Terri Dougherty

The book “Ramadan Islamic Holy Month,” is a fantastic informational book. I really enjoyed this book. The text is organized in a way where the information is rich and intelligent, but not overwhelming for children. The actual text is large and separated into 2-3 sentence paragraphs which I feel will help keep children’s interest. Along with the texts were fact box which gave more information on Ramadan without taking away focus from the main ideas, the information was not necessarily important but interesting. For example, one fact I learned was that “Muhammad broke his fast by eating dates. Families follow this custom today to honor Muhammad.” Another thing that was fantastic about this book was the extras. In the back of the book, there was a story about a famous basket player who celebrated Ramadan during the season. I felt this helps make the text more relatable to a more mainstream audience. There was also an index identifying terms that would not be familiar to someone who does not know about the Islamic religion. Finally, there was a “hands on” activity that anyone could do that related to Ramadan without being Muslim. The activity is a collection jar to help collect money for those in need. One of the main points of Ramadan is to help those in need, and the activity in the book is represents that. I feel that the activity would be very good to bring into a classroom to teach about Ramadan crossing the very shaking line of religion in schools. The overall idea of this text is to teach the reader about Ramadan.… (meer)

The book, "The United States Army at War" by Terri Sievert, is an informational picture book detailing the history, major wars, and changes of the United States Army. The book starts by going into the history of the army beginning with the American Revolution. It goes on to detail the major wars in Korea, Vietnam, World War I and World War II, and the Gulf War. The author breaks down the major responsibilities and equipment used during war time. It has many pictures of military equipment, soldiers, as well as, a time line of the United States Army's history.… (meer)