McGovern, Ann.
IF YOU LIVED IN COLONIAL TIMES
New York : Scholastic, 1992
IL K-3, RL 3.9
ISBN 059045160X

Can you imagine what it would be like to live in a different time? Suppose you were a colonist living in New England between the years of 1565 and 1776. Way back then these colonists had to work really hard. Believe it or not, most people had to make their own clothes. Everybody in the family helped. They planted flax to make linen thread and kept sheep to get wool. They used looms and spinning wheels. Since there were no grocery stores, colonists also had to grow and catch their own food. They planted vegetable and fruit seeds and men and boys hunted and fished. You would be eating a lot of corn and bean porridge. Back then, there weren’t many cows and milk wasn’t drunk so much. The colonists didn’t want to drink water because they thought it would make them sick, so colonists drank apple and pear cider and beer as well. Even children drank beer. When it came time to eat with your family, you had to keep quiet and stand at the table throughout the meal. Your plate was a wooden board called a trencher. Life was not so easy back then. In addition to all the challenges the colonists had to face to clothe, feed, and house themselves, people had to follow all sorts of laws that seem harsh. Did you that then it was against the law for a baker to bake bad bread? There are many more surprising facts that you can discover in this interesting book. (May Harn Liu, may@mailbox.sc.edu, librarian)

United States -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775.