Pistes d'exploration

Based on the title, make predictions about what plants might be featured in the book. Explain your thinking.

Prepare notes to argue why one of the plants is the most important. Debate with a classmate who selected a different plant.

Create a graphic organizer to compare and contrast information about two or more plants. Explain your choice of organizer and the features you select to highlight.

Prepare a monologue from the point of view of one of the plants. Incorporate facts and historical information into your personification.

Discuss how each type of plant is used in your family. Organize the ideas for one plant into a mind map. (Teacher’s note: Use cinchona or rubber as a model text for this activity: these are more difficult to brainstorm and organize.)

Explore the structures and features of the book. How is it organized? Which features are reused for every plant? Draw a storyboard for a plant unit.

Choose one plant and draw a timeline for it. Compare with the timelines of other teams.

Discuss whether or not these plants are still valuable and helpful in today’s society.

Based on the title, predict which plants might be featured. For further clues, check the table of contents.

Prepare to argue why one of the plants is the most important. Debate with a partner who selected a different plant.

In 10 teams, present information on one of the plants using a different medium (podcast, poster, fact cards, wordmap, multimedia presentation, etc.)

No Monkeys, No Chocolate, The Natural World

Mots-clés

Non-fiction , food , history , innovations , inventions , plants

Commentaire descriptif

“Trading for Tea,” “Where Rubber Hits the Road” and “Potato Feast Becomes Famine” are just some of the intriguing headlines that lead readers into this interesting account of ethnobotany. For example, the chapter on cotton begins with the story of a teenage cotton-mill worker in New England in 1836 and goes on to discuss child labour, slavery and the American Civil War. Sidebars (“Fuel Up on Sugar”), lists (“Great Chocolate Inventors”) and timelines (“Getting Cinchona out of South America”) provide alternative access to the material, while evocative illustrations merge realist depiction with editorial flair. One spread contrasts a Phoenician tapping at a tablet with an Egyptian inking a scroll in his lap: “For another 3,000 years papyrus was the best writing material available.” Another image depicts a mustachioed gentleman wielding a large pepper-grinder; little round peppercorns morph into globe-shaped maps: “the search for one treasured spice . . . discoveries of new lands.” In yet another image, the versatile corn plant is shown on labels of jars, boxes and spray bottles. Back material includes a world map of the plants’ origins, a bibliography, references for further reading and an index.