I have read two and one half honors books this semester, and they all were related to my history lessons in some way. The first, Johnny Tremain, was about the early colonial days in Boston. The second, The Witch of Blackbird Pond, was about the witches and general people of the colonial days. The third, which I am not quite finished with was The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. This book was about an adventurous boy during colonial days. Although we are learning about the explorers right now in U.S. History, we were learning about the colonies at the beginning of the year.
More than anything, Johnny Tremain taught me about a regular colonial family. It also taught me about work. I only learned about the careers colonial men and women had in U.S. History. In Johnny Tremain, it showed me the real way that a colonial apprentice learns and has to go through life just like me and you. How they have hard times, and have to get through them like any other human being. The history lesson did not teach me this, it was about the jobs and only the jobs that colonial people occupy. Johnny Tremain was interesting and showed the different relationships that a colonial boy might have. These relationships included one with his master and others with the different people in his life.
In The Witch of Blackbird Pond, I learned about a girl who was different from the community around her. She was “like an exotic bird.” She taught me about friendships and hard times, because that is mostly what she went through. From her point of view I discovered how the different ones felt. Although we were not learning about witches and other white people in U.S. History, we are learning about the Indians and how they felt and were treated differently. The Indians were treated just about the same as Kit was in The Witch of Blackbird Pond. Although the Indians were enslaved and had most of their possessions stolen from them, Kit was locked in the cellar when she was accused of being a witch, she also was not allowed to where all of her favorite dresses form Barbados.
So far I am only about half way done with The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, but it is mostly about a young boy having all sorts of fun adventures. Like the explorers we are learning about now in U.S. History, Tom goes on explorations of his own. This book also shows me the thoughts and feelings of a mischievous boy. Like when Tom goes into the woods, and finds Huck. There are very interesting things that happen to Tom.
In all of these books, I learned several things about colonial days in America. They all showed me new things that were not taught to me in U.S. History. And with this, I can come away with new knowledge of the way people thought and the different relationships they were in with their friends. I can also come away with the other knowledge from U.S. History and put the two sources together and I learn twice as much as I could have without reading these Honors English books.