Wright on Time- Arizona- Book 1
by Lisa M. Cottrell-Bentley
Published by: Wright on Time Books
Ages 5-12+
Retail price: $12.99

Wright on Time: Arizona, is the first in a series of chapter books following the adventures of the Wrights, a homeschooling family on an RV journey through the United States.  This one is, of course, set in Arizona.  Spelunking in a privately-owned cave, the family observes bats and cave formations.  They also dig for a variety of minerals.

The book is a fairly quick read, and we all very much enjoyed it.  My seven-year-old could have read it herself with no problem (except, perhaps, with a couple of unfamiliar place names), but we read it together.  At the end of every chapter, the girls were eager to hear more.  They enjoyed reading about energetic Aidan’s antics, and even at only seven, Ariel appreciated the humor of them.  We learned about several minerals, about the differences between stalactites and stalagmites, and a little bit about bats.  A mysterious discovery the family makes in the cave is the tie-in to the next book (about Utah).  We’re eager to read that one now, too!

Unfamiliar words are included in a glossary at the end of the book.  A page of Arizona facts is included, as well.

There were fewer facts included in the book than I expected about things like Arizona landmarks.  There wasn’t a lot of detail included, either, about the things the Wrights discovered in the cave.  This is to be expected, though – one can only pack so much information into a fiction book that children need to be able to read.  The facts that were included were integrated in such a way as to stir up curiosity in the reader so we can easily study more ourselves.  Curiosity is also encouraged by the example of the children in the story.  I found some grammatical errors here and there, so subsequent books could perhaps use further editing, but there was nothing major in this book to turn me off.  The writing was good, overall.  And there was no talk of “millions of years” when discussing cave formations. 🙂

Homeschooled children will enjoy this story, as one of the rare opportunities to read about children “like them.”  Parents will like it because it encourages them to learn new things.  I just hope the author can write fast, since she may be hard-pressed to keep up with her readers!

The book for this review was provided, free of charge, by the author and MamaBzz.