I initially picked up this book to use for a project in my elementary social studies class. My project was to transform a given social studies text to become a curriculum I would give to a class of fourth graders. Although fourth graders could be reading about Lewis and Clark from a social studies book or from chapter books, I think it is important to still give them the opportunity to look at picture books. Giving fourth graders the chance to go back to picture books is kind of like a break for them. They get to transform back to when they were second graders again for the story.
And this is a really great picture book. It is nonfiction, so it contains a great deal of facts. However, it is still very interesting. There are still characters that are developed; we are introduced to Lewis and Clark's lives before they are on the trip west. We get to read snippets from the journals they wrote on their journey. And we get to hear about events that would never be mentioned in a history books - things like Lewis getting shot by one of his team members. It was also very interesting to find out that the group had made decisions by taking a vote. Although voting was nothing new at the time, Lewis and Clark allowed all of their team members to vote - including African Americans and women who were not allowed to vote at the time.
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