{"id":45,"date":"2008-02-04T11:26:31","date_gmt":"2008-02-04T16:26:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/openwidelookinside\/archives\/45"},"modified":"2008-02-04T11:26:31","modified_gmt":"2008-02-04T16:26:31","slug":"book-review-the-story-of-salt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/openwidelookinside\/2008\/02\/04\/book-review-the-story-of-salt\/","title":{"rendered":"Nonfiction Monday &#8211; The Story of Salt"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I love books that explore science and history from different perspectives. For example, I love the notion of learning about animals not by the groups they belong to (say a book on birds or reptiles), but by some common feature that links them together, as in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Venom-Junior-Library-Guild-Selection\/dp\/1581960433\/\">Venom<\/a> by Marilyn Singer, or <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Living-Color-Steve-Jenkins\/dp\/0618708979\/\">Living Color<\/a> by Steve Jenkins.<\/p>\n<p>One of my favorite history books looks at how salt has shaped our world. No, this isn&#8217;t a straight chronology, but rather a book that examines historical events through the lens of a very important substance. One could easily imagine a book written about tea, or silk or gold in this same fashion, but being the science lover that I am, I loved learning about salt.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/openwidelookinside\/files\/2008\/02\/salt.jpg\" title=\"salt.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/openwidelookinside\/files\/2008\/02\/salt.jpg\" alt=\"salt.jpg\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p> I learned of this book only after reading <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Salt-World-History-Mark-Kurlansky\/dp\/0142001619\/\">Salt: <font>A World History<\/font><\/a> by  \tMark Kurlansky. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Story-Salt-Mark-Kurlansky\/dp\/0399239987\/\">The Story of Salt<\/a> is a kid-friendly version of this work. In it, Kurlansky shares the history and science of salt. Here are some interesting things kids will learn while reading this book.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Salt is the only rock consumed by humans.<\/li>\n<li>Salt paid for the Great Wall of China.<\/li>\n<li>Without salt there would be no mummies. (If you haven&#8217;t ever <a href=\"http:\/\/www.uen.org\/utahlink\/tours\/tourViewSite.cgi?tour_id=10053\">mummified a chicken<\/a> while studying Ancient Egypt, you should!)<\/li>\n<li>Roman soldiers were often paid in salt.<\/li>\n<li>When the Jamestown colony was started, a saltwork was established.<\/li>\n<li>When America declared independence from England, the salt supply was cut off. (Did you know you need salt to make gunpowder? Losing their supply of salt prior to war was a big problem.)<\/li>\n<li>Ghandi walked 240 miles to the sea to defy British law and make salt.<\/li>\n<li>Today, the US is the world&#8217;s largest supplier of salt.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This well-written and fascinating text is accompanied by color-washed pen-and-ink drawings that add humor and interest. The book ends with a timeline of salt through the centuries. Overall, this is a well-researched piece that deserves a place on your bookshelf.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Book:<\/strong> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Story-Salt-Mark-Kurlansky\/dp\/0399239987\/\">The Story of Salt<\/a><br \/>\n<strong>Author: <\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.powells.com\/ink\/kurlansky.html\">Mark Kurlansky<\/a><br \/>\n<strong>Illustrator: <\/strong>S. D. Schindler<br \/>\n<strong>Publisher: <\/strong>G. P. Putnam&#8217;s Sons<br \/>\n<strong>Publication Date: <\/strong>2006<br \/>\n<strong>Pages: <\/strong>48<br \/>\n<strong>Grades:<\/strong> 3-8<br \/>\n<strong>ISBN-10: <\/strong>0399239987<br \/>\n<strong>ISBN-13: <\/strong>978-0399239984<br \/>\n<strong> Source of Book:<\/strong> Personal copy purchased at a local independent bookstore<\/p>\n<p>This review was written for <a href=\"http:\/\/6traits.wordpress.com\/nonfiction-monday\/\">Nonfiction Monday<\/a>. Head on over to <a href=\"http:\/\/6traits.wordpress.com\/\">Anastasia Suen&#8217;s blog<\/a> and check out all the great posts highlighting <a href=\"http:\/\/6traits.wordpress.com\/2008\/02\/04\/nonfiction-monday-round-up-2\/\">nonfiction this week<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I love books that explore science and history from different perspectives. For example, I love the notion of learning about animals not by the groups they belong to (say a book on birds or reptiles), but by some common feature &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/openwidelookinside\/2008\/02\/04\/book-review-the-story-of-salt\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":270,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50,1142,27,31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-review","category-nonfiction-monday","category-science","category-social-studies"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/openwidelookinside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/openwidelookinside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/openwidelookinside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/openwidelookinside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/270"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/openwidelookinside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/openwidelookinside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/openwidelookinside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/openwidelookinside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/openwidelookinside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}