John Greenwood's Journey to Bunker Hill (History Speaks: Picture Books Plus Reader's Theater)

Figley, Marty Rhodes

ISBN 10: 1580136737 ISBN 13: 9781580136730

Publisher: Millbrook Press ™, 2010

Synopsis

In mid-May 1775, the American Revolution was barely a month old. Many British soldiers were in Boston, Massachusetts. The American troops were nearby. The next battle could break out at any moment.

Fifteen-year-old John Greenwood’s parents lived in Boston. But John lived with his uncle 150 miles away. When the war started, he decided to go back to Boston to check on his family. But when he arrived, the British soldiers wouldn’t let anyone into the city. Instead John joined the American army and soon found himself at the Battle of Bunker Hill. Did John have the courage to make it through the battle? Could the Americans beat the powerful British?

In the back of this book, you’ll find a script and instructions for putting on a reader’s theater performance of this adventure. Download additional copies of the script plus sound effects, background images, and more ideas that will help make your reader’s theater performance a success through Lerner eSource.

About this title

About the Author

Marty Rhodes Figley is the author of sixteen books, mostly about her favorite subject―remarkable people from our country's past. She earned her B.A. in American Studies from Mount Holyoke College. Marty, whose two children are grown, lives in Northern Virginia with her husband, Paul, and their Airedale terrier, Scarlett.

From School Library Journal

Gr 3-5–These books use reader's theater to bring American history to life. Each volume focuses on the experiences of one real person or a fictional character representative of the time, first telling his or her story, then transforming it into a script. Despite the use of primary sources in the stories about the real people, there is a fair amount of fictionalized thought and dialogue, but an author's note at the end of each book should clear up any confusion. Though handsomely illustrated with full-spread paintings, the narrative portions are lackluster, written with surprisingly elementary language and sentence structure. Susan Campbell Bartoletti's Kids on Strike! (Houghton, 1999), Don Brown's Let It Begin Here (Roaring Brook, 2008), and Shelley Tanaka's A Day That Changed America: Earthquake! (Madison Press, 2004) cover the same topics in more compelling ways. It's the reader's theater sections that make these titles stand out. The roles are color-coded for easy differentiation, and lines are evenly apportioned. For reluctant readers, there is a role dedicated to sound effects. The only flaw is the books' constant referencing of the series' website, which promises help with sound effects, printable scripts, prop suggestions, and so on, but leads instead to the publisher's general website where there are no such features.–Rebecca Dash, New York Public Library. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Edition details

• Publisher: Millbrook Press ™
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 1580136737
• ISBN 13: 9781580136730
• Binding: Library Binding
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 48
• Illustrator: Orback Craig