Mary Firestone

I learned a lot from Firestone's book about the American Flag. I learned that Mary Pickersgill sewed the U.S. flag and has gone through many changes over the years. Countries have flags to symbols their freedom, patriotism, and the country's land and people. During the Revolutionary war, soldiers from the colonies each had different flags so they could not tell who was an enemy or a friend. That is when it was suggested that the colonies use a common flag that had 13 red and white strips with a small British union flag in the canton. Congress though wanted the flag to look more American so the British flag was taken off and 13 stars replaced it in the canton. Soon the flag became the official flag of the U.S. and for every stated added to the U.S. a stripe and star was added as well. Mary Pickersgill was asked to sew another flag that was bigger to includ all the states. Congress came to the conclusion if new states were to keep joining the U.S then they will run out of room on the flag so they decided to leave 13 strips for the original colonies and just add a star for the new states. Students can use this book to gain knowledge about historical figures such as Mary Pickersgill and the history of the American Flag and how it came to be.… (mehr)

The book not serves a resource for research but also has great stories of the symbols that make up the United States. From statue of liberty to liberty bell. The author does a very good job of telling the story of those symbols and why American history considers them eventful. The book serves another level for those whom never seen or heard stories behind the events because we learn about its people but not about those tangible objects.
Great to use as a starter for geography, history, compliments other historical events and also provides critical perspective because who decides what should be symbols for U.S. Good to ask students what symbols they fell worthy of mention.… (mehr)

This book is an informational book on frogs and toads. I liked many aspects of this informational book. The illustrations use watercolor to show the differences between how a frog looks contrasted to the way a toad looks. In one illustration, the author explains that toads have a special parotoid gland that not all frogs have. The purpose of this gland is to make poisons that help scare off predators. These glands look like bubbles right behind a toad’s ear. The illustrator used shadowing to create a 3-D effect to make the gland look as realistic as possible. Another aspect of why I enjoyed reading this book was that there were boxes on every other page to provide additional information. For example, on one page the author is describing the length of frog legs compared to the legs of a toad. In the box below the text, there is additional information that states, “African frogs are known as great jumpers. Some of them can jump as far as 14 feet (4.3 meters) in a single hop!” The author shared some additional information to go along with the paragraph talking about comparisons between frogs and toads. In that statement, I also liked how the author not only gave an example in feet but also used meters to show how far a frog could jump. The main idea of this book is to inform the audience about how to identify an amphibian and many differences between frogs and toads.… (mehr)