Enhanced with photos, an "In Their Own Words" section, web site information, activities, and sidebars, shows young readers what it was like to live during this period in American history. Age range: 9 - 12 years.

This book is filled with realistic pictures from different living history sites such as Jamestown, Williamsburg, and Yorktown. The use of colored photographs depicting how the colonists really lived and worked are appealing to young readers. This book is a Scholastic reference book, so it targets younger readers by having titles such as "Across the Sea of Gloom" and "I Feel Sick!" as headings for the different sections. The text is broken up on the pages by colorful photography centered around the heading of the section. Each section begins with a "hook" to peak the interest of the reader such as "Feeling a little hungry? In America's early days, food was serious business. Men killed for it, stole it, and guarded it like gold." It also includes inserted information the reader would find interesting like "The Witches of Salem" and information about "dunking stools." Although the book focuses on early life in the colonies, it does not include information on free Blacks living in the colonies or on slavery. It does include a website for students to visit if they want to learn more about this topic. There are not many reference books/materials listed at the end of the book. It is a short, interesting view of what life was like in the early colonies, and could be used as a supplementary item in the classroom because of the pictures and simple text. I did like the addition of "The truth?" section in the book which told the other side of Pocahontas's story- she was held hostage and taken advantage of. I wish the book was longer- only 46 pages of mostly photographs. ( )