Friday, January 17, 2014

"The Fort on Fourth Street: A Story about the Six Simple Machines" by Lois Spangler & illustrated by Christina Wald (Review & Giveaway)

Paperback  $9.95
ISBN: 9781607186328
About the book: When a young child decides to build a fort in the backyard, Grandpa comes forward to help. But they can’t do it alone—they get help from the six simple machines: lever, pulley, inclined plane, wheel and axle, screw, and wedge. Told in cumulative rhyme, similar to The House That Jack Built, this story follows grandfather and grandchild as they build a fort together from start to finish.

Review: Who better to give a review of a children's book than the little ones themselves? Well, our librarian at Alamance Christian School read the book to several class groups and here is what they are saying....
  • "I like the book and the dog." Zoe...K4
  • "I liked the  book. My favorite part was when he built the fort." Qunicy...K4
  • "I liked it! I've always wanted to build a fort that wouldn't fall over or I can fit in." Preston.... 2nd
  • "I like it! I like the room that had science stuff in it because I like science." Konnor 1st
  • "The book was great! I really liked the science stuff and the pulley." Chandler.... 1st 
  • "It was awesome! I like that they built a fort. I've always wanted to build one." Zack... 4th
Now from a "grown-up" perspective, The illustrations are very well done showing grand dad and the kids building a fort and the pets are romping on the pages. But the really engaging part is that it is a story in rhyme with a story within the story. As the main story of building a fort using six simple machines progresses, the right hand page recounts the story line (sort of akin to "this is the house that Jack built"). Gramps has a design (just like a real builder would have) and with his measuring instruments and six simple machines he builds the fort. 
Near the end the rhyme concludes...
At last, I look around and what do I see?
Six simple machines used to build a fort for me!
We used wheels and axles, a wedge, some screws, 
a pulley, a lever, and an inclined plane, too!!
The back of the book has several pages for creative minds to explore simple machines, tools, and hands on information. A great opportunity to use a fun book to teach, and teach, and teach some more.

GIVEAWAY: Enter to win one copy of The Fort on Fourth Street: A Story about the Six Simple Machines provided by SylvanDell Publishing for one of our readers. Begins January 17 & ENDS February 10 @ 12:01 a.m. EDT.
 
a Rafflecopter giveaway  
DISCLOSURE: A complimentary copy of The Fort on Fourth Street: A Story about the Six Simple Machines was provided by SylvanDell Publishing in exchange for this honest review. Opinions expressed are solely ours. The winner’s complimentary copy is also provided directly to them by Sylvan Dell.

50 comments:

  1. My students would love the book The Perfect Pet. Thanks for the chance to win!

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  2. When I was young, my grandparents live on a farm in Illinois. My brothers loved going out into the "forest-like" part and one weekend they build a fort out of pieces of wood and trees. It was fun....but who wants their little sister in it?? (I spent time in it when they weren't around) ha

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  3. I buy mostly non-fiction books for my classroom. They especially like non-fiction books with animals. (they really like cats and snakes!)

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  4. Used to always build forts as a kid!! Lots of fun!!

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  5. I buy mostly non-fiction books for the kids.

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  6. I have not built a fort, tree house, or play house. But when I was little my dad made me a very large play house, it was so big I could have lived in it if my parents would have let me.

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  7. My daughter would love The Perfect Pet.

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  8. I select Fun Fiction for my kids but I select Non Fiction for myself so we end up with a mix of kids books and some are ones that I wanted to read myself.

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  9. I built a tree house as a child plus forts with boys in my neighborhood (one that undermined a house foundation but we did not do that on purpose and the house was abandoned). I want to build a tree house for my daughters but I never have time. I have some of the wood and I have climbing pieces to screw into the wood but never time to dig a foundation.

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  10. We have their book Animal Helpers Zoos and love it! The book is well done with lots of pictures so the book that we would like is Animal Helpers Aquariums.

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  11. you know whats funny when you were giving away animal helpers this is the book i choose i would get ironic

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    1. It is funny. But then, perhaps it is a prediction or whatever of something. ;)

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  12. yes we used to play all the time

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  13. I like to get a variety of books but if I had to choose, I'd probably pick non-fiction!

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  14. The closest I came to building a fort was digging a big hole in my grandparents back yard when we were living with them.We were going to dig all the way to China. Needless to say we gave up on that idea. We found a piece of plywood for the top. All 3 of us would crawl in and play. The next time we visited my grandparents not only had they filled in the hole, they had planted a pecan tree. We were very disappointed.

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  15. I buy fun fiction and fun non fiction

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  16. My first choice would be Fort on Fourth Street and then A Butterfly called Hope.

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  17. I like them to have fun books but as homeschoolers I also am on the look out for living books that tie together living and fiction and fun

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  18. No, never have although the children would love to do so and they'v helped some of their friends make a hut using twigs and such.

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  19. I was ALL about building forts when I was little.
    heather hgtempaddy@hotmail.com

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  20. I would love to get "The Perfect Pet" for a friends child.
    heather hgtempaddy@hotmail.com

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  21. I never built a wood fort, but did build a snow fort! was awesome fun!

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  22. No I have never built a fort or treehouse before. I did spend hours playing in a tree and seen many tree houses. I think they are neat. Maxie mac262(at)me(dot)com

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  23. Hi Vera. I visited Sylvan Dell Publishing and saw many books my little great-grandchildren would love, both boys and girls. Butterfly Named Hope, Anybody Home, Aquariam, and The Fort on Fourth Street. He love watching TV shows and books about building anything. Has since 5 years old. Of course so many others. Would order some for sure if I had the money. I would love to win this book for the older boy who likes seeing things about building. He is fixing to have a birthday in Feb. Maxie mac262(at)me(dot)com

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  24. When I was growing up my sister and I built a fort with the 2 boys next door.
    marypopmom (at) yahoo (dot) com
    Merry

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  25. I always like the fun fiction books best
    marypopmom (at) yahoo (dot) com
    Merry

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  26. I think fun fiction are the most fun to read!

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  27. I love building forts! My brother and I used to make some huge forts when we were little.

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  28. Anybody Home looks like it would be a good book.

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  29. my kids and i love love building forts

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  30. We would love to read Anybody Home?

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  31. My boys would like the book A B C Safari
    marypopmom (at) yahoo (dot) com
    Merry

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  32. I appreciate all the "choices" of books you would select. Isn't it fun to go to a book website and see what they actually have to offer us? Make your wishlist and then select from it when the opportunity to get new books arises. Or..... you might check with your own public library or school library to see if the books you would like are available.

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  33. I usually buy fun fiction books for my kids.

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  34. We built forts as kids, we attempted a tree house once, it didn't work out to well.

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  35. I think my son would like to read A Cool Summer Tail.

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  36. Usually fun fiction
    hrddiana556@gmail.com

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  37. I loved building forts when I was young
    hrddiana556@gmail.com

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  38. sandra manning - my grand son loves books he loves sanimals abc safari looks great

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  39. sandra manning - we used to build forts all the time in the woods by our house

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  40. We usually get both, fun and factual.

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  41. We build forts and playhouses all the time.

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  42. That's awesome! I love hearing what the kids have to say. Thanks for joining us in the Kid Lit Blog Hop.

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  43. This seems like a fun way to introduce simple machines! Thanks for sharing it at Booknificent Thursday!
    Tina

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  44. We love forts. Right now, most of our forts are indoors. Can't wait for the sun to come out and warm us up so we can play in Max's clubhouse/playground! Thanks so much for linking once again into the KLBH, Vera!

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