Readathon: Hour 11: Redwoods by Jason Chin

I'm at book number fourteen. Yippee!


Redwoods by Jason Chin

I can see myself picking this as my favorite nonfiction picture book. I love the text and the pictures perfectly complement the text. Redwoods serve as a fascinating subject yet have not been overdone as a subject.

The text information is supplemented with an author's note explaining his interest in the subject and a note about the danger to redwoods. No bibliography which is disappointing but not absolutely necessary.

There really is only one obstacle to adding this to my shortlist: What do kids think? I must try this book out on my primary students.

A bit from the book:

Redwoods by Jason Chin
“The coast redwoods are among
the oldest trees in the world.
Their ancestors lived about 165 million
years ago, during the Jurassic period.”
(Illustrations show a boy reading a book about redwoods, getting on a subway, and sitting and reading the book on the subway while in the windows behind him lurk three green dinosaurs.”

Comments from children:
“I thought it was pretty nice seeing the pictures and what he was imagining.”
“I think the pictures are pretty.”
“I liked the words because they talked about the real forest.”
“I got a good idea of how tall the trees were.”
“The trees were cool.”
“I liked how the girl picked up the book at the end.”
“I liked the words because I could understand what they were saying.”
5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5,