On This Spot: An Expedition Back Through Time

by Susan E. Goodman, Lee Christiansen (Illustrator)

On This Spot... See buildings soar and traffic zoom, a kaleidoscope of color and movement. Now turn the page and time-travel back 175 years, where on the same spot carriages bumped and pigs raced across cobblestones. Turn again and go back 400 years to when a Lenape Indian trail crossed the spot. Now travel farther still, to when glaciers crept . . . dinosaurs preyed . . . a tropical sea teemed with ancient creatures . . . back 540 million years, when rock was all you could see.

What happened on this spot? What will happen next? Look out your window. What happened on that spot?

Genres: Picture Books, History, Nonfiction, Childrens, New York

Library Binding

Published March 1, 2004

About the author

Susan E. Goodman is the author of more than thirty nonfiction books for children, including How Do You Burp in Space?; See How They Run: Campaign Dreams, Election Schemes, and the Race to the White House;All in Just One Cookie, an ALA Notable Book; and On This Spot, a Washington Post Top Picture Book of the Year. She lives in Boston, Massachusetts.

from https://us.macmillan.com/author/susan...

see also http://www.carolhurst.com/authors/sgo...

Reviews

[Ali Book&Seaglasshunter · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very fun and unique book. Take an adventure through time starting in present day (well, 2004) New York City and traveling backwards in time to explore what that very spot looked like through different times, going back millions of years. I wish there was a tiny bit more info on each time period, but other than that it was very good. The illustrations are fine, nothing spectacular but nothing wrong with them.
The concept is such a fun one and can really spark curiosity in kids. You could do a great class research project with this idea, having students research different times specific to the place they live in.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book to my class last week. They LOVED it! They were amazed at the history behind it.

My class really enjoys dinosaurs, which are included here, so they were happy. It opened their minds to what might have been in our area before there was a city, as well as historial ideas like dinosaurs not all living at the same time (thanks to the really cool timeline in the back).

[Jennifer Wrage · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful resource for teaching children the importance of history. How the world is ever changing. Will be a book I use to discuss what our world will look like in the future if we don't take care of it. Love the illustrations!

[Ms. Whitaker · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a clever idea, I really enjoyed this book.

[Memory Kopp · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story is a fun and exciting adventure traveling through time on a specific spot in New York from present day all the way back to 540 million years ago. Susan Goodman helped use her words to bring us into the past. With words like “Gardens of sea lilies swayed in the water like flowers bending in the breeze.” Kids will get to see the past through the author and illustrators eyes. They can see the wooly mammoth roaming the landscape and they can see the Lenape hunting the forest for deer. Readers can see how the world around us changes every day. The illustrator uses vivid pastel colored illustrations to tell the story the author is telling. Seeing the phytosaur swim through the shallow lake in search of prey and the mountain peaks peeking through the clouds make you feel like you are really there. The end of the book is where the author puts her timeline to show the actual events and the different eras. She also puts her acknowledgments which show the extensive research she did from many museums and universities to use accurate facts when telling her story. This is a great read for teachers to use in the classroom when discussing history. A fun lesson would be using the timeline to show them how to track time and have your class make a timeline of their life.

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book describes what was happening in what is today New York City at different times throughout human and geologic history. It picks about 4 times during human history and about 5 or 6 from pre-human history of the Earth. At the end there are several pages of summary, one of which I would like to share here:

"Things change. Over thousands and millions of years, the earth changes. Huge pieces of land pull apart, leaving holes big enough to form oceans. Seas dry up, leaving fossils to tell the story of another time.
"Huge pieces of land press together, and mountains push toward the sky. Giant glaciers bulldoze some of those mountains. Wind and water crumble others, one rock at a time."

I really like how this book demonstrates how much things can change. It does not do much to explain the pace of change and that may lead to student misconceptions, but I do think it is valuable for students to understand.

[Laura Evans · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book inviting and creative -- it takes kids on a walk through time in the same space (NYC). As a future teacher, I'd love to one day do a unit on ways that history is embedded in space if you know what to look for. For example, I'd like to get my students to think about the history embedded in signs (why do you call Wall St, Wall St?), geography (why are the Appalachian mountains smooth?), etc. This would be such a fun way to get students to start thinking about how places evolve over time -- especially for young students who've only been on the planet earth for 8-10 years! I could maybe start the lesson with a picture walk through the book to see if the kids can guess where the book is taking place. It would also be fun to bring this concept alive in a classroom, where students maybe walk around and explore "time stations." There are so many ways to use this book.

[clare o'c · Rating 5 out of 5]

New York City today, a teeming city with millions of residents, but go back a hundred years or so and what was it like? Terrific read aloud. The kids can't believe how different the city looked as we go back hundreds and then thousands of years. Effectively shows the passage of time to young kids. A never-fails-to-engage book. I like to link it with Infinity and Me and Just a Second.

[Abbi Kraus · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked this book because it shows children how the Earth has changed so much over time and really does answer the questions (with educated theories of course) such as, "What did the Earth look like a million years ago?" It centers on New York too, which is really interesting for American kids.

[Deborah · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting rendering of the geologic ages scientists represent for earth's history--told backwards. With the idea that we can think about what will "this spot" be like thousands of years from now. Really nice sentence fluency.

[Amy S. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved the look at history and natural history. I really want to know what a rattle alarm is now. I want to go back to New Amsterdam and be on a watch. Very powerful book that takes me through time.

[Michele Knott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting account to think about how our world and lands have changed.
The author chose New York City and detailed how it's changed over millions of years.

[Diana Pettis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book explains the events that happened in New York City through history. Loved it.