The book is an easy read as far as the language is concerned, but the jumps between the 18th and the 20th century can be difficult to follow, but nonetheless as long as the teacher/parent can scaffold the events and setup appropriately then this book can be accessible and enjoyed by grades 3-5. All of these major reading skills are necessary to get everything that this text has to offer, and they are all skills that are heavily focused on in the comprehension-driven 3-5 classrooms across the country. The other connection I felt between this story and curriculum was how it could be used to demonstrate and practice predictions, foreshadowing, and major connections (text-self, text-world, text-text). The characters act and talk like they do, and so 'switching shoes' will be accessible to them.Īnother good way that I can imagine using this in a classroom would be to point out the value in family histories, and oral storytelling, as it is often the only way for us to pass on personal accounts that may one day be pieces of a huge historical shift. The fact that these young girls are about the age of our older elementary school students will make it very easy for them to relate to. This chapter book would give students a new way to think about the revolutionary war as though it is more than a page in our history book, but that it was personal to those who were alive during it. This story has plenty of fictional narrative in it, but there is also historical validity to the way it is connected to the revolutionary war, and the war leaders and battles are very real as well. We get to read the intertwined stories of these two girls, and even as an adult I teared up and dreaded for it to end.

At her aunt's house she gets to hear stories of a girl in a painting who is undoubtedly one of her ancestors. The story starts with Elizabeth and how she must go stay with her mother's sister for a few weeks because her father must go away on a business trip. I loved reading the story and getting to know Elizabeth and Zee. Storyteller, is a beautifully written historical fiction young readers' novel.

Wild Girl by Patricia Reilly Giff