On Our Bookshelf: Our America ... The Pilgrim Adventure

Learning history through storytelling has made learning about the things of the past engaging and enjoyable for myself and our daughters. The art of storytelling draws us into the adventure and lives of those who once lived. Susan Kilbride's series, Our America, is a series that does well in bringing the reader into story.

The author of this book provided me with a free copy to review. All thoughts are my own.

The first book in the series, Our America....The Pilgrim Adventure, focuses on the Pilgrims as they make their journey to America. We were allowed to follow their story from the voyage through their first year here.

Susan Kilbride truly takes her readers and main characters, Finn and Ginny, on an adventure.  Twins, Finn and GInny, live with their Aunt Martha and Uncle Peter who have taken on the role of guardians after the twin's parents disappear.  Determined to find their parents, Finn and Ginny take matters into their own hands by starting their own search using their Uncle Peter's time machine remote.  Their first adventure leads them back to 1620 aboard the Mayflower.

Like us the twins are accustomed to life as modern-Americans, they soon learn that the Mayflower voyage wasn't any thing like our current lives.  They live through the struggles and learn all about the Mayflower voyage through first hand experience.  The history which has been shared throughout the generations about the Pilgrims voyage to America is compiled in this 143 page book.

The author does a well job weaving historical accounts and people including Mary Chilton, William Bradford, and Squanto into the story.  The Pilgrim Adventure is engaging while challenging the reader to view the Pilgrims as actual people with real struggles including lack of food and illness. I know at times it can be easy to not think of those before us as actual people and maybe even see them as fictional characters.  One thing I appreciate about living books is the fact they draw me into the lives of people during that time and reminds me that the people being read about, although some are characters, really did endure and live during the events of the time period.

As a bonus, Susan Kilbride has created activities to go along with Our America....The Pilgrim Adventure. These history activities gives the reader some hands on activities to enjoy.