Lessons from History, Elementary Edition: A Celebration in Blackness Book

This tells the true survival story of a group of scientists, explorers, hunters, and an Inupiaq family whose boat was frozen in the Arctic ice. This was written by Jacqueline Briggs Martin, who also wrote Snowflake Bentley, a favorite book I love to share with library students. Depite that, I have mixed feelings about this one. I wasn't immediately pulled into the story. I kept trying to figure out if the text was going to rhyme. I was glad when it didn't, but it still took me a bit to get used to the poem-like format of the text.

Once I get involved with the story, though, I forgot about the text and just enjoyed it. It is a very interesting and engaging true story of survival. It's a little too long for me to share with my library classes in one lesson, but I might use it sometime spread over two lessons. I think it's a book children could enjoy, but more so if it is read aloud to them. I've had very few children checking it out and reading it on their own.

I might have really loved this if it was a bit shorter so that I could easily read it aloud to library classes, but I wouldn't have wanted to miss out on details of the story and actually would have even enjoyed a bit more. The illustrations pair well with the story and help clear up some questions I might have had in places where the text didn't give enough detail. It was great getting to see several photographs of the real people at the end of the book. I wouldn't mind reading more about these people and their story sometime. 3.5 stars.