A story of legend with a tread of truth. Very informative, funny, and fun. As a big Levi's jeans guy, I found this book to be a joy. ( )

This tall tale takes place during the California Gold Rush, and the miners at the time did not have sustainable pants in which they can work. Levi Strauss heads that way many years after the start of the gold rush and, through trial and error, finds a way to fix their need for sustainable pants. There is a short biography about Levi Strauss in the back of the book that goes into more detail about his life. First of all, I love the illustrations in this book and thoroughly enjoyed reading it! I could connect this book to instruction in many ways. For instance, it is a tall tale and filled with figurative language, such as similes, metaphors, and alliteration. I could also use this story to teach new vocabulary because there were a few vocabulary words I had to look up myself while reading it. I would use this book in my fifth, sixth, or seventh-grade classroom. Also, this book is written in a distinct voice that makes it fun to read. Again, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and will use it in my future classroom. ( )

This is taking place in California during the gold rush era. The people searching for gold had been working so hard that their pants became so worn down they basically disintegrated. They were made from flimsy corduroy wool tweed flannel burlap velvet and did not last long in the gold fields. Soon every miner was naked which caused for the great barrel rush. The barrel rush consisted of everyone wearing barrels, but they were a bit awkward to walk around in. At that very time, Levi rushed west from New York City. After witnessing the men in barrels he set out to build a better trouser. First, he clipped his own tent and sliced it together as pants. Soon enough everyone wanted a pair so he asked for help from his brothers, soon enough everyone had a pair. Unfortunately, a new problem arose when they refused to take them off and became very smelly so his brother and he made more pants so that everyone had two pairs of pants. I think this is a neat book for children to become inspired to create an item that could help others. This is a good book to read with the older grade levels because of the number of difficult vocabulary words. ( )

This book is about the invention of Levi jeans by Levi Strauss during the California gold rush. Levi Strauss came up with the idea to make his jeans because he noticed the need for more durable jeans for the miners. After much experimenting with different fabrics and materials for his jeans, all of the miners were wearing Levi's jeans. This book has fun and engaging illustrations to keep the readers hooked, and it could be nicely paired with a history lesson for students between the grades of first and fourth. ( )

With hiliarious illustrations and animated text this book gives us an insight to the little known Levi Strauss, the inventor of jeans. Although, admittedly, “fabricated”, this story allows the reader to be fascinated by how a simple man worked to solve a really big problem during the Gold Rush Era. The reality was the people did not have pants that were suitable to the conditions and the author tells us this story in a comical way. This story is not only a sort of biography but a story of entrepreneurship that could be used for social studies as well as math classes. ( )