John, Paul, George, & Ben

The children’s book John, Paul, George, & Ben is written and illustrated by Lane Smith. The target audience is 3-5 grade for both boys and girls.

-Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars *****

-Summary: This book touches on the Founding Fathers of the United States, John Hancock, George Washington, Paul Revere, and Ben Franklin. Lane Smith incorporates humor into history and creates a unique point of view of our country coming together and focusing on their important contributions. This book was the winner of the BCCB Blue Ribbon Picture Book Award.

I have never been a big fan of history but I was very interested in this picture book. I even found myself laughing out loud to the stories that are created and how the Founding Fathers are addressed.  I found myself connected to the book because I have never liked history but I found myself interested in a subject that I have never expressed interested in and that is why it really stood out to me. It takes a stereotypical “boring” subject that is usually hard to understand and made it into a funny, enjoyable subject that made me understand what the four men did to contribute to our country. The illustrations really add to it as well. It takes the character’s flaws and exploits them. For example, John Hancock is known for his over the top signature and not only does the text play off of it so does the illustrations as well. The cartoon illustrations are rendered in pen-and-ink with lots of texture and depth.

This book can easily be incorporated into an elementary history curriculum relating to colonial America. It focuses on four main people who had an impact with in that time period and offers a different perspective than reading from a textbook. This book is extremely informational but it also presented in more of a kid-friendly way. Students can read this book to themselves as an easy read or it can be read aloud to the class. Students can also use this book as a springboard for a writing assignment in that they can use a colonial American person and develop their own cartoon drawing of them while writing a short story to go along with it explaining their place in our country’s history. If students are struggling to appreciate or understand history, this book is a good way to get them involved since it is not as dry as a textbook and is written in an easy to understand manor along with humor. The only downside to this book is that it only gives a brief historical over-view and needs to be supplemented with other material so students can get a complete understanding of colonial American history.