My roommate is a third grade teacher in Williamsburg. When I told her I needed to read biographies, she pulled this book out of the teacher bag and handed it to me, prefacing it as an easy read that she did with her 3rd graders. When I saw it, I thought "this book has 64 pages and very few pictures. I'm not in the mood to read, it will take forever." Fortunately, it really was a fast read and I finished in about 40 minutes, with a few breaks in between. There are 5 main chapters that consist of very short sentences. The text is very straight forward and very informational, and yet it is a story, not a textbook. There is some interesting language that keeps the reader's attention instead of letting them become passive. For example, "He stood fascinated this night by the beautiful voice of the choir director" p. 21. Hm, fascinated this night, not that night...it feels so recent. Carver was depicted as a real person, with successes and failures. George Washington Carver is a well-known name for peanuts, but it is not well-known that he stuttered, or that he was friends with Thomas Edison and Henry Ford. Often when I study one particular person, I forget to put that time in context and am always surprised when I find out how people are connected. It's amazing how much we take for granted, how much was already done for us by the time we were already born. Where would we be without goobers and their 300+ uses?
Pencil shading is used for the illustrations, though the front cover looks to be done with watercolor. Whenever I see pictures made with pencil shading, I'm gripped with this illusion that I, too, can draw if I only have a pencil. Alas, it never works out that way. This biography was also great for vocabulary, especially for an agricultural unit. There were many words I wrote down, but then many I also chose not to, such as goober. I grew up loving that word because that's how my dad refers to peanuts, but I just decided to write down the words I didn't know. Some of the ones I did keep were: pellagra (p 28), sorghum (p 35), and chemurgy (p 57). Overall, I felt like I had really learned something in my 40 minutes with this book. I enjoyed the section in the back titled "More about GWC" that offered more information that did not fit well into the flow of the story. I walked away with some interesting connections and a sense of gratitude for the accomplishments of those who came before me.
Pencil shading is used for the illustrations, though the front cover looks to be done with watercolor. Whenever I see pictures made with pencil shading, I'm gripped with this illusion that I, too, can draw if I only have a pencil. Alas, it never works out that way. This biography was also great for vocabulary, especially for an agricultural unit. There were many words I wrote down, but then many I also chose not to, such as goober. I grew up loving that word because that's how my dad refers to peanuts, but I just decided to write down the words I didn't know. Some of the ones I did keep were: pellagra (p 28), sorghum (p 35), and chemurgy (p 57). Overall, I felt like I had really learned something in my 40 minutes with this book. I enjoyed the section in the back titled "More about GWC" that offered more information that did not fit well into the flow of the story. I walked away with some interesting connections and a sense of gratitude for the accomplishments of those who came before me.
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