Before beginning her career in children's books, Betsy Maestro was a teacher. Her first book with Giulio Maestro was A Wise Monkey Tale published in 1975, and since then they have collaborated on more than one hundred books. Their on-going American Story series began with the highly acclaimed The Discovery of the Americas and continues to help young readers understand and appreciate our nations history.
The Maestros live with two cats and a goldfish in a converted cow barn in Old Lyme, Connecticut.
An educational book to teach young readers about all the activities surrounding big city ports, such as the types of boats, ships and cargo they carry, the workers at the docks and how they unload the cargo.
Although the book doesn’t say which big city port is portrayed, the images make it clear that it is New York City. I like that the port is nameless so the information a child learns about port activities can apply to any big city port.
Summary This is an informational book. Big City Port informs children about the different boats and ships that transport good in and out of a port. Children learn about the workers that load and unload the cargo, the captains that control the traffic, and the police and fire fighters that keep it safe. They learn how all these people work together as a team in a busy city port all day and all night.
Response I give Big City Port a four star rating because it contains qualities of children’s literature (TMY, 2010, p.8). It was informative and has great illustrations to go along with the text.
Classroom Connection Explain to the students that this book is about working together. Ask them to think about all the jobs that are required to operate a city port. Then have the students elaborate on what would happen if there was no captain or of there were no workers to unload the boats. Discuss how each of the students could demonstrate teamwork and responsibility in the classroom. Guide the students to create a list of classroom jobs and descriptions they think are needed in the classroom. Evaluate the importance of classroom jobs. Then allow the students an opportunity to become acquainted with duties and responsibilities of each classroom job. This activity encourages the students to demonstrate classroom citizenship while developing classroom ownership and self-discipline. I found the classroom idea at http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/le...
Text Complexity According to Scholastic Book Wizard, children in grades k-2nd would enjoy this book. A child in third grade should be able to read this story independently. This book has a lexile measure of 620L and the guided reading is K.
Tags: Paperback, Picture Book, Informational Summary: Big City Port is an informational story on the ports and docks of major cities. It tells how they operate, what they intake and export and who works their and what they do. While the illustrations go very well with the words, they are not good enough to tell a story on their own. Response: I gave this book a 4 star rating because of its informational and illustrational quality. When reading this book to a class, maybe a student has a father who works in the port near their home and the student could then understand what their father does on a daily basis. It also teaches the students about multiple job opportunities for the future. Classroom Connection: Reading naturally connects to this book. It connects because it is aimed for young children who may not know how to read yet and the words are small and easier and better for pronunciation, so it would be good for a child who already reads or for one just learning. Text Complexity: AD620L