John Steinbeck: The Grapes of Wrath and of Mice and Men Book

Reason for Reading: Read aloud to the 10yo as part of our history curriculum.


Wonderful brief biography of the Wright Brothers concentrating on their invention of the airplane. Some time is spent on their childhood, bicycle shop and printing days before they got serious working on the gliders and flying machines. Written in an engaging narrative text, the story is told over two page spreads which are heavily illustrated with photos of the Wrights in action and of contemporary items and places. Once the main block of text has been read the captions to the illustrations further explain what has been read in the section. My son loved this book, as he did the previous book in the series we have read on Helen Keller and Alexander Graham Bell. A lot of information is imparted in the limited number of pages in an interesting voice and the illustrations are enough to keep even the youngest listener captive. Highly enjoyable.