rss

betterworldbooks.com
The Pinata Maker
by George Ancona
Genre: Nonfiction / AR 4.3

The art of pinata making is captured in photographs and text presented in English on one side and Spanish on the opposite side. You'll be drawn into this small village in Mexico while learning the art of pinata making.  In fact, you'll likely be eager to make your own pinata.  The author provides some helpful notes on what you can do with common materials to complete your first project.



Hibernar/Hibernation (Pebble Plus Bilingual) (Spanish Edition)
goodreads.com
Hibernar/Hibernation
by Margaret Hall
Genre: Nonfiction / AR 1.8

With English on top and the Spanish translation on the bottom, you can learn how different kinds of animals prepare for hibernation.  If you count the beautiful photographs, this book actually communicates in three languages!  The glossary, index, and recommended Internet sites are also accessible in both English and Spanish making this a truly useful book second language speakers or learners.

Lives: Poems About Famous Americans
goodreads.com
Lives:  Poems about Famous Americans
Selected by: Lee Bennett Hopkins
Illustrated by: Leslie Staub
Genre: Nonfiction (Poetry) / A.R. 5.0
Poetry can be intimidating for many, but the familiar lives honored in these twelve poems break through a lot of those fears.  What a great way to begin a unit on a particular person or event in history.  There are bound to be references to more obscure events and details that will pique the interests of any reader to do more research.  But, the poetry can certainly be enjoyed for the beauty in the language, too.  From the poem, Dreamer, about Langston Hughes:

  He shared his
hope
and
pride
and
pain.

He wrote
of life
with an ebon pen
and the world
was never
the same
again.
 

The books in the Events That Shaped America series pack a lot of history, personal accounts, pictures, and interesting stories in less than 50 pages.  I guarantee you will find them compelling introductions to important events in our history.

Arriving at Ellis IslandArriving at Ellis Island
by MaryLee Knowlton
Genre: Nonfiction/History AR 6.5
Series: Events That Shaped America

Ellis Island was open for just 62 years. That's not long in the span of American immigration, and yet it remains the most enduring symbol of coming to America that most of us recognize.  I have visited the island twice, read the history on site, and still learned some interesting new facts from this slim source. The firsthand accounts of immigrants throughout the text deftly breathe life into the facts.  


The Montgomery Bus Boycott
garthstevens.com
The Montgomery Bus Boycott
by Sabrina Crewe and Frank Walsh
Genre:  Nonfiction/History AR 7.1
Series: Events That Shaped America

To put the Montgomery bus boycott into perspective, the book begins with slavery, the abolitionist movement, and civil rights issues leading up to the day Rosa Parks was arrested for failing to relinquish her seat on a public bus.  It goes on to tell the story of how the coordinated boycott lasted for over a year and demonstrated that peaceful actions could force meaningful change.  It also puts the boycott's success into perspective of the greater civil rights challenges that continued throughout the 1950s and 1960s.  As with other books in the series, there are places to visit, books and Web sites to explore, and activities you can do to deepen your understanding of this important event in history.

You can find these other books from the series in the WGS library:
  • The Plymouth Colony by Gianna Polacco Williams
  • The Siege of the Alamo by Valerie Weber
  • The Battle of Gettysburg by Sabrina Crewe
  • The California Goldrush by Sabrina Crewe
  • The California Mission by Valerie Weber
  • The Battle of the Little Big Horn by MaryLee Knowlton
  • The Settling of Jameston by MaryLee Knowlton
  • The Settling of St. Augustine by Sabrina Crewe