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Hardships
Hardships > adversity
    Amazing Potato, The
      A wonderful example of thematic writing, this book about the potato includes everything you want to know--and then some. The photographs, fact boxes, sketches, annotated bibliography, index, and interestingly written text produce a self-contained integra
      Author: Meltzer, Milton HSE Descriptors: social studies | science

    Anthony Burns
      The subtitle of this book is "The Defeat and Triumph of a Fugitive Slave." Especially appropriate for use in GED classrooms, Anthony Burns is based on fact and includes a timeline and historical footnotes. Hamilton fills out the details to crea
      Author: Hamilton, Virginia HSE Descriptors: social studies

    Aurora Means Dawn
      This picture book tells the story of the first family to settle in Aurora, Ohio and offers a glimpse of the hardships they willingly endured and of the support of their neighbors.
      Author: Sanders, Scott HSE Descriptors: social studies

    Big Annie of Calumet
      Big Annie is the story of Annie Clemenc who led the miners' strike of 1913 in Calumet, Michigan against the Calumet and Hecla Mining Company. The book contains many photographs of the strike and conditions in the mines and a brief overview of the Industri
      Author: Stanley, Jerry HSE Descriptors: social studies

    Blizzard!
      This book tells the story of an amazing blizzard that struck the Eastern U.S. in March, 1888. The author tells how the storm affected individuals, workers, communication, transportation, and more. The book is illustrated with vintage photographs and maps
      Author: Murphy, Jim HSE Descriptors: social studies | science

    Blues Journey
      Father and son team up to celebrate the blues in beautiful illustrations and lyrics. A short essay introduces the reader to the history and structure of blues. A timeline and glossary enable the reader to immerse himself in the form.
      Author: Myers, Walter Dean

    Bud, Not Buddy
      It's 1936, Flint, Michigan, and 10-year-old Bud (not Buddy) has run away from foster care to search for his father. (Newbery winner)
      Author: Curtis, Christopher Paul HSE Descriptors: language arts - reading | social studies

    Carver
      Personal and professional details of the life of George Washington Carver are told in poems from the perspectives of many people.
      Author: Nelson, Marilyn HSE Descriptors: social studies | science

    Charlie Chaplin
      This interesting biography of Charlie Chaplin discusses his life and work from his impoverished boyhood in London through his Hollywood film career to exile in Europe, ending with knighthood in England. The author expands the use of the book with a bibli
      Author: Turk, Ruth HSE Descriptors: language arts - reading

    Children of Topaz, The
      The authors provide an introduction to the history of the Japanese internment camps in the United States during World War II as well as a Reference and Reading List. The book is a journal kept by a third-grade class taught by Anne Yamauchi in such a camp
      Author: Tunnell, Michael & Chilcoat, George HSE Descriptors: social studies

    Choices
      George Ella Lyon, an accomplished writer of children's books, wrote this collection of stories (and its accompanying text, More Choices) specifically for adult new readers; in fact, she conferred with ABE students from Kentucky while creating the
      Author: Lyon, George Ella

    Dandelions
      As her family struggles to establish a sod home on the Nebraska prairie, Emma finds a way to cheer up her mother.
      Author: Bunting, Eve HSE Descriptors: social studies

    FDR's Alphabet Soup
      The author documents FDR's New Deal agencies from 1932-1939 with lively text, extensive research, and marvelous archival materials and photographs that is extremely timely for the economic conditions of 2012. A postscript, glossary, notes, selected resou
      Author: Bolden, Tonya HSE Descriptors: social studies

    Fish
      The story of the difficult and dangerous journey a family must make out of a country hit with drought and civil unrest. The story is told from the point of view of the family's youngest member who decides to take a live fish on the journey.
      Author: Matthews, L. S. HSE Descriptors: literature and arts | social studies

    Growing Up in Coal Country
      Based on primary documents and oral histories, this book tells the stories of life in the coal mines in eastern Pennsylvania around the turn of the 20th century.
      Author: Bartoletti, Susan HSE Descriptors: social studies

    Harriet and the Promised Land
      The text, consisting of a single rhyming poem, is an accompaniment to Lawrence's contemporary and vivid paintings. The poem tells the story of Harriet Tubman, a slave who led other slaves to freedom.
      Author: Lawrence, Jacob HSE Descriptors: social studies

