Elizabeth's Jamestown Colony Diaries: Book One: Our Strange New Land

Once I got this book I couldn't put it down. It was so interesting that I did not want to go to sleep. I liked it when Elizabeth had to hide her journal from her mom and that her mom had a baby.One day Elizabteth asked Captin Jonh Smith to say hi to her brother Caleb.Whenever I read an interesting book,like this one, I never let it go until I finish it.I hope you read this book one day.

I have just read a book called Our Strange New Land by Patricia Hermes. In this book Elizabeth is writing in a diary. In this book Elizabeth and her family travel to Jamestown in America from England, but sadly they can't bring Elizageth's brother, Caleb because he is sick and had to stay in England. In the book they lose their food, have many, many people die, and meet indians. They even meet Pocahontas. Elizabeth has adventures with her friend, Jessie. Also, Elizabeth's mom has a baby girl and they name her Abigail. I think this is a really good book because you learn a lot about the pilgrims that lived in Jamestown, Virginia. I hope you can take the time to read Our Strange New Land by Patricia Hermes.

This book is fun, exciting, happy, and wonderful!! In this book a girl named Elizabith is on a ship to go to the " New World." She had to leave her brother Caleb back in England, so she took his drawing book to wright a journal for him. When they got to the "New World" a few men decided to go start a new settlement. To see if their settlement is succsesful read " Our Strange New World" Elizabeth's Diary. Read this book and you will read it over and over again!!!!!!!!

While reading this book I could not think back to my childhood days of elementary school sitting in class learning about the Jamestown Colony and the settling of America. I heard about this book from NBC's "Today" show and bought it the same day. It took me an hour to read, and I could not put it down. I cannot remember a book written in such a way, diary, that kept me so interested. Even though the book is written for much younger persons, me being 35 and a father of two, I would invite all to purchase this book and share it with your children.

I will start my review off by saying that I am WAY older than the target audience for this book. However, I still found it to be an enjoyable and seemingly accurate portrait of the settling of Jamestown. The history is made accesible to the younger readers by telling the story through the diary of a child, nine-year-old Elizabeth Barker. Many of Elizabeth's concerns and feelings could belong to contemporary children - she misses her twin brother who was left behind in England, mourns the deaths of many of her friends, just wants to have a good time playing with other children her own age, and worries for her pregnant mother's safety. I think this would be an excellent book to start out younger children on historical stories, and would definitley appeal to fans of the American Girls series. I would have loved to have a book like this to read when I was younger.