Social Studies
Social Studies > anthropology
Social Studies > anthropology > folklore
Cupid and Psyche
This is a retelling of the classic Greek myth.
| Author: Craft, M. Charlotte |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Ghost of the Southern Belle
This is a ghost story set on the high seas. The young son of a ship's captain finds a way to end the curse of a ghost ship.
Going Back Home: An Artist Returns to the South
This book is a partnership between African American artist, Michele Woods, who returned to the South and painted her family history, and author Toyomi Igus, who gave words to Woods's paintings.
| Author: Igus, Toyomi |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | social studies
|
Great Depression, The
This reference book covers the period of the Great Depression told with highlighted examples of the many ways Americans kept a positive outlook as they faced an uncertain future.
| Author: Fremon, David K. |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Night Rainbow, The
Simple poetic verse describes the Aurora borealis or northern lights from the perspective of legends of several cultures.
| Author: Esbensen, Barbara Juster |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | science
|
One City, Two Brothers
Wonderfully illustrated retelling of the Jewish and Arabic folktale about the founding of Jerusalem. The tale is story of King Solomon and his attempt to mediate a dispute between two brothers squabbling over an inheritance. Simple, but powerful themes d
| Author: Smith, Chris |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | social studies
|
Story of the Three Kingdoms, The
This colorfully illustrated fable celebrates the gift of storytelling.
| Author: Myers, Walter Dean |
|
Social Studies > anthropology > folklore > folk heroes
Ain't Nothing But a Man: My Quest to Find the Real John Henry
The author is a historian who became interested in John Henry, a supposedly mythical ex-slave who outraced the steam engine in digging a tunnel through the side of the Allegheny Mountains. This book chronicles the author's efforts to find the truth about
| Author: Nelson, Scott Reynolds |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Casey Jones's Fireman
Sim Webb, Casey Jones's fireman, tells the story of the fateful crash of the Cannonball.
| Author: Farmer, Nancy |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies | language arts - reading
|
Drylongso
Drylongso, which takes place west of the Mississippi in 1975, is the story of a poor farming family's battle with a drought. Drylongso, "a youth imbued with simple human kindness . . . a folk hero" (author's notes) arrives, and with him comes ho
| Author: Hamilton, Viginia |
|
People Could Fly, The
These collected folk tales that were told by slaves fall into four categories: animal stories, tall tales, the supernatural, and tales of freedom. The author includes an introduction and a bibliography.
| Author: Hamilton, Virginia |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Social Studies > anthropology > folklore > folktales
Casey at the Bat
This is the famous baseball poem told in scrapbook form with illustrations and "news clippings".
| Author: Bing, Christopher |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Contest, The
This adaptation of an Armenian folktale tells of two robbers who discover that they are engaged to the same young woman and decide to hold a contest with her as the prize. (Caldecott Honor Book)
Dawn
In this adaptation of a traditional tale, a wounded Canada goose takes on the shape of a woman. An island man, a sailmaker, loves her and she him. But when he demands that she help him make an intricate sail, she plucks out all her feathers and kills he
Faithful Friend, The
This is a retelling of the traditional tale from the French West Indies in which two friends, Clement and Hippolyte, encounter love, zombies, danger, and adventure on the island of Martinique.
| Author: San Souci, Robert |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Freedom's Fruit
Mama Marina, a conjure woman in the Low Country of the Carolinas in the time of slavery, uses a magic spell to free her daughter and the man she loves. The book includes an Author's Note that compares the American folktale with the Greek myth of Persepho
Ghost Train
Choon-yi is a painter. Her father leaves China for North America to find work. He asks her to join him, but when she arrives, she discovers that he has been killed on the job. As Choon-yi tries to paint the train, a ghostly presence beckons her.