    Immigrant Kids
      In this unique book, noted nonfiction writer Russell Freedman offers a rare glimpse of what it meant to be a young newcomer to America in the early 1900s.
      Author: Freedman, Russell HSE Descriptors: social studies

    Joan of Arc
      This beautifully illustrated and researched biography of the French peasant girl who became known as Joan of Arc describes how she led the French against the English in the 100 Year's War. The book includes an historical background of the 100 Year's War,
      Author: Stanley, Diane HSE Descriptors: social studies

    Keep on Singing
      The story of the life of the singer Marian Anderson is told in ballad form. The author's notes at the end of the book include additional biographical information.
      Author: Livingston, Myra Cohn HSE Descriptors: language arts - reading | social studies

    Letters from a Slave Girl
      Drawn from her 1861 autobiography, these fictionalized letters tell the story of Harriet Jacobs, a slave from North Carolina who went through great struggles to escape slavery. The book ends with two family trees, one a Black family and one White, a glos
      Author: Lyons, Mary HSE Descriptors: social studies

    Long Way Gone, A: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
      The story of a Sierra Leonian boy who at age 12 was recruited and forced into being a gun toting, drug crazed soldier and then learned how to live with what he had done after going through a UNICEF rehabilitation program.
      Author: Beah, Ishmael HSE Descriptors: social studies

    Lyddie
      Lyddie tells the story of a 19th century farm girl who, because of financial worries, moves to Massachusetts to work in a garment factory. She endures various hardships but does not lose her spunk or integrity.
      Author: Paterson, Katherine HSE Descriptors: social studies

    Matchbox Diary, The
      An Italian immigrant grandfather uses objects he's preserved in matchboxes to tell his granddaughter the story of his life. He created this unique diary because he could not read or write.
      Author: Fleischman, Paul HSE Descriptors: language arts - reading | social studies

    Memory Coat, The
      In order to flee persecution as Jews in Russia, Rachel and her cousin Griska emigrate with their extended family to America where they encounter difficulty at Ellis Island. The author provides additional information on immigration from Russia in the endm
      Author: Woodruff, Elvira HSE Descriptors: social studies

    Midwife's Apprentice, The
      This award-winning novel, set in 14th century England, tells the story of Brat/Beetle/Alyce, a "homeless waif who became the midwife's apprentice-a person with a name and a place in the world" (book jacket).
      Author: Cushman, Karen HSE Descriptors: science | social studies

    Miss Bridie Chose a Shovel
      When offered a choice between a ceramic clock and a shovel as a gift before leaving for America, Bridie chooses the latter and uses it throughout her resourceful life.
      Author: Connor, Leslie

    Miss Spitfire
      Using real letters and records, the author vividly imagines the early days of the relationship between Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan from the teacher's perspective.
      Author: Miller, Sarah

    Miss Spitfire
      Using real letters and records, the author vividly imagines the early days of the relationship between Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan from the teacher's perspective.
      Author: Miller, Sarah

    Moving Mama to Town
      Enterprising Freddy James moves his mother and younger brother to town after his father leaves and the farm fails. He works at the local saloon where he learns from everyone he meets.
      Author: Young, Ronder Thomas

    Nightjohn
      An escaped slave returns to the South to teach others how to read. This 92-page book is very bleak, and the violence is quite graphic.
      Author: Paulsen, Gary HSE Descriptors: social studies

    On the Wings of Peace
      This is a collection of illustrations and various types of text, all provided by noted authors and illustrators, that focus on issues related to peace. Many cultures are represented among characters and in illustrations.
      Author: Hamanaka, Sheila (comp.) HSE Descriptors: language arts - reading | social studies

    Out of the Dump: Writings and Photogrpahs by Children from Guatemala
      Approximately 1500 people, most children, live in a dump at the center of Guatemala City. In 1991 Nancy McGirr began a photography project with about 2 dozen children. She provided cameras; the children photographed their world. In 1993 Kris Franklin bega
      Author: Franklin, Kristine, & McGirr, Nancy (Eds.) HSE Descriptors: social studies

    Picture Book of Anne Frank, A
      This picture book retells the familiar story made famous by the The Diary of Anne Frank of a young Jewish girl who goes into hiding with her family in Amsterdam during the Nazi occupation in World War II. Although the book includes a few quotati
      Author: Adler, David HSE Descriptors: social studies

