Yo! Sacramento

by Will Cleveland and Mark Alvarez

Book Overview

Comical mnemonic captions and crazy cartoons make it easy to master American geography, plus fascinating facts about historical events, famous people, and landmarks, too.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0761302379
• ISBN13: 9780761302377
• Release Date: January 1997
• Publisher: Millbrook Press
• Length: 120 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 6.0" x 8.9"
• Age Range: 10 to 14 years
• Grade Range: Grades 5 to 9

Customer Reviews

Great Book

"Yo, Sacremento!" needs to get back in print! It is a fantastic book. It helps kids remember their state capitals in no time. The book is full of cute memory tricks to remember which state capital belongs to which state. My daughter loved it!

A great way to memorize!

If a silly picture of a gust of wind blowing down Main Street doesn't do anything for you, you've never read "Yo, Sacramento!" It should remind you that Augusta is the capital of Maine. The whole book is a marvelous mix of funny mnemonic cartoons with interesting facts about the states and capitals. My eight year old daughter loves this book and its companion, "Yo, Millard Filmore!"; she memorized the Presidents in a few minutes and the states/capitals in a couple days. And although I hate to admit that I couldn't remember them from my school days, the books helped me learn them too. (I don't know about the "never forget" part, but it does stick with you, and it's easy to pick back up.) When we showed these books to my family, my niece (the daughter of a social studies teacher) even told me she thought it was too easy; it must be cheating somehow to learn them this way! I have to say, however, I prefer the Millard Filmore book to the Sacramento one, primarily because 'Millard' is designed as a series -- an element from each picture is carried into the next in order to reinforce the historical sequence. This not only teaches the sequence, but it helped me with the actual memorization -- I know I haven't left any presidents out. 'Sacramento' is a group of unconnected pictures, which may connect the capitals to their states -- and generally link the states with their geographic region, but doesn't guarantee you have all the states. ("Oops! I only counted 47! Which ones did I leave out?") If I could wish for anything besides additional titles in this series, it would be that 'Sacramento' could be rewritten to link the states together from east to west or alphabetically or even in order of admission to the union, so you end up with all 50 states in your brain.

The best book around to teach states and capitals

This book really helps a child or an adult to memorize states and capitals within 20 minutes. I have never come across any program so precise. My kids really enjoy learning with the picture and word association method used in the book. This book should be used in all schools around the world.

Please write more!

I teach school and used the illustrations and catchy phrases to help students learn the states and capitals. It really works! have older students and they need to learn countries and capitals. I would love to see Will Cleveland & Mike Alvarez team up again and write a book to help us memorize these (but maybe not in 20 minutes)!

This is the greatest book!

I am a 36 year old mother of 3. This book has been used and reused by members of my family. We have loaned it to numerous people, including adults, and all have had great fun learning from it. My two oldest children are video game "nuts" and this book was so enjoyable for our entire family that it took them away from the video game "world" and brought them into a real learning environment. They were having so much fun that they didn't even realize that this book was actually "school work". Not only have they learned from this FABULOUS teaching tool, but, this "old mom" can name all of the states and their capitals. We have worn this book out! It is so much fun! This country could use a few more of these wonderful "teaching" aids! A heartfelt thanks to its author and illustrators. Keep these books coming people!!