Children's Corner: John, Paul, George, & Ben

Traditionally in our house this time of year I haul out my 1776 DVD and we have a viewing.  Unfortunately, though my daughter loves musicals, there is a little too much talking in 1776 to hold her attention ("John you're a bore; we've heard this before.") yet.  Needless to say, when I found this at a Scholastic sale I was overjoyed to find a way to share a little history with my kidlet ~and even better it was from Lane Smith, who we love!

Lane Smith takes all the traditional yarns surrounding the founding fathers and weaves them into entertaining mini biographies (though I do wish he'd picked John Adams over John Hancock ...and what about Richard Henry Lee?!?).  And though he may stretch the tall tales a little taller, he has a true/false section at the back of the book to explain where he has 'taken liberties'.  My daughter may not be getting a ton out of it right now, but they are still amusing little stories and she can grow into the rest of the history lesson.  This is definitely one that grows with the child.