The Charter Oak Children's Book Award continues! This week, we read The Camping Trip That Changed America written by Barb Rosenstock and illustrated by Mordicai Gerstein. In 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt joined naturalist John Muir on a camping trip through the Yosemite wilderness. The trip convinced President Roosevelt about the importance of saving wilderness areas throughout the country. The kids were very interested in this true story and had lots of great questions about bears, redwoods, and national parks. In the book, John Muir sleeps on a bed of branches. My husband had recently trimmed the hedges so I brought in a few branches so the kids could see what it felt like for themselves. Some of them thought it was comfortable, others not so much, but they were all excited to try it out!
They were also awed by this video of Yosemite: