Children's Biographies 1


    The "Who Was" series are some of my favorite children's biographies. This one covers the life of the famous French naval officer and oceanographer, Jacques Cousteau. The book opens with his childhood, describes his life, and ends with his death. 

    This book offers vivid, yet child-friendly descriptions of his life and illustrations to support the text. This book is only 103 pages and is best suited for elementary school readers. In true biography fashion, this book is based entirely on the known facts of Cousteau's life, and even includes a bibliography page for the book itself in the back on the last pages. The illustrations are realistic and representational, depicting real people in real scenerios. The illustrations all add context to the text and provide a good mental picture of what is happening. 

    Some motivational activities that could go along with reading this book could be watching Cousteau's TV show to show the children who he is. This could go along with a summary of what he did to interest them. If reading this book to a class, the class could have coloring pages of sealife to work on while listening. This book could easily be used in conjunction to the ocean chapters of a science book or biology book. Some classroom conversations could go as follows:

Teacher: "I want you to each name ONE thing Cousteau did in his life and ONE thing about him that interested you?

Students: {various answers}

OR

Teacher: "On a piece of paper, I want you each to write down something you learned today and one thing you'd like to learn about the ocean."

Students: {various answers}

    Like I said earlier, I love the "Who Was" series. I have also always loved the ocean and ocean animals, so this was an easy choice for me. My mom watched his TV show growing up and I grew up hearing about it second-hand, so I'd love to inspire another generation of children to have an interest in Jacques Cousteau like I did. 

REFERENCES:

1. Galda, L. (2016). Literature and the Child (9th ed.). Cengage Learning US. https://reader2.yuzu.com/books/9781305854987

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Children's Science Fiction

Image
       City of Ember , written by Jeanne DuPrau, is one of the best-known science fiction books for older elementary kids. The story follows 12-year-old citizens of Ember, Lina Mayfleet and Doon Harrow, as they navigate a post-apocalyptic underground city that is slowly falling apart. The city is facing chronic supply shortages, power outages, and deadly plagues. All the citizens have been taught that Ember is the last city on Earth, everything and everyone else having been destroyed. The two main characters eventually uncover widespread corruption in the governing body, along with secrets left behind by those who built Ember (the Builders). The children eventually discover the world above is not only safe, but intact and inhabited! The story ends with them leaving a message for their fellow citizens and escaping the city (DuPrau, 2003).      This book takes place in the far future, and the city itself was built by scientists as a safe haven in the ev...
Read more

Realistic Fiction

Image
     The Callahan Cousins by Elizabeth Doyle Carrey follows a group of older elementary-age cousins spending the summer with their grandmother on Gull Island. This book is from the perspective of 12-year-old Hilar, whose parents are getting divorced. Through her desire to stir up an old family feud to prove her worth to her father, she leads her group of cousins on a variety of misadventures, including a sinking sailboat.      This book falls under the category of contemporary realistic fiction for older elementary-age to early middle-school-age girls (Galda, 2016). Despite the girls being left alone quite a bit and being very wealthy, which is largely unrealistic for this age, most of their adventures are highly plausible for girls their age. The main conflict is between the group of Callahan girls and the Bicket family, a feud dating back to when their parents were children. There are very few illustrations in this book, but the cover is reminiscent of co...
Read more

Multicultural Book 2

Image
       Julie and the Mango Tree by Sade Smith follows the story of Julie, a young Jamaican girl, waiting impatiently for the mango tree in her yard to have ripe fruit. Usually, Julie's dad will climb the tree to pick one for her, but he's in town and Julie can't reach any on her own! However, after a rainstorm, ALL the mangoes fall and Julie eats as many as she can, but still has many leftovers, so she decides to share.      This book is realistic, multicultural fiction. It features realistic people in a real setting doing realistic things (Galda, 2016). The story is plausible and follows a clearly defined, realistic plotline as well (Galda, 2016). The illustrations in this book are representational (Galda, 2016). They depict realistic people in realistic settings, while still being colorful. The illustrations look close to either gouache or acrylic paint, in my opinion.     This book is a great way to help children learn about Jamaica, and e...
Read more