Lots of good information, but very boring. ( )

I liked this book for several reasons. The main idea of this book is to teach readers about the life of Pocahontas. First, I enjoyed that the book featured a timeline in the beginning of the book. This mapped out the key events in Pocahontas’ life, such as her kidnapping by Captain Samuel Argall in 1613 and marriage to John Rolfe in 1614. This gives the reader an easy to understand reference sheet that they can look back on as they read the chapters. I also enjoyed that several times the book devotes entire pages to unfamiliar Native American practices/ objects that the reader may not have heard of before. For example, the book devotes a page to explaining ‘wampum’ – a Native American tapestry that often tells the story or history of a family. This allows the reader to better understand the Native American culture, which in turn enhances the biography of Pocahontas! The illustrations included paintings that help the reader visualize the time period. I also really enjoyed that each chapter begins with a quote or snippet of a journal entry by John Smith. For example, Chapter 4 (Jamestown) begins with “Heaven and earth never agreed better to frame a place for man’s habitation – John Smith”. This gives the reader an added perspective and ties in some historical writings which I think adds meaning to the biography. Each chapter was also broken up into subheadings, which breaks the chapter up nicely and allows the reader to process the sequence of events easier. One of my favorite parts was the family tree at the end of the book. The caption explains that thousands of Americans today believe their roots go back to Pocahontas, and the family tree provides a look at 12 generations that are said to have succeeded Pocahontas. This shows the lasting effect Pocahontas had and how many generations were directly impacted by her and her life! I think this book would serve young readers very well in understanding Pocahontas’ importance to the history of Virginia as well as Native American history. ( )

This is a biography of Pocahontas. While it is full of information about Pocahontas's life, it does gloss over certain information to make it less frightening for elementary school readers. I like that it had sidebars, insets, and asides throughout the book to add more detail. These extra bits of information filled in for young readers what they would not have understood had they simply read the biography all the way through. The pictures were great to follow along with the reading. They were well placed and provided a visual for young readers about the life and culture of the Powatan people and that historical time period. ( )

I liked this book because of its language and use of real images to support the text. The language in this book was somewhat challenging for younger readers, asking them to use contextual clues to decode some of the language. The glossary in the back of the book makes the language accessible to all readers and offers solidification of vocabulary. There is also an index of abbreviations as well as an index to help readers easily find facts. The images that coincide with the text are scans of real paintings and maps of the times. This allows the reader to gain a sense of what the time period that Pocahontas lived in would really look like. The main idea of this story was to teach readers about Pocahontas. ( )