Diana AppelbaumRecensioni

SUMMARY: A girl in Santo Domingo tells how cocoa is harvested during the late 1800s while at the same time her counterpart is Maine tells about the harvesting of ice.

REVIEW: This could almost be one of those topsy-turvy books were one story reads from the front and then you flip it over and read the second story starting from the back because it is the same story from two different points of view from two different locations that intersect on the high seas. Both girls, similar in age, have very different lives and are in awe of the their counterpart’s life and home. It is interesting to see that Santo Domingo needs ice to make their cocoa ice and Maine needs the cocoa to create their chocolate ice cream.

NOTE: The front endpage shows a large area map with the sea trip route marked. Did you notice the compass has in its center a cocoa pod cut in half showing the cocoa seeds inside

ACTIVITY: Can you compare the two girls, their homes, their families, the climate, their culture, their clothes, their treasures?

This book of two different views of 2 stories that meet through other characters who are not the main ones but still express the same value. I place a 3 star because i fell the story is consumed with so many words on one page that i could or would lose the k-3 audience. It explores 2 hard working families and has a good imagery but the transition between the 2 worlds were shaky and were not explained well or transition well for i was confused so i think it will confuse a younger audience,

This book is about two little girls who have families on opposite sides of the cocoa/ice trade. We see one little girl on a hot island with her family harvesting cacao and making chocolate. We trace the trade to another little girl who lives in Maine. Her uncle works for an ice company, harvesting and storing the ice. This story shows students that two little girls who live in two different places actually live similar lives. I think this story also shows students how we are all connected throughout the world with items that we trade and give.

A girl from Santo Domingo helps her father harvest cacao while a girl in Maine watches her father cut ice blocks from the river. This a fascinating story to me because these two girls are in entirely different worlds. It shows that what we think the world is like to somebody else isn't actually what it is like.

I had no idea there were trees this large in New England back in the day. I mean, I guess it doesn't surprise me, I'd just never really thought about it before.

I read this book aloud to my children, and they loved hearing about how these huge trees were cut down to be used as masts on huge English ships. By the end of the book where they talked about how (*spoiler alert*) all of the giant trees had been cut down, my nine-year-old budding environmentalist daughter was in tears.

The illustrations were simple and lovely, and the story was engaging, at least to my kids (although based on the other reviews, my kids might be in the minority).

From judging the cover, I thought this book was going to be about the differences of hot weather places and then the cold. But, it turned out to be much more than that. I loved this book and the complexity of the diverse background of the wonderful characters. For being a children's book, we received so much history and character knowledge, in such a short period of time. The book is about a two girls living in very different areas of the world. Their two different worlds, are not that different after all. A beautiful read about ice and cocoa and how they interlace. This book is a must for any classroom library.

This book about the early chocolate trade between Maine and Santo Domingo is a lot of fun. It's told from the perspective of two children whose families are involved in different ends of the trade, one in Maine and the other in Santo Domingo. They are both vaguely aware of each other because of gifts that they've exchanged through Jacob whose niece makes up the Maine half of the narrative team. He transports the the gifts the two girls give each other, though they've never met. I like this story for a lot of reasons, but none more than the beautiful use of simile that envelops the whole text. So well done.

Summary: This is the story of two girls who don't know each other. One, growing up in Maine, love the cocoa that her uncle Jacob brings home from his trading trips. The other, growing up in Santo Domingo, loves the ice that the traders bring South.

Genre: historical fiction/informational

What a great idea for a book! A girl from Santo Domingo helps her father harvest cacao while a girl in Maine watches her father cut ice blocks from the river, teaching students that: a) not everything we use comes from where we are and b) simple things like chocolate and ice used to take a lot of work to make. I'm not sure if this would make a good read-aloud, but the independent reader might find it a fascinating lesson on the history of trade and production.

Super long for storytime. One little girl from Maine wonders over a conch shell from South America. One little girl from South America wonders over ice from Maine. Historical fact about the ice/cocoa trade that makes both girls lives a little larger. Interesting information on the early ice trade, how ice is cut and saved and such.

Age level-7-10

historical reference the 1870's Maine trading schooners brought ice to Santo Domingo trade for cocoa and coffee

FROM THE BOOK:
Giant pine trees, trees almost as big as the more famous redwoods in California, once covered all of New England. More than 250 feet tall and four feet wide, these trees filled the forests from Maine to New York. Prized for their lumber, most giant pines were branded as property of the king in pre-revolutionary New England and were often used as masts for the ships of the Royal Navy.