Did you know that the delegates from Virginia and Pennsylvania were the only ones to show up on the correct date for the Constitutional Convention? This work really takes a complicated subject and makes it very accesible to children. This book begins providing quick facts on the cover and continues to the back cover! It is engaging, full of pictures, illustrations, and sidebar facts. It contains a table of contents, a timeline, a statistics page, resources, a glossary, with bold words explained, places to visit, and websites. I especially liked the "Inside the Constitution" page--it really simplifies it down to what the Preamble and the Articles are all about in a quick and easy to understand sentence. A great resource for elementary school with enough odd facts that kids who love their nonfiction books may pick it up on their own--and actually read it! It is a slim volume that does not cover everything--but does get to the heart of the information in an inquiry-based way that will appeal to children. I nominate it for inclusion.
Recommended for upper elementary and especially 5th grade social studies.
3/07/2009
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Second. I think children will learn a lot from this engaging title. I know I did. The author does a good job of providing the history of the Constitution and comparing some things to today (e.g. The original senators were all men. In 2006, there were 16 female senators.) The visuals / page layout add a lot to the text. This will be a welcome addition to the U.S. History collection and it is great for reports.
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