Three Days on a River in a Red Canoe

I love Vera's writing in this story! It is a wonderful tale of an exciting trip down the river in a red canoe. What child wouldn't love to take a trip like this with their family. Not everything goes so smoothly but of course in the end they arrive at the destination. There is a storm and a canoe upset but everything turns out right. The illustrations are fabulous!! There is so much detail . Each page is filled with : supplies they took on the canoe trip, cooking on the trip- even some recipes! Also we have detailed illustrations of all the wildlife they see along the way. I can read this over and over and never get tired of this story and the illustrations!

Great book to promote a love of outdoor activities for your "little campers" - well written and illustrated.

In first grade my daughter's school had a "Blue Book Bag" program: each week the students brought home a different book and a journal in a blue book bag. This was my favorite book of the year (I am a kindergarten teacher and was an English major, if that holds any weight). There is something charming and dreamy about Three Days on a River in a Red Canoe, which is a child's journal of a canoe trip. It was so easy to slip into the joyous adventure of the journey--feeling the heat of the afternoon, the beauty of the jumping fish, the quiet damp of the mist. The relationships between the adults and children implied a long history of love and confidence in each other. In addition, the book has text in unexpected places, so it is visually fun. There are a couple of recipes as part of the narrative and directions on how to tie a Two-Half Hitch knot, so you if you and your children really love the book, you can extend the experience. In the Accelerated Reader program, this book is third grade level, but my preschool daughter also liked it very much, so it can appeal to a wide range of ages (maybe 4-9?) Mother's Day is this Sunday, and I have told my girls that for Mother's Day I want a red canoe--or at least a hardback copy of this book.

We used this book as a spring board for an environmental unit. We planned mapping, canoe safety, first aide safety, camping and landforms. We also planned a field trip to a local park with a creek and set up stations that involved the different aspects of the book. We used newspaper ads and had the children decide what would be needed for a canoe trip and tied it in with math, teaching money. This was a great book.