A Personal Tour of Mesa Verde

the long version

Grade 4-6-A pleasant, if bland, series designed to reinforce the "real-life" side of history. Between the introduction and afterword, each of these slim volumes contains five fictional vignettes that focus on "the way it was" for a variety of individuals who lived at these sites. In both titles, full-color and sepia-toned photos, reproductions, and drawings depict homes, artifacts, and local scenery. Mesa Verde follows a young matron, her 9-year-old daughter, her 10-year-old son, a trader, and a holy man as they go about their daily tasks in Balcony House, an actual cliff dwelling in Mesa Verde National Park. Maps and diagrams accompany the readable text, and information boxes provide a factual counterpoint to the fictional narrative. Teamed with Caroline Arnold's The Ancient Cliff Dwellers of Mesa Verde (Clarion, 1992) and Scott S. Warren's Cities in the Sand (Chronicle, 1992), this semi-fictional title will add a human touch to a unit on a vanished civilization. Monticello visits with Thomas Jefferson, his 10-year-old granddaughter, a visitor to Monticello, and two slaves. Again, diagrams of gardens and grounds and floor plans accompany the text, and information boxes are everywhere. Yoked with Robert Quackenbush's Pass the Quill, I'll Write a Draft: A Story of Thomas Jefferson (Pippin, 1989), Jim Hargrove's Thomas Jefferson (Children's, 1986), and Leonard E. Fisher's Monticello (Holiday, 1988), this title will add a down-to-earth aspect to a founding father.