Francisco Coronado
Summary by
Troupe McLeod

Author:   Don Nardo

Copyright date:  2001

Pages:  57

Chapters: 5

Summary:  The author of this book tells us about the things that Coronado did.  Francisco Coronado was born in 1510 in Spain.  His friend invited him to come to New Spain.  Coronado came and was chosen to lead an expedition.  They were looking for the seven cities of gold, but all they found were Indian villages.  He did not find the seven cities, but he did find Texas, Arizona and California around 1540-1541.  He also found an Indian tribe called the Zuni and an Indian tribe called the Hopi around the same time.  Coronado was put on trial and was found not guilty for failing to find the cities of gold.  Coronado died of illness in 1554.

John Smith
Summary by
Troupe McLeod

Author:  Robin S. Doak

Illustrator:  unknown

Copyright date:  2003

Pages:  41

Chapters: 7

Summary:  This non-fiction book was written by Robin Doak who explains what John Smith’s life was like and what he did.  This book was quite interesting in some parts and sad in others.  The parts that were interesting about John Smith are how he saves James Town, Virginia and how in 1608, he became the governor of James Town.  Another interesting thing was the story of when Pocahontas saved John Smith from being killed.  No one knows if that is true or just a legend.  One sad part is where he was captured for slavery in Constantinople or Istanbul in 1603.  Another sad part happened in London in 1609, when John Smith is blamed for not doing a good job at James Town.  John Smith was a great soldier, map maker, an author, and a governor.  John’s years alive were from 1579 to 1631 and he hoped to have lived his last few days in Jamestown, but John died in his house in London.

Corn Raid
Summary by
Troupe McLeod

Summary:  James Collier is a very skilled author because he has written many books.  In this book he wrote as if the main character was writing the story.  Richard, the main character grew up on the streets of London with some friends.  He was scooped off the streets later on.  He was soon sent to Jamestown to work as a servant.  Richard’s master’s name was Laydon and Laydon would hurt anybody when he felt like it.  Weetopin, an Indian boy, was caught stealing a hoe and was sold by his own father to Laydon.  He was sold because he killed another Indian boy and his father did not want Weetopin to be killed by the dead boy’s father.  Weetopin also would never give a full answer, it was always a “maybe” or “I don’t know.”
                  The two boys in this story were mainly on a tobacco farm in Jamestown in which is now known as Virginia in North America.  Jamestown was an early settlement by the English in 1619. 
                  The two boys stayed together everywhere they went – to sleep, on the farm, in the yard and a lot more places.  When they became good friends, they would go swimming when Laydon was not around.  Later on in the book the two would go on a corn search together and get separated.  In the end their corn was taken and Weetopin finds Richard tied to a tree.  Weetopin unties him and then they run back to Jamestown as fast as they could. 
                  The author was very good with detail like when he described how the two boys looked when they went on the corn search.  On page 115 or at the end of chapter 10 he put a cliff so that you want to read on.  This book has a lot of true things in it like the House of Burgesses, Indian tribes and how they grew tobacco. 
This book was excellent and I think that if you are a history person or child or teacher, you would enjoy reading it.