Emotions-Personal Issues Emotions-Personal Issues > emotions Emotions-Personal Issues > emotions > individual Emotions-Personal Issues > emotions > individual > outsider
Escape from Saigon: How a Vietnam War Orphan Became an American Boy
This is an informative account of a child left behind when his American soldier father left Vietnam and his mother died. It traces his journey to America, his adopted family and his eventual return to his homeland to help orphans.
Author: Warren, Andrea |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies | language arts - reading
|
Hoot
This charming and funny young adult mystery by the well-known adult mystery writer, Carl Hiassen, involves corporate greed, suburban expansion, environmental protection, child abuse and neglect, bullying, and social protest.
I Hadn't Meant to Tell You This
A moving story of the friendship between two motherless 12-year-old girls--one black and one white--presents issues of racial prejudice, poverty, and child abuse.
Author: Woodson, Jacqueline |
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Isaac Newton
This is a biography of Isaac Newton. It is interesting and full of personal anecdotes as well as clear descriptions of important scientific discoveries. It makes Newton "come alive" as a person.
Author: Krull, Kathleen |
HSE Descriptors:
math | science
|
Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy
This coming-of-age novel is a Newbery Honor Book. It tells the story of people in Maine in the early 1900s, a friendship between a minister's son and an island girl, and the ways greed and prejudice change all their lives.
Memories of Sun
This is a collection of modern day short stories and poems about Africa. It has three divisions: 1) Africa 2) Americans in Africa 3) Africans in America. Although most of the 12 stories are engaging, teachers will want to read beforehand since some may
Author: Kurtz, Jane (Ed.) |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | social studies
|
Odd Boy Out: Young Albert Einstein
This picture book biography of Albert Einstein focuses on his early years when he did not fit in--anywhere. Don Brown illustrates his book in delightful ink and watercolor and includes a biographical note updating the events of the book.
Author: Brown, Don |
HSE Descriptors:
science | math
|
Odd Boy Out: Young Albert Einstein
This picture book biography of Albert Einstein focuses on his early years when he did not fit in--anywhere. Don Brown illustrates his book in delightful ink and watercolor and includes a biographical note updating the events of the book.
Author: Brown, Don |
HSE Descriptors:
science | math
|
Persepolis 2
This graphic novel sequel to Persepolis, depicts the author's rebellious adolescence and early adulthood among dissident outsider friends in Vienna and her voluntary return to her family in fundamentalist Tehran. Readers should be cautioned about referen
Author: Satrapi, Marjane |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Runaway Girl: The Artist Louise Bourgeois
This biography of Louise Bourgeois traces the influences of her childhood in France and her independent development as a woman artist later in the U.S. The book includes beautiful reproductions of her work and numerous back pages for further exploration.
Author: Greenberg & Jordan, Sandra |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - writing | social studies
|
Emotions-Personal Issues > personal issues Emotions-Personal Issues > personal issues > individual
Sixteen Years in Sixteen Seconds: The Sammy Lee Story
Faced with discrimination for being Korean-American in the 1930s did not deter Sammy Lee from wanting to become an Olympic diver - a dream he realized with great determination.
Author: Yoo, Paula |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Sixteen Years in Sixteen Seconds: The Sammy Lee Story
Faced with discrimination for being Korean-American in the 1930s did not deter Sammy Lee from wanting to become an Olympic diver - a dream he realized with great determination.
Author: Yoo, Paula |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Emotions-Personal Issues > personal issues > individual > collaboration
Leonardo's Horse
Contemporary sculptors completed the horse that Leonardo da Vinci began but never finished.
Author: Fritz, Jean |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Man Who Went to the Far Side of the Moon, The
This book, written almost in a scrapbook format, tells about Michael Collins, who stayed with the spacecraft while fellow astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon. The book contains diagrams, charts, and black and white and colored ph
Author: Schyffert, Bea Uusma |
HSE Descriptors:
science | social studies
|
Perfect Shot, The
Ostensibly a murder mystery, this book explores many issues--civil rights, prejudice, judicial system, stereotyping, meaningful teaching--while offering exciting descriptions of basketball. Brian must decide whether to speak out when his girlfriend, her
Author: Alphin, Elaine Marie |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Sweethearts of Rhythm: The story of the greatest all-girl swing band in the world
The 16-member, all-woman, racially diverse swing band The International Sweethearts of Rhythm from the war years of the 1940's are brought to life by the idiomatic speech and rhythms of Nelson's poetry and by Pinkney's vibrant illlustrations. The individ
Author: Nelson, Marilyn |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | social studies
|
Team Moon
This fact-filled book commemorates the achievement of 400,00 people of "team moon" who were responsible for the first walk in space in July, 1969. Color photographs, biographies, annotated source material, websites for further information, a glossary, a
Author: Thimmesh, Catherine |
HSE Descriptors:
science
|
Yellowstone Moran:Painting the American West
A true story of how Tom Moran traded his city environs for a chance to join a scientific expedition to Yellowstone and record the wonders in his paintings. The author researched letters and journals of the famous Hayden expedition into Yellowstone Nationa
Author: Judge, Lita |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | social studies | language arts - writing
|
Emotions-Personal Issues > personal issues > individual > coming-of-age
After the War Was Over
In this charming book, Michael Foreman describes growing up in post-World War II England and preparing to be an artist. His text, watercolors, and illustrated memorabilia evoke innocence and pleasure in a world recovering from war.
