Written+in+Bone

**//Written in Bone: Buried Lives of Jamestown and Colonial Maryland//**

//Nonfiction texts are age appropriate and take an audience-centered approach in their delivery. One might think that the telling of a time period in American history would be simple, straight forward and equal in its explanation regardless of who the audience is. Although it is perfectly understandable that an author may use certain restraints in his use of detail, imagery and refrain from mentioning information too graphic or too complex for younger audiences. That being said, examining further, there is a great deal of evidence supporting the claim that choice of audience determines several things. Some of the decisions an author must make when writing nonfiction are: what angle of the story is the author wanting to tell, what to leave out, include and expanded on and what vocabulary, as well as, style of text to use. //




 * __Written in Bone: Buried Lives of Jamestown and Colonial Maryland __**// by Sally M. Walker breathes new life into the Jamestown settlement by adding an element of mystery to the mix. She wrote this book anticipated for very specifically young adults’ ages twelve to fifteen years old. The author brilliantly incorporated many areas of both social science and forensic science. Areas she brings in anthropology, archeology and history but utilizes so many wonderful textual methods to ensure understanding. For example, the use of historical documents, illustrations, anatomical drawings as well as real photographs of reenactors at the accurately historical reproduction of the Jamestown settlement. The author uses the angle of a mystery, in terms of current and relevant findings at the archeological dig sight. //

//The reader is invited along to sit in the passenger seat to experience and investigate every detail up close. The reader even is allowed access into the steps of how archeologists conserve the delicate skeletal remains to preserve them during transport to the lab. The audience is also shown step by step how forensic scientists recreate the detailed human features of a skull in order to figure out how the people of Jamestown lived and died. This book authentically answers thequestions of who, what, where, when and why. There so many elements to this work, it is almost difficult to know where to begin. The journey the author brings the reader on is inspired by her own passion and interest in the subject matter. This manner only enhances her storytelling capacity. // [] []

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[] //and Captain John Smith. //
 * __Love & Hate in Jamestown: John Smith, Pocahontas, and the Start of a New __** **__Nation__** //by David A. Price is intended for an older more mature audience geared toward an audience of 14 and up. This nonfiction book takes a different direction and focuses on the interactions between the members of the settlement and the ones between the sometimes cordial and sometimes tumultuous social interactions between the colonists and the natives rather than introducing the audience to merely just the memorable events. The work is written more as an account of life at the settlement, very different from a textbook full of just simple facts and vocabulary. This work of nonfiction is written as a novel with real characters, factual events and depth an older reader would find interesting and entertaining. This is what sets this work apart from the other texts examined in this paper.// //The level of detail is plentiful and lush and the author doesn’t hold anything back.The author’s emphasis is put on how the different cultures interacted with one another. He was very respectful in is approach of talking about the native people including Chief Powhatan and the African slaves and provided the reader with a realistic explanation of the dynamics between the British aristocracy //

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