What Was Woodstock? by Joan Holub

An informative book that not only educates the reader on this famous gathering of hippies, but shines the light on the entire decade of the 60s!




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I just had an experience that made me extremely happy and extremely embarrassed at the same time.



You see, waaaaay back, a long time ago, the fantastic author Joan Holub sent me two of her fabulous books to review. 

I read This Little President to Gv right away (which we loved and you can read all about here), but since the other one was a chapter book and we were smack in the middle of all things farm with Charlotte and Wilbur, I set it aside on the bookcase so we could explore it when we were done.

But then, our year took a terrible turn, and we were in survival mode and the house turned into a disaster and that book somehow slipped down the back of the bookcase shelf and remained hidden there.

Until the other day, when I discovered it.

Which made me extremely excited (oooh, a new book!)

And also extremely embarrassed (ohhhh, goodness, I feel so bad for not reviewing this right away!)


What Was Woodstock?

But I quickly moved past any bad feelings I was experiencing, because the "What Was" book series has always been one of my favorites to keep in the classroom and even though I'd grown up hearing about Woodstock my whole life, it happened just before I was born and so I didn't really know that much about it.

I was especially surprised to learn about the short time frame in planning for it and I also enjoyed reading about all the artists who performed there, but what I really got a lot out of were the page insets that provided further information about this wild decade -- particularly the one explaining how the peace symbol came about!

Do you know this tidbit of trivia?

I just love any kind of children's book that focuses on historical events and people and even though this book's subject is still a tad over Gv's head at this age, I knew she'd still enjoy hearing about it.


These are such great early-reader chapter books, because they're filled with loads of helpful, engaging illustrations!

This book would make a great choice for a vocabulary study -- it's full of unique words and Holub explains their meanings in a natural way that flows throughout the text.


There are over a dozen real-life photos in the back of the book, so kids can get a true taste of the event!

So many different aspects of this festival and time period are mentioned, I can also see this book prompting kids to go investigate a long list of various topics further after having their curiosity pricked throughout these pages.




Joan Holub is the author of about a zillion children's books already - known especially for her Goddess Girls and Heroes in Training series, which follows the young Greek Gods and Goddesses in their fun adventures (I can't wait for Gv to be old enough for these!), as well as several of the titles in the Who Was/What Was series. Grab your own copy of this one here!

Do you enjoy these informative historical books for children as much as I do?  I'd love to hear!  Either leave a comment below or email me at lisahealy (at) outlook (dot) com.

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