Publishers: Star Publish, 2005

ISBN: 1932993053

GenreL Children and Young Adult

For Children and Adult Adoptive Parents

Carolyn  Howard-Johnson's Reviews: Carolyn Howard-Johnson is award-winning author of This is the Place, Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered and The Frugal Book Promoter. The following review was contributed by: CAROLYN HOWARD-JOHNSON &CLICK TO VIEW  Carolyn  Howard-Johnson's Reviews

 

Combination Story Book, History Book, Cookbook and Text Offers Delightful Reading Experience to Readers of All Ages

Famous chefs know that if you mix unusual flavors on the same cooking palette, you are likely to produce a masterpiece. That is what Jule Selbo and Laura Peters have done with Pilgrim Girl, Diary and Recipes of her First Year in the New World.

These two women blended what they knew would intrigue their own children with their interest in cooking and history and came up with a delightful porridge of a storybook. They researched life in the days of our Pilgrims thoroughly and imagined a young heroine endearing and authentic. They even captured the speech patterns of a young girl of that time.

Parents will find that children can read this book the old fashioned way--snuggled under covers alone in their bedrooms or aloud with a parent's help. Teachers at every grade level will liken this book to a well-referenced text, a perfect accompaniment to an Early American studies unit or classroom activities at Thanksgiving.

The authors capped this extraordinary little volume with a short section of "Language Notes" that any English teacher will appreciate. I loved that the authors chose to keep the spelling of the words as authentic as the recipes they included; surely the look of "pease" and "pye" will instigate some discussion of how language changes over time and why English--with it's shifting sound patterns--is difficult for immigrants to learn. The diary format might be used to advantage to encourage young readers to begin a journal or diary. The possibilities for meaningful interchange around Pilgrim Girl seem endless.

And about those recipes. They are adapted only enough to allow families or teachers to glean the ingredients from their modern-day supermarkets. Some are delicious and some will cause young people to wonder how those intrepid Mayflower travelers made it across the Atlantic eating "hardtack." The list of the foods the pilgrims carried with them will also help children appreciate the variety that is served on their own dinner tables.

An original piece of children's literature, Pilgrim Girl may turn out to be not only a child's prize possession but a favorite of the adults in their lives as well.