Who knew an 8 year old girl could become mesmerized by Christopher Columbus. That's exactly what happened when my daughter read Usborne's Christopher Columbus for school last week. Now she can't wait til Columbus Day, which is Oct. 12th this year. She has all sorts of activities planned along with a special Italian dinner that she plans to cook for us that evening.
I just asked my daughter why she likes this book so much. She said "Because it's cool." "Why is it cool?", I asked her. "Because it tells you about somebody back in the olden days.", she said. Kids love history, and if you make it fun for them they love it even more. They also retain the information even more. I have learned more about Christopher Columbus from my daughter this week, than I remember learning in school when I was a kid.
What sets this book apart is the way the information is presented. It has 8 short chapters and is 64 pages long. The book begins with Columbus' childhood. Rarely is his childhood presented in books for kids. The book also has vibrant illustrations, and some of them have dialogue in them. The kids love to read the dialogue among the characters in the book. The book contains colorful maps and shows exactly where the ships The Nina, The Pinta, and the Santa Maria went. It also has maps of Columbus' other voyages. Did you know his crew got stuck on an island and he had to go back to Spain for help? The writing in this book also keeps the kids on the edge of their seat, so that when they get to the end of a chapter they want to continue on until they finish the book.
Another neat thing is Usborne's Christopher Columbus is Internet-Linked! What an extra treat! What does Internet-Linked mean, you ask? That means if you go to www.usborne-quicklinks.com you will be directed to all sorts of kid approved sights based solely on the topic in that book. My daughter just ate dinner with Christopher Columbus and earned herself some fish. Yum!
Other biographies by Usborne Books are Alexander the Great, Cleopatra, William Shakespeare, Leonardo DaVinci, Captain Cook, Florence Nightingale, Anne Frank, Winston Churchill, and Martin Luther King, Jr. They are all just as exciting as Christopher Columbus, and kids will become just as enthralled with these historical figures.
If you would like to purchase multiple copies of any of these biographies for your classroom or school, please email me at kristie@usborneactivities.com for a price quote. If you have grant or donation funds, you can utilite Usborne's Literacy for a Lifetime Program and receive a 50% match of FREE books with your purchase. Contact me at kristie@usborneactivities.com for more information on Usborne's Literacy for a Lifetime Program.
I am so thrilled to watch first-hand how Usborne books impact children's lives.
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