Father's Road

Jang, J. (2017). Father’s Road. Michigan: Eerdmans Books for Young Readers. 36 pages, Grades 3-6, Fiction, ISBN 9780802854728.

This book is about a young boy named Wong Chung who is very excited to go on a business trip with his father. His father travels to sell and trade silk. For this trip, they traveled by camel and were heading to the markets in Constantinople. However, Wong Chung did not know how harsh the conditions for this trip would be. He had to travel through sandstorms, deal with bandits and learn some survival skills. Wong Chung became an important aspect of this trip when his willingness to help others came in to play.

Before beginning this book, when looking through the pictures, I was not sure if I would like it at all, however, it is a good book. This would not be my first choice of book to have in my classroom because of the difficult words in it, but it does have some good teachings aspects, especially for social studies. This book is all about buying and trading goods which is why it would be a good start to a lesson. In the back of the book it has teaching opportunities and guidance as well. It explains some vocabulary for the readers (economy, globalization, etc.), along with countries and their demand of goods. Due to the vocabulary and the lesson ideas, I would suggest it for the higher grades when they begin learning these concepts.

Review by: Jordyn R.