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Amy's Travels Review by Charlsie Swadley

Kathryn Starke
Creative Minds Publications
2325 Crowncrest Drive
Richmond, Virginia 23233
804-740-6010
http://www.creativemindspublications.com/

Amy's Travels is a book about a little girl who travels all over the world with her family. It is written from Amy's perspective and chronicles her life from infancy through the sixth grade. She tells about her travels, her adventures, and her life in the different countries she has lived in. She also describes the climate and terrain of each continent. (She has lived on five of the seven continents.)

This is a trade book that is to be used in traditional classrooms to help teach the geography and culture of the seven continents. In the back of the book are lesson plans for kindergarten through fifth grade. The lesson plans could be adapted for use in a homeschool setting, but I think there are much more creative ways of teaching than what is outlined in the back of the book. The illustrations are very simple and fit the story well since it is from the perspective of a child.

I enjoyed reading this book with my children, and my son thought it was a very fun book. It was entertaining to read about the different cultures Amy encountered and how she really enjoyed all of her adventures.

The only thing I did not like was the fact that some of the sentences were worded in a way that was a bit difficult to understand. My children did not pick up on it, but several times I had to reread a sentence to fully understand it.

I don't believe that a homeschool family would benefit too much from this book. It really is geared toward a traditional school setting, and there are so many other wonderful resources homeschoolers could use that are more appropriate.

Product review by: Charlsie Swadley, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, July 2008

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