Who Was Daniel Boone?

Book Title: Who Was Daniel Boone?	Author:  Sydelle Kramer
Illustrator:  George Ulrich	Awards
Book Type:  Chapter	Approx. Reading Level:  3.8
Age of Content Appropriateness: grade 3 and up	Date Published: 2006
Genre and Topic: Biography, Social Studies, Frontier, Early American Exploration	Personal Rating of the Book:  4
ISBN: (13 or 10 digit) 978-0448439020 B008H1C6DI (Kindle)

Summary- This book is about one of our American legends.  It is part of a series of “Who was” books on historical figures.  The life and times of the real Daniel Boone are described here in appropriate detail for a third grade audience.  It covers his youth as a headstrong boy, determined to be outside more than he was ever inside.  He was more at home in the wilderness than any place else.  As he grew he became skilled at tracking and hunting and became known as “the great pathfinder” when he blazed the trail to what is now Kentucky and helped to build a fort at Boonesborough.  This book does a good job of covering his involvement and wars with the Shawnee Indians, his two captures by them and his dedication to the frontier. 

Ideas for using this book

·         It may be interesting to do a KWL chart to see what students know or think they know about this legend.  This book does shed light on some less well-known facts about slave ownership and other information that may be surprising to readers who think they know who Daniel Boone was.

·         Daniel Boone Show with Fess Parker- it may be interesting to have students watch part or all of an episode of the “Daniel Boone” show from the 1970s and do a compare/contrast of the facts offered in the book and the Hollywood image of Daniel.  One thing to note is that the show depicts him as having a sidekick almost who is an Indian.  While Daniel did interact with the Shawnee and lived with them for many months during his capture, he was not, according to the book, great friends with them and in fact, betrayed his word to them to defend the settlers at Boonesborough, who later tried him for treason because they thought perhaps he was siding with the Shawnee.  It was a complicated position for him but he came down decidedly in favor of the settlers. 

·         This is certainly a book that could be used during a history unit on the interactions between colonists and indigenous people during westward expansion.

Vocabulary

Frontier-(page 12-location 83) –  the extreme limit of settled land, beyond which lies wilderness, esp. referring to the western U.S. before Pacific settlement

“long hunt”- (page 17-location 104) –and Indian term for a hunting trip that lasted all fall and part of the winter

Sharpshooter- (page 20 location 119)- someone who is really good at aiming and shooting a distant target, usually in just one shot.

Blacksmith- (page 24-location 140) –the person in an early settlement who worked with metal.  This person would make any tools needed and made and attached horseshoes. 

Treason- (page 91-loation446)- a charge that a person has betrayed their country- Daniel was charged with treason by some settlers in Boonesborough who believed he was helping the Shawnee and the British to attack the settlement.  He was found not-guilty.

Trait of the 6 + 1 Traits to Highlights

I would look at the organization of this book.  The book follows a chronological order to tell about Daniel Boone’s life.  I would have students write an auto-biography of their own life and tell it in a chronological order.  I would also want to discuss other ways of telling a person’s story that might not follow this traditional model. 

Concerns with This Book: (if any) none