Golem
Illustrated with beautiful cut-paper collages, the author/illustrator retells the legend of the Golem (a man created from clay), who saves the Jews of 16th Century Prague from persecution. A lengthy endnote recounts the history of the Golem and the perse
| Author: Wisniewski, David |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Her Stories
The book focuses on stories of females-animal stories, supernatural tales, folktales, and oral histories. It includes an afterword by Virginia Hamilton and an excellent bibliography.
| Author: Hamilton, Virginia |
|
Musicians of the Sun
This beautifully illustrated book of an Aztec myth of the beginning of the earth celebrates Native American folktales.
| Author: McDermott, Gerald |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
One City, Two Brothers
Wonderfully illustrated retelling of the Jewish and Arabic folktale about the founding of Jerusalem. The tale is story of King Solomon and his attempt to mediate a dispute between two brothers squabbling over an inheritance. Simple, but powerful themes d
| Author: Smith, Chris |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | social studies
|
People Could Fly, The
These collected folk tales that were told by slaves fall into four categories: animal stories, tall tales, the supernatural, and tales of freedom. The author includes an introduction and a bibliography.
| Author: Hamilton, Virginia |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Rich Man and the Parrot, The
This Persian folktale by 13th century poet Mawlana Jalal ad-Din Rumi tells how a merchant provides his talking parrot with everything the parrot could have but not the one thing that the parrot wanted--his freedom.
| Author: Nadimi, Suzan |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | social studies
|
Secret Room, The
A king is impressed with a man's wisdom and appoints him to the court, but his chief counselor becomes jealous.
Secret-Keeper, The
This is a fairy tale about Kalli, the secret-keeper, who takes others' secrets on so that they can be released from them. All the bad secrets threaten to make her ill until the townspeople come to her rescue.
Song of the Chirimia
This story includes both the English and the Spanish text on each page. It begins with a map and a note about the ancient Mayans. In this tale, the king wants to find the right husband for his daughter. The illustrations are colorful and folk baroque i
| Author: Volkmer, Jane Ann |
|
Sorrow's Kitchen: The Life and Folklore of ZN Hurston
Part of the Great Achievers series, this book chronicles the life and writings of Zora Neale Hurston, the important African-American writer of the first-half of this century. The book is 121 pages and contains lots of photographs. The author has woven c
| Author: Lyons, Mary E. |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies | language arts - reading
|
Stone-Cutter, The
A man gets what he wishes for, but then oversteps his bounds because of his desire to show off his power. Illustrations are bold color collages.
| Author: McDermott, Gerald |
|
Talk, Talk
This Ashanti legend tells of the day when all the animate objects--animals, yams, stones, and dogs--began to talk and frighten the villagers.
| Author: Chocolate, Deborah |
|
Toad is the Uncle of Heaven
Illustrations draw on traditional Vietnamese figures. They may be foreign looking to Americans, but they are not childish.
Unexplained
The author explores several categories of unexplained phenomena from Stonehenge to Roswell, N. M. UFO sightings, suggesting origins of superstitions and possible explanations. Sidebar information, photographs, and paintings illustrate the text and back m
| Author: Allen, Judy |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Walking the Choctaw Road
A collection of twelve stories from the Mississippi and Oklahoma branches of the Choctaw People, including traditional lore arising from beliefs and myths, historical tales pased down through generations, and personal stories of contemporary life.
| Author: Tingle, Tim |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies | language arts - reading
|
White Wave
Retold from ancient sources, this Chinese tale of a lonely peasant's discovery of a magic shell relates the changes in his life that follow. The delicate pencil drawings by Ed Young complement the text. The author includes a note on the evolution of the
| Author: Wolkstein, Diane |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Wolf of Gubbio, The
A legend tells the story of a wolf who terriorizes a community until the boy who became St.Francis of Assisi, negotates an agreement.
Social Studies > anthropology > folklore > magic
Cupid and Psyche
This is a retelling of the classic Greek myth.
| Author: Craft, M. Charlotte |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
December
Simon and his mother celebrate Christmas in the cardboard house they built for themselves. They offer to share the little they have with an old woman. Later, Simon sees a miracle.
| Author: Bunting, Eve |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Faithful Friend, The
This is a retelling of the traditional tale from the French West Indies in which two friends, Clement and Hippolyte, encounter love, zombies, danger, and adventure on the island of Martinique.
| Author: San Souci, Robert |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Ghost Train
Choon-yi is a painter. Her father leaves China for North America to find work. He asks her to join him, but when she arrives, she discovers that he has been killed on the job. As Choon-yi tries to paint the train, a ghostly presence beckons her.
