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3.55 AVERAGE
3.55 AVERAGE
A great read by Kathryn Lasky that helps to put you in the shoes of a young girl in the New World.
This is something new to me. About how European started to move & settle down in the New World. Good to learn some history in a simple way.
I learned to read when I was very young. I came to kindergarten reading well enough that I was in a top group by myself. By second grade I was at and eighth-grade level. And I loved to read. By second grade I wanted to read instead of play during recess (though no teacher would let me until third grade). I would go to the library nearly every day and get a new Dear America book and return the one I had read the day before. I was much too young to understand a lot of what was happening, and I probably skimmed more than anything. (How did it take until I was 23 to get diagnosed with ADHD?) But since coming across a good stash of them at a Goodwill last year, I figured it was about time I revisited one of my favorite and most formative childhood book series. I remembered reading this one at Cabrillo park, maybe during someone else's soccer practice, but not much else about it. And maybe with good reason. The Pilgrims are kind of boring. Slightly less since I learned that I was a direct descendant of William Bradford, but still. This one had a sweet narrative, but reminded me of something my creative writing teacher told me when I brought a journal-story to class--not all of it felt enough like a journal. I suppose that Pilgrims being as boring as they were, Mem wouldn't have much else to write about than the historical and political events going on around her, but perhaps I can't fault Lasky too much for that, since the goal of the books is to teach the history. I'm still looking more forward to the Oregon Trail and Polish immigrant diaries, but glad I could start in Plymouth.
While going through some of my stuff at my parents home, I found this book. I remember it being the first book in the Dear America series (a great series to introduce girls to important events in American history). While the language and events in the book are not entirely accurate, it's a good introduction to teaching young girls about the Mayflower and the history of the Pilgrims. Not unlike the American Girls series, these books can be used as a great teaching tool, and a way to get girls interested in history (and historical fiction as well). I especially like the notes and historical illustrations they have at the back of the book. I hope that the publishers are continuing with this series.
WOAh, I remember this book!!! And, I actually liked it!
adventurous
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
emotional
funny
hopeful
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
the first dear america book i read as a child!! not my favorite. remember was a good character and i think kathryn lasky perfectly encapsulated how such a young child would react to certain situations. still, it felt like it was lacking something
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child death, Death, Death of parent
Minor: Racism
Maybe it's the time period, or maybe the narrator was just too young for me to really connect to, but this one was just okay for me. There were parts of the story that were interesting, but most of it feel a little flat. Maybe I just expected too much from it. Still, I really like this series overall, it's one of my favorites from when I was younger and I'm excited to continue on with it.
This review comes in two parts. The first is on this book exclusively, and the second is in context of other Dear America books.
First, I appreciated that the narrator, Mem, did come across as a child and wrote about things children would be concerned about, even if they were in as dire a situation as one of the pilgrims sailing on the Mayflower and settling in that first devastating winter in Plimoth Colony. But I also appreciated that there were big emotions in this book surrounding the loss that all the pilgrims experienced, because children experience those big emotions too. However, this felt a little like a Thanksgiving pageant in that there were a lot of moments that I feel like would not have been of note or recorded, like the landing at Plimoth Rock, but were documented just for the sake of including it since it's so famous? Mem would have had no idea that that landing would "go down in history" like she wrote about. And finally, I just ended up having a lot of complex emotions around this book with the more modern context around the pilgrim's colonization and interactions with the Native Americans so it was just hard to enjoy and take it for the positive light it was put in.
In context of the rest of the series, I think this book could have been better. As one of the first three published in the series, I give it some leeway since later books really showed the full potential for diving into history, ups, downs, difficulties and complexities and everything in between, in this format for middle readers. This just felt kind of simplistic and unnuanced when I think this story could be full of complexity of emotion and nuance. I just wanted more from it, I guess, knowing what it could be relative to other book sin this series.
First, I appreciated that the narrator, Mem, did come across as a child and wrote about things children would be concerned about, even if they were in as dire a situation as one of the pilgrims sailing on the Mayflower and settling in that first devastating winter in Plimoth Colony. But I also appreciated that there were big emotions in this book surrounding the loss that all the pilgrims experienced, because children experience those big emotions too. However, this felt a little like a Thanksgiving pageant in that there were a lot of moments that I feel like would not have been of note or recorded, like the landing at Plimoth Rock, but were documented just for the sake of including it since it's so famous? Mem would have had no idea that that landing would "go down in history" like she wrote about. And finally, I just ended up having a lot of complex emotions around this book with the more modern context around the pilgrim's colonization and interactions with the Native Americans so it was just hard to enjoy and take it for the positive light it was put in.
In context of the rest of the series, I think this book could have been better. As one of the first three published in the series, I give it some leeway since later books really showed the full potential for diving into history, ups, downs, difficulties and complexities and everything in between, in this format for middle readers. This just felt kind of simplistic and unnuanced when I think this story could be full of complexity of emotion and nuance. I just wanted more from it, I guess, knowing what it could be relative to other book sin this series.