Johnny Appleseed: My Story (Step-Into-Reading, Step 3)

 (7 customer reviews)

This book is a Level 2 Reader which is defined as being for Grades 1 to 3. And despite being a Practice Reader this book by David Harrison does as fine a job as any book we have read thus far in teaching young children about Johnny Appleseed (John Chapman).

The book begins with Johnny's arrival on a farm. Everyone is excited to see John again and they invite him to dinner. The two children, Will and Beth, want John to tell them one of this stories, and he says 'sure' but not before he helps dad with the wood splitting.

When they do all settle down after dinner, Johnny tells of his own boisterous childhood. How he found relief from the noise of ten siblings! in the woods and how the woods became a second home to him.

The story goes on to describe how he set off from Massachusetts to go west, and how he fell into apple planting by accident when a cider mill gave him free apple seeds. The book covers the harsh winters in Pennsylvania and how John...Read more

I must admit, my kindergartener and I are great fans of the Step Into Reading series of books. Since my daughter had completed the Step 2 books in the Step Into Reading series of books, I decided to go ahead and purchase the Step 3 books. I was a bit hesitant because I noticed there is quite a big leap between the Step 2 and Step 3 books, especially in terms of vocabulary and sentence structure. The vocabulary is more advanced with higher order words, and the sentences are longer. I was also concerned that my daughter might not like the topics which seemed to be more 'academic' with history-based stories. My worries were unfounded. She loves the books and is reading them with very little help from me (and I enjoy listening to the stories!)

These books are excellent for building children's reading skills as well as increasing their confidence in reading. Once you've completed the Step 1 and Step 2 books (I would advise proceeding level by level), the Step 3 books are not as...Read more

This book was very kid-friendly.

My first grade class enjoyed it very much.