Epinions.com
"Product Rating: 4 Stars Pros: Great illustrations, solid (if simple) content, an often overlooked subject with young students. Cons: The "Marta the Lawyer" framing device... The Bottom Line: There are a lot of picture books about government out there--this is one of the better ones. As a social studies teacher, one of the most tedious parts of my job is teaching kids about the government. They get hit with the "three branches of government" lecture every year from the cradle to the grave, and of those three branches, the one that usually seems least interesting and least powerful is the judicial branch. The Supreme Court's role has waxed and waned over the years, and it's only when it's in the headlines that we really consider how powerful those nine justices are. These issues and more come up in Anastasia Suen's 2009 picture book, The U.S. Supreme Court. This nicely illustrated, colorful book takes a dry topic and livens it up a little, and is part of the American Symbols series by Picture Window Books. The book outlines the history and purpose of the Supreme Court, and does so in language that elementary school students can understand. With assistance and explanation, second and third graders would be able to read and understand this book. The narrative is basically a chronology of the Supreme Court, following the government and Court from New York to Philadelphia to Washington, D.C.. Half of the book's 24 pages are devoted to the Supreme Court Building, which I suppose is fitting for an "American Symbols" book. It never explains why the Court didn't get its own building until the 20th Century, but does explain that it took Chief Justice (and ex-president) William Howard Taft to get the building built. We're introduced to architect Cass Gilbert, who also designed the Woolworth Building and three state capitols. I was hoping there would be more about the symbolism in the building, even about the statues on either side of the building's columns, but Suen doesn't explain any of the symbols. For a picture book, The U.S. Supreme Court is rich with information. Each page has a sidebar with statistics or details that tells a little more about the Supreme Court or the building, things like, "About 8,000 cases are submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court each year. Only about 100 to 150 are heard." or "After the British set fire to the U.S. Capitol during the War of 1812, the Supreme Court met in a private house for a short time." It makes the book more interesting and more informative, and even though the sidebar format might be confusing for very young readers, they don't interfere too much with the flow of the rest of the book. The only thing that really seems out of place is that the story is bookended with "Marta," a lawyer who's on her way to the Supreme Court to have her case heard. She appears on page 1, and we don't see her again until page 22. It's an odd way to set up the story--if you're not going to use the character throughout the book, drop her. The framing device just doesn't work, and adds some confusion to the story. The artwork is cartoony and colorful, and illustrator Matthew Skeens' style is a lot of fun. In fact, the mismatch of illustrations to the content is what I like best about the book. There are many other childrens books introducing the Supreme Court to kids, but this one succeeds in being whimsical, and you want to keep reading just to see the pictures that Skeens has whipped up next. The final two pages of The U.S. Supreme Court are packed with information--Supreme Court Facts, a Glossary, More Books to Read, Websites, and an Index all enrich the content of the book even more. This book is too simple for most of the students I teach, but would be appropriate in an elementary school setting. I could use it with some students learning English, and I'll certainly use it with my own sons at home. Civics and government can be difficult to teach--I'll take any tools I" - Epinions.com
August 3, 2009