Suzanne Levert

I really enjoyed reading a very in depth biography of Huey Long by Suzanne LeVert. While Long was a controversial leader, he was one that fought for the poor and less fortunate citizens of Louisiana. LeVert does an excellent job of motivating the reader to fall in love with Huey P. Long. The book begins with his assassination by Dr. Carl Weiss in 1935. It them moves into his early childhood, through his career in politics, and back to his death. I feel that this book was very good at preparing me to write my own biography of Huey Long. It was very detailed and i feel that it was a very accurate depiction of Long's life. LeVert used several resources to write her book in order to ensure that she used the correct facts. I feel that this would be a reliable book for students and teachers to read in order to learn more about the Kingfish, Huey Long.… (más)

Summary: This book explores many things about Governors. It covers: Who can be governor, where governors live, the job of governors, other state leaders, governors face the future, and contacting your governor. It will answer many questions that children may have about the duty of the governors.

Personal Reaction: The photography in this book does a great job in explaining what it being read on each page. I am not that big of a government person, but I believe that this book will help children have a basic interest for what importance the governor is to them and how he/she can have an impact on their future. The language in this book can be quite challenging for young children.

Classroom Extension: This book will be a great resource in teaching children about things such as the executive branch and how state government is ran. It could be read to the students by the teacher and then students can write a paragraph summary of what they have learned from the book. Also, this would be a great opportunity to take a field trip to the state capitol after reading this book and compare what you read in the book to the different things you see.… (más)

This book is about how laws are made and passed in the states. It talks about how states have branches of government like the federal government does. And how the legislative government is the branch that makes the laws. It talks about how the state legislators work to represent the people that elect them. It discusses how the legislature has a house and a senate and how the house is based on the population. It also discusses how the census is used to determine how many people are represented by each house representative. It also discusses how each state except for Nebraska has a bicameral legislature. It tells how a bill is passed and procedure that must be followed to pass a bill. It also tells that some states have an official muffin and how some school children decided that Minnesota's muffin should be blueberry and the steps they took to make it official. It also talks about the governor and how he or she can veto or pass a bill.

This book is good, I liked that it had an example of something that children did to get a bill passed. I also like the number of pictures. It has quite a bit of text, but the pictures seem to make it more readable. It seems to put it into language that is easy to read but not boring.

I would use this book in my class when discussing types of government. It would come in handy in discussing Oklahoma history/government (or the history/government of whatever state you live in). It would also be useful in talking about the different levels of government: federal, state and local and how they are alike and how they differ.… (más)

This book talks about congress. It tells how there is a federal governent as well as a state and local government. It discusses political parties and that federal government is split into three branches. It discusses the two houses and how they share responsibilities. It discusses how there is a majority and minority party in both houses and how the majority party has more power and what that means. It tells how the house of representatives has 435 members and how that number is based on the population. It also discusses some of the functions of the house. It also discusses the senate and how it has 100 members (giving each state equal representation) and some of senates functions. The book also discusses the committee process.

I liked this book, it had somewhat interesting pictures to go along with the dialogue. It seemed like it would hold the attention of a child in upper elementary grades easily. I found this book when we were doing our group presentation on voting books and thought it would be good for learning about one of the branches of government.

I would of course use this for a government section. It would be good to go over one of the branches of government as well as how congress is run. You could use it to discuss how the two houses work together to get things done. You could go over what happens when the to houses disagree and what has to be done to find middle ground (or what is done if a compromise can't be made).… (más)