John, Paul, George & Ben by Lane Smith

Author: Lane Smith

Illustrator: Lane Smith

Genre: Historical Fiction

Awards: New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Book (2006), A Horn Book Fanfare Best Book (2006), BCCB Blue Ribbon Book (2006), School Library Journal Best Book of the Year (2006), Great Lakes Great Books Award (2009), Connecticut Book Award (Children's Author, 2007), AISLE Read-Aloud Books Took Good To Miss (2006), Capitol Choices Noteworthy Book for Children and Teens (2007), CCBC Choices (2007), Virginia Readers' Choice Award (2008), California Young Reader Medal (2011), Utah Beehive Book Award Nominee (2008)

Grade(s): 1st-4th

Summary: This book is a hilarious tale of the young lives of 5 very important historical figures, John Hancock, Paul Revere, George Washington, Ben Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson. This book goes through each character and plays on what each person is best known for. It starts off talking about how John Hancock would always write his name so large on the chalkboard that his teacher would say, "we don't need to read it from space!" Then it talks about how Paul Revere would play the bells and practice for hours in the belfry tower. He played so much that all he could hear were "bings" and "bongs" and he couldn't even hear himself talk, so he yelled everything. Thats why he became the person who yelled, "THE REDCOATS ARE COMING!" George was named honest and ended up cutting down his father's cherry tree... and his apple orchard, barn, and carriage. Ben was listed as clever and would tell all kinds of people his opinion, even if it wasn't very nice. Tom was the independent man who eventually wrote the Declaration of Independence. At the end of the book, the author uses these hilarious tales to share how and why these people are historically famous. To make this book even more fun, the author added a page of true or false statements and their explanations of statements that are often told throughout history. For example, "George had wooden teeth." (This is false by the way!)

My Thoughts: I absolutely love this book!! It kept me laughing and made learning about these historical figures fun!! I will definitely be using this book in my classroom when doing a lesson over the Declaration of Independence and other related topics. I enjoyed the humor of this book, but I also appreciated it's witty and hilarious spin-off of commonly told tales. I also loved that this book included real facts at the end as well as a true or false section. I feel like this would be a fun book to read with my students, especially having them participate in the true or false section!!