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Events that Shaped America

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








 


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Manners and Guests

Being a Pig Is Nice: A Child's-Eye View of Manners
goodreads.com

Being a Pig is Nice:  A Child's-Eye View of Manners
by Sally Lloyd-Jones
Illustrator: Dan Krall
AR 3.5

Being a well-mannered kid can be hard, right?  So, maybe it would be better to be a snail, or a monkey, or even an elephant.  As our character imagines herself in each of these roles instead, she realizes that each of them come with their own set of challenges.  Until... she thinks of one more thing she could be and not have to worry about her manners.  What do you think it is?  And, will it work?


Stone Soup
goodreads.com
Stone Soup
by Marcia Brown
Genre: Folk Tale/AR 3.3
Caldecott Honor Book

Three soldiers returning from war are hoping to find a nice meal and a place to rest for the night.  The villagers, however, do not intend to welcome the soldiers as their guests. When they claim to have no food or room in their houses, the soldiers devise a plan to trick the people to share what they have to make the stone soup.  It was one of my favorite books to reread as a child. I hope you get a chance to read and enjoy it, too.

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Get Inspired to Write a Vacation Journal

betterworldbooks.com

Three Days on a River in a Red Canoe
by Vera B. Williams
A.R. Level 3.5
Genre: Realistic Fiction

A boy's story of the 3-day trip he takes with his mother, aunt, and cousin begins with the purchase of the canoe and the planning of the trip. The exciting adventures are retold with pencil drawings illustrating each page.  This type of storytelling feels like a journal with its side notes on knot tieing, recipes, and tent hoisting instructions.  It is exactly the kind of journaling I tried (in vain) to get my family to adopt for our vacations.  I am going to reread this to them and see if I can inspire them to give it another try. 

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Legends of Bremen

betterworldbooks.com

The Hero of Bremen
by Margaret Hodges
Illustrator Chalres Mikolaycak
A.R. Level 4.9
Genre:  Legend

This legend tells of a crippled shoemaker who must perform a heroic deed to acquire much needed land for the crowded city of Bremen.  Hans, the shoemaker, has often retold the tale of another Bremen legend, Roland, whose strength and courage Hans will need to draw on if he is to succeed.

Our second graders read The Bremen Town Musicians in their reading series. While this book is above most of their reading levels, they will enjoy it as a read aloud in the library along with their reading series feature about Bremen.   

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Thanksgiving Reading List


I'll be reading some of these great titles to my Pre-K through 5th graders this week.

 

To review the history and traditions of Thanksgiving:


Thanksgiving DayThanksgiving Day
by Gail Gibbons

A simple history from the Mayflower to our current day dinner table. 








The First ThanksgivingThe First Thanksgiving
by Jean Craighead George

A little long (it begins with the plymouth rock's journey via glacier to its spot in Massachusetts), but plenty of information and gorgeous illustrations.




The Thanksgiving Story

The Thanksgiving Story
by Alice Dalgliesh
Helen Sewell (Illustrator)

A Caldecott Honor book, this is a beautiful book that tells the Pilgrim's story from the point of view of one family whose child, Oceanus, was born on the voyage of the Mayflower.  Again, it's long, making it a harder story to read aloud to 20+ first graders, but just right for one-on-one reading and sharing the highlights, if necessary, with a larger group.





If You Were At The First Thanksgiving 
If You Were at the First Thanksgiving
by Anne Kamma
Bert Dodson (Illustrator)

Kids always love the way these books are written with easy access points for relating to life then and now.  It's not necessary to read the entire thing, but students generally enjoy all the different bits of information.



Fun reads for Story Time



Turkey Trouble
A Turkey for Thanksgiving

'Twas The Night Before Thanksgiving (Bookshelf)

Setting the Turkeys Free

A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving

One Is a Feast for Mouse: A Thanksgiving Tale


Some chapter books, too:


Peanut-Butter Pilgrims (Pee Wee Scouts, #6)        Gooney Bird and the Room Mother


Ginger Pye      Don't Be Such a Turkey! (Katie Kazoo Switcheroo, Super Special)

Guests          Boys Against Girls (Boy/Girl Battle, #3)



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"Hope is the thing with feathers"

Feathers
goodreads.com

Feathers
by Jacqueline Woodson
Genre: Historical Fiction/AR 4.4
Newbery Honor

Told from the perspective of 11 year-old Frannie, this story deals with a range of issues: segregation, bullying, Christian faith and doubt, discrimination, deafness, death, and sorrow.  Yet, it's really not a heavy hearted book.  Frannie expresses her anger, sorrow, and happiness with a detached manner that is nevertheless genuine and heartfelt.  She questions everything, including her friends' rejection and bullying of a new white boy in their all black school and community, the need to go to church, her mother's miscarriages, and the impact of her brother's deafness.  The references to Emily Dickinson's poem, Hope, provides insight to the author and Frannie's perspective.  For me, it is a story of searching for resilience and what is required to overcome not just the big obstacles, but the small injustices and lingering doubts that we all face from time to time.  

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Kira-kira: glittering (in Japanese)



Kira-Kira
image from goodreads.com
Kira-Kira
by Cynthia Kadohata
Genre:  Historical Fiction/AR 4.7
Newbery Medal Winner

Set in the 1950s, this is the story of a Japanese-American family that moves from Iowa to Georgia when the family's Asian grocery store goes out of business.  Told from Katie's (the middle child) point of view, we learn about the hardships faced in a working poor family along with the determined hope of a family full of love and respect for each other.  The family is destined for many hardships that are all foreshadowed in the first few pages of the story.  What keeps you reading in spite of that dreary expectation to be fulfilled, is the brightness of the writing and the authenticity of Katie's voice throughout the story.  

My favorite quote from the story:  “My sister had taught me to look at the world that way, as a place that glitters, as a place where the calls of the crickets and the crows and the wind are everyday occurrences that also happen to be magic.” I've been thinking of the opposite of this very sentiment for weeks, and appreciated the contrasting point of view.  It's no small thing when a book can help you shift your perspective.

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