Jonathon Scott Fuqua

After Daniel got a bad grade on his paper about the War of 1812, Calvert the Raven takes him on an adventure through the Battle of Baltimore. Children have the opportunity to learn about history of the war as Daniel is. Along with a well developed text, this book has pictures on every other page so the reader is able to see what Daniel and Calvert the Raven is doing. This is a perfect book for 3rd or 4th graders and can easily tie in to their history lesson. I enjoyed this book because it could relate to elementary students and they could feel as though they are Daniel.… (més)

This book starts out by featuring a boys so called "history paper" but it is actually just a short excuse as to why he did not write an actual paper about the War of 1812. From there a magical, talking Raven scoops up the boy onto his back and takes him on an adventure through past so the boy can see the war for himself. This is an interesting book, it is not the typical informational book. It is very informal which can capture the attention of the reader. For example, the Raven refers to the young boy several times as, "dude". I would have given this book five stars if it had a little more depth in the information. The book did mention Francis Scott Key, the composer of the Star Spangled Banner. There was also details about Fort McHenry but I didn't think there was enough detail about the events overall. One thing that I did really like was the descriptive language. The author did an excellent job of making the reader feel in the moment that the book was written about..
The overall message of this book is actually not to just inform the reader about the Battle of Baltimore, but to actually motivate children to think twice before they decide to not do there best. The author tries to inspire the reader to imagine the moment as if they were actually there. The last thing the raven said to the boy was, "I just want you to think before ya decide not to care about things." He also teaches a lesson of respect. He told the boy, in a humorous way, to rewrite his paper..."It is an insult to the people of Baltimore."
The illustrations of this book are beautifully done. The water color and sharp edged graphics are captivating and the pictures accurately depict the setting at the time. The author even includes trash on the street, city bus stop signs and a glimpse of the city buildings from a far where the boy lives.… (més)