Kate JassemReviews

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A brief biography of the Indian chief who is best known for his military retreat of 1877.

A biography of the Indian who helped the Pilgrims live from the land their first winter in Plymouth.

Pocahontas Girl of Jamestown is a biography that is presented like a story. Jassem cleverly combines elements of plot with Pocahontas’s life to tell a true, triumphant story of bravery. Having the biography read like a story presents all of the information in a way that does not overwhelm the reader. Often times a biography states so many facts that it can be tricky to find the main points of the subject’s life. This account of Pocahontas’s life was a wealth of information that will show how brave and revolutionary she was, but will still entertain the reader. I also really liked the ink illustrations included in the book. The pictures were accurate enough to what life would have been like on the Indian’s land and in Jamestown, but were not too graphic for children. When discussing and illustrating the violence between these two groups of people, there needed to be a line between historical accuracy and what was appropriate for a child. I think the illustrator did a great job of keeping a balance between the two. I really liked this book because it seemed to capture the essence of the time period and provide great details about who Pocahontas really was.

This would be a good book for relating history to locations that students are familiar with. Although the book is not overly filled with facts, it paints a picture of how events transpired from the prospective of the Natives. The pictures are done in a beautiful sepia watercolor style. It covers from the time he was a young child until his death, and the struggles he faced as he tried to lead his people to Canada.