Book Detail

Children of the Great Depression

Publication Information
Author:  Freedman, Russell Illustrator:  Archival photographs
Title:  Children of the Great Depression Date:  2005
Publisher:  Clarion City:  New York
ISBN, paperback:  0-618-44630-3 ISBN, hardback:  

Recommended audience:
ABE/ABLE:   Yes ESOL:  
Family:   Young Adult:  
Picture:   Yes

General Information:
Book Type(s):    nonfiction, photographic essay

HSE Descriptor(s):    social studies

Summary:
With the aid of archival photographs from The Farm Security Administration, Freedman tells the poignant story of the humiliation, poverty, migration, lack of schooling, and back-breaking work faced by children during the Great Depression of the 1930's in America.

Teaching Ideas:
Teachers will want to use this in a text set that includes Jerry Stanley's Children of the Dust Bowl and Karen Hesse's Out of the Dust from this database and books mentioned in the book's bibliography i.e. Studs Terkel's Hard Times. This book provides an introduction to basic economics through terms such as "unemployment," "bankruptcy" and "foreclosure," "credit" and "borrowing," "stock market," "inflation," and "economic cycles." Several resources that will be helpful are: The Change Agent on Economic Security and Justice (www.nelrc.org/changeagent/backissues.htm and The New Field Guide to the U.S. Economy by Nancy Folbre. Learners could interview family members who lived through the Depression to write articles to publish in a class newspaper or magazine. Readers could also write Unsent Letters to children in the photographs. The chapter on radio programs and serialized movies might encourage students to look for the books and recordings cited in the bibliography, or search online for more material to share with classmates. The author quotes several letters written to Eleanor Roosevelt that may lead readers to the book Dear Mrs. Roosevelt: Letters from Children of the Great Depression collected by Robert Cohen.

Teaching Strategies:
bullet Book Conversations
   http://literacy.kent.edu/eureka/strategies/book_conversations.pdf
bullet Creating a Classroom Magazine
   http://literacy.kent.edu/eureka/strategies/create_class_zine.pdf
bullet Helping Students in the Writing Process
   http://literacy.kent.edu/eureka/strategies/help_writing_process.pdf
bullet Problem and Solution Outline and Text Frame
   http://literacy.kent.edu/eureka/strategies/prob_solution.pdf
bullet Unsent Letters
   http://literacy.kent.edu/eureka/strategies/unsent_letters.pdf

Keywords: select any link below for a list of resources which also have that keyword
bullet Emotions-Personal Issues > emotions > relocation, personal
bullet Geography > economics
bullet Hardships > disasters > natural disasters > drought
bullet History > region > U.S. history > Great Depression
bullet History > region > U.S. history > Great Depression > Dust Bowl
bullet Work > migrant
bullet Geography > locations > U.S. states/regions > Western United States
bullet Work > occupations > farming
bullet Work > laborer


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