YWAM Publishing- A Book About Milton Hershey

So often during the course of our history lessons, we just briefly get a glimpse of those who have shaped our past without really getting to know much in depth about them. YWAM Publishing has 2 neat series though that allows students to really get to know people from history. We recently had the chance to review the book Milton Hershey:More Than Chocolate from the Heroes of History series as well as the accompanying downloadable Unit Study Curriculum Guide.

YWAM Publishing is a Christian company that seeks to provide quality literature, study guides, audiobooks and even books in Spanish and other languages. The Schoolhouse Review Crew recently had the chance to choose from over 40 books in 2 series, Heroes of History and Christian Heroes:Then and Now. The biographies are all written by Janet and Geoff Benge, a wife and husband team who have a desire to bring history to life in interesting and engaging books with study guides to accompany the biographies.

The book about Milton Hershey is 192 pages long and contains 18 chapters.The first chapter talks about the failure of Milton's first business and lures you in to learning more about his life and experiences. Then the second chapter takes you back to when he was a child and moves forward from there.

I'll admit, we only live 45 minutes from Hershey, Pa and are quite familiar with Milton's general history but this book gave a more in depth look into his life and how the town came to be all because of one man and his chocolate creations! Did you know Hershey chocolate was making 1 million dollars by 1906 and that Milton Hershey came from a Mennonite family? Also, Milton and his wife were never able to have children and because they were so blessed with money, they felt they need to use it to bless others and wanted to establish a school for orphaned boys. Today the Milton Hershey School still exists to house boys in need.

Not only was the book interesting, the accompanying study guide provides even more in depth learning.

A screen shot of the Unit Study Curriculum Guide main page (click on photos to enlarge)

The curriculum unit study provides a guide to be able to use for either a classroom, in the homeschool or a group like a co-op.
Provides ideas on how to tie in social studies, language arts, projects and even field trip suggestions.
Videos that allow you to "meet" the authors.
Worksheets for students to fill in such as a map, timeline, fact sheet, etc
Short biography on Milton Hershey.
Chapter Review Questions.

Before my daughter started the book, I printed out all the chapter study guide questions for her, hole punched them and placed them in a 3 ring binder along with lined notebook paper. The printed study questions did not provide enough room to write the answers on it, hence me adding the extra paper. As she completed each chapter, she answered the 6 questions.

One of the suggested field trips was to take a tour of Chocolate World at Hershey. It had been a number of years since I had last taken the kids here so we stopped by here one afternoon after our co-op to round out the book experience.

This book is ideal for a child around age 10 or older or read by a parent for a group unit study. Any of these biographies from the series can be stand alone readers to supplement your schooling or you could do the series for a whole history curriculum! We enjoy how engaging the book was and the variety of activities that were included in the Unit Study Curriculum Guide.

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