Roanoke: The Lost Colony

Roanoke: The Lost Colony by Jane Yolen and Heidi Elisabet Yolen Stemple

Non-Fiction

Jane Yolen tells the story of the lost colony at Roanoke, an island off the coast of North Carolina. It starts with the colonists' journey to the New World from England. They intended to start their colony in Chesapeake, Virginia, but were forced out of their boats at Roanoke. They got into fights with the Indians but managed to survive. Just after the first English child was born in America (Virginia Dare), the leader, John White, set sail for England to get more supplies. When he returned the colonists were gone and all that remained were the letters "CRO" carved into a tree and the word "CROATAN" carved into a post. No one knows what it meant and the colonists were never found. To this day the Roanoke colony is known as "lost."

I would use this book to discuss the Lost Colony at Roanoke. This is a huge event in North Carolina's history, and relates to the NC SCOS 4th Grade objective 3.03- Examine the Lost Colony and explain its importance in the settlement of North Carolina. It really focuses on facts and vocabulary and gives five different theories as to what happened to the colonists. I think the students would respond much better to reading and learning about the colony from this book than they would to reading and learning about the colony from a textbook.