The State of Wilderness & The State of Quarries by Elysabeth Eldering

About The State of Wilderness:

In the first book of the Junior Geography Squad series, the squad works its way through the first of the fifty states. Questions given in the form of a hand-held electronic game lead the kids to the identification of the state. Illustrations by Aidana WillowRaven highlight Elysabeth Eldering’s clues.

About The State of Quarries:

The second book in the Junior Geography Squad series follows some of the squad as they play the trivia electronic game, searching for the name of the second state in the game. Who can guess the correct state first? Once again Elysabeth Eldering’s clues are illustrated by Aidana WillowRaven.

My Opinion:

As a homeschooling mom, I"m always on the look out for new and interesting ways to teach my sons about the various subjects.  Especially History and Geography, the two subjects that aren't always very interesting, I need innovative ways to get them interested and engaged with the subject.  So when I was asked to review these two books, my interest was peaked!

The general story of the books are about a couple of kids who are using a hand-held game system to learn about geography.  The game system is very clever.  It goes through a list of clues about a specific state and the child has to figure out what the state is by the end of the list of clues.  Each book is about these children, the Junior Geography Detective Squad, going through the game together to figure out what state the set of clues are talking about.  The clues difficulty ranges from difficult to easy, starting with the most difficult first. The clues are interesting and as I read through the book I kept trying to figure out what state each of the books was about.  Some of the clues were very difficult, unless you already knew about the state.  Other clues were much more easy.

Although the reading level of the book is around ages 9-12, I think the story line itself leans more towards the younger age range of children.  I liked the clues and the game itself was interesting (I'd buy one of those games systems for sure), but the over all story line was a little boring.  I can't really see a child over 10 wanting to read through the whole book, unless they were really interested in the game itself.  The game was the only thing that kept me reading it.  The clues and the game might be too old for a child younger than 8 though.  So there is a small window of ages where I feel this book would keep a child's interest and not be too difficult of a read for them.  Definitely a book to read with your child, because of the level of reading comprehension.

If your child likes word or clue games and needs some extra help with geography, I would recommend this book to you.  However, only if they are between 8 & 10 years old.  Any older than 10 and they would more than likely get bored with the book itself and not gather the great information about the states.  If your a homeschooler, these books would be good to have in your arsenal library to create some of your own games or unit study.  Overall I would say these books have a great idea, but aren't for everyone.

My rating: 3.5 stars