    Picture Book of Frederick Douglass, A
      This engaging biography tells the life story of the civil rights leader Frederick Douglass and the role he played in a turbulent time of the United States. The book ends with author's notes and a timeline. The Adler biographies are well written and acce
      Author: Adler, David HSE Descriptors: social studies

    Picture Book of Sojourner Truth, A
      As with the other Adler biographies, most readers will find this book engaging and thought provoking. It tells the life story of Sojourner Truth, an African-American woman who lived through most of the 19th century. The book ends with author's notes and
      Author: Adler, David HSE Descriptors: social studies

    Ray Charles
      In a beautiful reprint of a 1973 book, the author tells the story of the legendary blind musician Ray Charles. An Afterword updates the earlier version.
      Author: Mathis, Sharon HSE Descriptors: language arts - reading

    Reappearance of Sam Webber, The
      With the help of adult friends, eleven-year-old Sam Webber adjusts to the disappearance of his father and the reduced circumstances of life in Baltimore. Although the story is told from Sam's perspective, every reader can identify with the ultimately upb
      Author: Fuqua, Jonathon Scott

    Rose Blanche
      A young girl shares her food with those behind barbed wire in Nazi Germany. The title was the name of the German resistance movement during Hitler's regime.
      Author: Innocenti, Roberto HSE Descriptors: social studies

    Roses in My Carpet, The
      This story of a young refugee boy from Afghanistan was inspired by a real child. The boy lives in a refugee camp and weaves rugs.
      Author: Khan, Rukhsana HSE Descriptors: social studies

    Six Days in October
      This is a detailed summary if the events surrounding the Stock Market crash of 1929. Side bars explain some common financial/ investment concepts. Archival photographs, newspaper articles, and cartoons illustrate the material.
      Author: Blumenthal, Karen HSE Descriptors: social studies | math

    To Be a Slave
      Reminiscences of slaves and ex-slaves report their experiences of being owned and sold as property in the United States during the 19th Century. Many accounts of brutality are unsettling. This is a reprint of a 1968 edition with new introductory materia
      Author: Lester, Julius HSE Descriptors: social studies

    Train to Somewhere
      Marianne heads west with 14 other children on an Orphan Train, certain that her mother will be waiting for her at one of the stops. No one shows interest in adopting Marianne until the train arrives at a place called Somewhere, where Marianne meets her n
      Author: Bunting, Eve HSE Descriptors: social studies

    Truce
      Ostensibly writing about the real "Christmas truce" of Dec. 25, 1914, the author provides excellent historical material about the origins and maneuvers of this period of World War I. Photographs give immediacy to the text and back pages and maps provide
      Author: Murphy, Jim HSE Descriptors: social studies

    Truce
      Ostensibly writing about the real "Christmas truce" of Dec. 25, 1914, the author provides excellent historical material about the origins and maneuvers of this period of World War I. Photographs give immediacy to the text and back pages and maps provide
      Author: Murphy, Jim HSE Descriptors: social studies

    True Adventures of Daniel Hall, The
      Based on a true 19th-century adventure, the book tells the story of the survivor of shipboard cruelty on a whaling ship and his escape through the Siberian wilderness. The book contains maps and an afterword about the source of the story.
      Author: Stanley, Diane HSE Descriptors: social studies

    Wagon, The
      At the time of Emancipation and Lincoln's death, a young boy, born into slavery, looks back on his anger at slavery and the support of his family as he helps his father build a wagon for the master which later carries them to freedom.
      Author: Johnston, Tony HSE Descriptors: social studies

    We Are the Ship: The Story of the Negro League Baseball
      This book is about the beginnings and history of Negro League Baseball. The accomplishments of many of the better players are described. Paintings of the players are included. There is a bibliography and filmography at the end of the book.
      Author: Nelson, Kadir HSE Descriptors: | social studies

    When Marian Sang
      This book is an introduction to the life of Marian Anderson, depicting her music, her inspiration, and her struggles as a singer against segregation .
      Author: Ryan, Pam Munoz HSE Descriptors: language arts - reading | social studies

    Why War Is Never A Good Idea
      This beautifully illustrated poetic essay uses images of water and earth to communicate the destructiveness of war. Dscribes war as a "something which has grown old, but not wise as it destroys beautiful things and nice people."
      Author: Walker, Alice HSE Descriptors: social studies


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