustration Annuals. He lives in San Anselmo, CA.

Editorial Reviews

Much of the essential history of the American Revolution is conveyed briefly through 18 questions and answers. "Did it all start with a snowball fight?" "Were Yankee Doodles really dandy?" "How did the underdog Patriots come out on top?" "Who joined the Continental army and why did they look so scruffy?" The same enticing question-and-answer format employed in Carson's previous series entry, What Sank the World's Biggest Ship? (2012), is used here. Each question is followed by a page or so of information answering the question, though some answers are more thorough than others, and the writing is often choppy. Backmatter includes a timeline, but readers will have to search online for the bibliography and suggestions for further reading. This volume doesn't quite live up to the promising start to the series, as copy-editing oversights mar the text, leaving in distracting errors of spelling, punctuation and capitalization. Still, the format works well to impart lots of information to young readers, and Hunt's paintings add drama. The final question--"Were the shots fired at Lexington and Concord ‘heard round the world'?"--offers a hint at the significance of the American Revolution by linking it to later events, such as the French Revolution and the women's rights and civil rights movements. An entertaining though superficial introduction to the American Revolution. (Nonfiction. 8-12)

Kirkus Reviews

"This entry in the Good Question! series tackles commonly repeated facts and folklore regarding the American Revolution in a child-friendly, inquiry-based style. The Revolution is a topic replete with legends and pop history, and many myths are dispelled in this book . . . an excellent resource." — Booklist 

“[The] information is incredibly well presented . . . Each spread has one or two questions and answers on one side and a captioned, colorful full-page painting or cartoon on the other. Each section is short enough to keep reluctant readers engaged . . . ” —School Library Journal

From the Publisher

Gr 2–4—This book doesn't cover any new ground about the Revolution, but the information is incredibly well presented. Starting with the Boston Massacre (the snowball fight in question) and ending with the Treaty of Paris, the facts are related in a question-and-answer format, in an arrangement that's more topical than chronological (though there is a mostly perfunctory time line at the end). Each spread has one or two questions and answers on one side and a captioned, colorful full-page painting or cartoon on the other. Each section is short enough to keep reluctant readers engaged, but at 32 pages, only half of which have text, the book's brevity is a liability. Snowball Fight would best serve as additional material, specifically for a group of reluctant or delayed readers.—Rebecca Dash Donsky, New York Public Library

School Library Journal