Henry David Thoreau for Kids: His Life and Ideas with 21 Activities

Gr 7 Up—Brother, friend, businessman, abolitionist, naturalist, explorer, activist, transcendentalist: Smith intricately explores the various roles that Henry David Thoreau assumed throughout his lifetime. Although lacking an overall compelling narrative, this offering thoroughly lives up to its title, providing broad and narrow depictions of the man's activities with a strong emphasis on New England. While the volume is peppered with quotes from Thoreau and other famous Concordians, the inclusion of mundane details sometimes results in tedious prose. However, compelling sidebars featuring material on more modern figures, including Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., and topics such as today's Appalachian Trail, help revitalize the text and make it feel relevant. The suggested activities range in scope from hands-on projects (creating a silhouette art piece) to social activism (volunteering at a local charity organization). Educators seeking a riveting biography should look elsewhere, but this is an excellent example of how nonfiction features work to communicate content. Selections from this book would be useful for teachers attempting to introduce their classes to Thoreau's larger ideas, such as transcendentalism and civil disobedience.