Tuesday, March 5, 2013

The American Dream in an easy reading format with Abraham's Journey

The kids have heard the term "The American Dream" in several readings over the last few months and it wasn't a term I could explain simply enough for them to see the big picture and understand. As a self employed family, we don't depend on programs to help, we work to make it on our own whenever possible. I wanted the boys to see that making connections and getting your product or idea out there is a key element to living the American Dream of personal prosperity, but they were having trouble seeing outside of our own personal life style to see that concept.
Thankfully, we were introduced the Abraham's Journey , a easy reading formatted, soft cover book from Inspiring the American Dream.
PhotobucketThe story takes a young boy who's family is out of work and the Christmas holiday looks pretty grim for and shows him that even a young boy can dream and achieve the iconic "American Dream" with a little inspiration and drive and modern networking skills.
My boys thought the story was a pretty good story, but couldn't believe a family that was struggling would have a fancy phone, but we decided most kids have smart phones now even if tough times.
While the story was whimsical there was still enough history to inspire dialogue with the boys and lead to digging online for other people in history that inspire the American Dream. We also talked about how the American Dream is more than just hard work and imagination; it takes faith in God as well as strong virtues and moral backbone.
I'm still unsure if I would recommend the book strongly: the price of $14.99 seems a little high for the content and size of the book, the age range of 7-12 years old is generally ok, although I think that I would narrow the age range to something a little closer together , maybe 7-9 as the reading level is pretty simple. We read the book as a read-a-loud with both boys and had open discussion about the various characters and their place in history as well as some of the virtues they exemplified. My 10 year old read it to himself, but was too distracted by the fact that the main character had a phone and was texting and interacting online with people, something I don't allow my boys to have/ do at this age.

You can see what other crew members thought of the book Photobucket




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