Colonial America, the Birth of the Nation (10 Volume Set)

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Grade 4-6-An accessible, eye-catching, and valuable resource. The alphabetically arranged articles range in length from 1-to-10 pages. They cover individuals, such as explorers, presidents, and patriots; places, including important cities like Boston and Philadelphia and all of the 13 colonies; events both well-known and obscure, from a 10-page article on the American Revolutionary War to incidents such as Bacon's Rebellion and Shay's Rebellion. With an open format, clear subheadings, and lots of captioned full-color photographs and reproductions, the books are attractive. Boxes feature interesting facts or eyewitness accounts about a particular event or person. See-also references appear throughout. Each volume concludes with an index to the set and a half-page list of titles for further reading which, considering the scope of the subject, is a bit short. This useful set supplements such standard resources as Leonard Everett Fisher's "Colonial Craftsmen" series (Watts, 1965) and Edwin Tunis's Colonial Living (1957), as well as The Young United States (1969, both World).
Jane Marino, Scarsdale Public Library, NY
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Acadia, the French colony made legendary in Longfellow's Evangeline, to Zenger, Peter, early New York newspaper editor, topics and items related to Colonial America are arranged alphabetically throughout this set. The 13 colonies are stressed; however, colonization in some other areas, such as Florida, Nova Scotia, New Mexico, Texas, West Indies, California, Hawaii, and Alaska, is given some consideration.

Coverage for the 13 colonies is extensive although not necessarily in-depth. Among the subjects covered are reasons for colonization, growth of the colonies, leading individuals, lives of ordinary people, important events, relationships to European powers, economy, environment, fine arts, education, crime and punishment, flora, fauna, children, government, crafts, religion, slavery, farming, and the fight for independence. Native Americans and women are also covered. The more than 250 entries are generally one to six pages long and include see also references. Each volume opens with a table of its contents and closes with an identical bibliography of 23 titles and an identical set index. On the whole, the titles in the bibliography are well chosen. A time line would have been useful to give a sense of events.

The numerous illustrations include photographs, drawings, diagrams, and maps--all fully captioned, many in color. Sidebars offer additional informative materials; for example, different Shawnee wigwams; curing cod; excerpts of eyewitness accounts of those who lived in Colonial America.

Much of the information in these volumes can be found in a good encyclopedia, such as World Book. However, for upper-elementary and middle grades, this is an attractive and informative presentation of Colonial America. Recommended for school and public libraries.