Nancy Polette's book is a great addition to any elementary or middle school classroom or library. This is a fantastic tool for any teacher wanting to reinforce critical thinking skills in their students. The techniques that are addressed in this book focus on many aspects of thinking and address each skill with an activity that is orientated around a familiar fairy tale.



Polette stresses the fact that "In teaching the anatomy of a bird's wings, we must not allow children to lose the awe of flight." It is important to her that children be able to expand their minds by using "meaningful stories that have withstood the test of time". Each skill in this book is introduced by a definition and then several examples. The introduction of each skill is designed on the page so that it may be reproduced as a transparency. The skills are followed by several activities that may also be reproduced for classroom use as well.



Some of the skills that this book focuses on are: Analyzing Problems, Associative Thinking, Inferring, and Perceptual Thinking to name just a few. A few of the fairy tales and fantasies that the book uses are: The Ugly Duckling, Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes, The Wizard of Oz, and the Three Little Pigs.



This book is mainly geared for elementary students in grades 1-6; however, I believe that even high school students could always benefit from extra reinforcement of critical thinking skills. I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking for activities to use that are a little bit out of the ordinary and fun for the students.