This book was a fantastic and poetic story about the Quabbin Reservoir and how it was formed by flooding several small towns in Massachusetts in the first half of the 1900s. It's told from the eyes of a young girl whose family was forced to leave their home and way of life to make way for progress. The author and illustrator do a great job of contrasting the original, rural and peaceful valley with the transformation necessary to supply water to the big and growing city of Boston. The Illustrations in this book are beautiful watercolors and focus on specific details, like fireflies on a summer night. These details are woven throughout the entire book. As a reader, I thought this was a great historical account of progress in America and a life lesson that you can hold onto your memories forever, even if everything around you is changing. Also, the price some have to pay for this progress. Sometimes to move forward, we must let go and accept that things do not always stay the same. This is a life lesson appropriate for many age groups. As a teacher, this would be a great book to pair with a unit about the water supply in our area or a history lesson about New England during the Great Depression. It could also be valuable for students to create models of the valley or work with maps to fully understand the project.
No comments:
Post a Comment