My Ol' Man
Patricia Polacco once again uses her rich family background to tell the story of her father, a traveling salesman, and the magic, hope, and dreams he inspired. (Photos of the author and her family adorn the inside covers.)
| Author: Polacco, Patricia |
|
Queen Victoria's Bathing Machine
Queen Victoria wants to swim in the ocean but the British way of life is prim and proper and no one should ever see more than a lady's face and hands let alone the queen without all of her clothes. Prince Albert designs a machine that will allow the queen
| Author: Whelan, Gloria |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | language arts - writing | social studies
|
Unexplained
The author explores several categories of unexplained phenomena from Stonehenge to Roswell, N. M. UFO sightings, suggesting origins of superstitions and possible explanations. Sidebar information, photographs, and paintings illustrate the text and back m
| Author: Allen, Judy |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Social Studies > anthropology > folklore > superstitions
Anno's Medieval World
In Anno's beautifully illustrated medieval world, superstitions rather than science explain natural phenomena, especially the shape and movement of the earth. Anno uses medieval styled illustrations to share these beliefs of the Middle Ages up to the Age
| Author: Anno, Mitsumasa |
HSE Descriptors:
science | social studies
|
Corpses, Coffins, and Crypts
"Drawing on extensive historical and anthropological research, personal accounts, and interviews of people who work in the funeral industry, Penny Colman examines... death and burial across cultures and societies" (dust jacket). Appendices include a chron
| Author: Colman, Penny |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Cycle of the Werewolf
Short mystery/horror story depicting the sequence of events as a werewolf terrorizes a small town in Maine over the course of a year. A ten year old parapalegic uncovers the mystery and slays the beast with the help of his fun loving uncle. Short chapte
| Author: King, Stephen |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Duck's Breath and Mouse Pie: A Collection of Animal Superstitions
This is a collection of 17 superstitions about animals. Collage illustrations are interesting. Historical notes at the end of the book explain the origins of the superstitions.
| Author: Jenkins, Steve |
HSE Descriptors:
science
|
Freedom's Fruit
Mama Marina, a conjure woman in the Low Country of the Carolinas in the time of slavery, uses a magic spell to free her daughter and the man she loves. The book includes an Author's Note that compares the American folktale with the Greek myth of Persepho
One Kingdom: Our Lives with Animals
Subtitled "the human-animal bond in history, science, and story," this fascinating book focuses on animals, real and not real, throughout history, particularly as they have interacted with humans.
| Author: Noyes, Deborah |
HSE Descriptors:
science | social studies
|
Theodoric's Rainbow
Although Theodoric of Freiberg lived, wrote, and experimented from 1250 AD to 1311 AD, the author has created a fictionalized personal life of this man who studied reflection and refraction of light in a period in which science was in conflict with religi
| Author: Kramer, Stephen |
HSE Descriptors:
science
|
Unexplained
The author explores several categories of unexplained phenomena from Stonehenge to Roswell, N. M. UFO sightings, suggesting origins of superstitions and possible explanations. Sidebar information, photographs, and paintings illustrate the text and back m
| Author: Allen, Judy |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
When Plague Strikes: The Black Death, Smallpox, AIDS
This carefully written book contains three parts: a prologue, a five-chapter account of the Black Plague, a five-chapter account of the causes and effects of smallpox, a seven-chapter account of AIDS, and a fascinating conclusion on the failures of antibi
| Author: Giblin, James Cross |
HSE Descriptors:
science | social studies
|
Social Studies > anthropology > folklore > witch
Sanctuary, The
Little Man, age 10, thinks that Tico and Aaron should let him join their gang. But first he must retrieve a piece of junk from the altar "sanctuary" that "crazy" Lucy Johnson built in her backyard. Little Man gets caught and comes to know and love the o
| Author: Eskridge, Ann |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Snake Pits, Talking Cures, and Magic Bullets: A History of Mental Illness
This is a roughly chronological history of thinking about and treatment for persons with mental illness. Boxed text throughout focuses on special issues. End material offers many opportunities for follow-up.
| Author: Kent, Deborah |
HSE Descriptors:
science | social studies
|
Widow's Broom, The
A widow helps a witch recover from a fall, and in gratitude the witch leaves behind her broom to help the woman do her work. Suspicious neighbors try to burn the broom, but in the end the broom settles in with the woman.
| Author: Van Allsburg, Chris |
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