Author: Foreman, Michael |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Anne Frank
If you wonder why read another book on Anne Frank, look at this beautifully and realistically illustrated story that simply relates the political situation and gives the characters more three-dimensional personalities. A chronology in the end papers adds
Author: Poole, Josephine |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Anne Frank
If you wonder why read another book on Anne Frank, look at this beautifully and realistically illustrated story that simply relates the political situation and gives the characters more three-dimensional personalities. A chronology in the end papers adds
Author: Poole, Josephine |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Armageddon Summer
Fourteen-year-old Marina and 16-year-old Jed accompany their parents' religious cult, the Believers, to the top of a mountain to await the end of the world. The book is narrated in three "voices"--Marina, Jed, and objective accounts such as the newspaper
Author: Yolen, Jane & Coville, Bruce |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Ashanti to Zulu
Each letter of this alphabet book describes a different African culture. It is meant as a reference or resource book, but the fabulous illustrations create a lively African world.
Author: Musgrove, Margaret |
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At Her Majesty's Request
Queen Victoria oversees the education and upbringing of an African princess after she was rescued from execution by a ship captain who brought her to England.
Author: Myers, Walter Den |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Bee & Jacky
A brother and sister suffer the effects of their father's Vietnam trauma and their mother's ineffectualness by resuming a physical relationship. This moving, psychologically honest book is difficult to read because the real or imagined incest is portraye
Black Star, Bright Dawn
Bright Dawn, a teenaged Eskimo girl, takes her father's place in the grueling Iditarod, the 1000-mile dogsled race through the cold wilds of Alaska. In the process, she learns about herself, her family, and her culture.
Breadwinner, The
This coming-of-age story, told from the point of view of a young Afghan girl left to fend for her family in the times of repressive Taliban influence is both moving and suspenseful.
Author: Ellis, Deborah |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Breadwinner, The
This coming-of-age story, told from the point of view of a young Afghan girl left to fend for her family in the times of repressive Taliban influence is both moving and suspenseful.
Author: Ellis, Deborah |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Bucking the Sarge
Teenage Luther, who is exploited by his slumlord mother, keeps his equilbrium through many humorous misadventures before finding his own way.
Author: Curtis, Christopher Paul |
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Buried Alive
This collection of linked poems explores the rich, puzzling and painful experiences of love from teenagers' points of view.
Author: Fletcher, Ralph |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Castle Diary: The Journal of Tobias Burgess, Page
Tobias, an 11-year-old boy, goes to serve as a page for a year in his uncle's castle in 13th Century England. Notes for the Reader contains additional historical information.
Author: Platt, Richard |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies | language arts - writing
|
Color of My Words, The
This is an easy-reading novel, part poetry and part prose, about Ana Rosa, a young writer who is growing up poor in a seaside village in the Dominican Republic where she learns about family community, the merengue, and the power of words.
Author: Joseph, Lynn |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Dogsong
14-year-old Russel, an Eskimo, feels assailed by the modernity of his life. With the help of a wise elder, Russel learns how (and why) to make a 1400-mile dog run across his country. (Newbery Honor Book)
Author: Paulsen, Gary |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Edna St. Vincent Millay
This beautifully illustrated collection of poems by Edna St. Vincent Millay includes an introductory biography and an index of the poems.
Author: Schoonmaker, Frances (ed.) |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Elijah of Buxton
Eleven-year-old Elijah, the first to be born free in a Canadian settlement for runaway slaves at the end of the Underground Railroad, though considered "fra-gile" and talkative by adults, performs an heroic feat with his chucking stones.
Author: Curtis, Christopher Paul |
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Ellen Foster
11-year-old Ellen tells her own story in this "Oprah Book about a foster childhood." She is an amazingly resilient child and an amazingly perceptive observer of others.
Escaping into the Night
Thirteen year old Halina escapes from a Polish ghetto to a forest community of Jews where she and her friends Batya and Reuven learn to survive despite brutality, extreme hardship, and loss of family. Although this book is fiction, there were real commu
Author: Friedman, D. Dina |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Facing the Lion
Enhanced by a few, vivid color photos, this memoir recounts the Maasi childhood and first encounters with European and American culture of an American teacher who spends part of each year working in Kenya. An afterword brings the reader up to date with L
Author: Lekuton, Joseph |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Fever 1793
This is a very compelling fictionalization of life for one teenaged girl, her family, and her friends during the yellow fever outbreak in Philadelphia in 1793.
Author: Anderson, Laurie Halse |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
First Part Last, The
[revised from dust jacket] Bobby is a classic urban teenaged boy-- impulsive, eager, restless. On his 16th birthday, he learns that his girlfriend Nia is pregnant. Their lives change dramatically, both during the pregnancy and after baby Feather is born.
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
|
Francie
This engaging novel shows a slice of life in small-town Alabama in the 1940s, as told from the perspective of 13-year-old Francie. Francie, her mother, and her brother anxiously await a chance to join her father in Chicago. In the meantime, Francie comes
Giver, The
This Newbery Award-winning novel is set in a utopian community in which all conflict and social problems are unheard of. After a coming-of-age ceremony, Jonas begins to interact with The Giver and learns about the secrets that underlie his perfect world.
Growing Up in Revolution and the New Nation
"Studying history is a way of snooping into the past." So begins this interesting book that focuses on childhood and adolescence in 1775--1800. Illustrated with paintings from the Revolutionary War period, the book describes education, work and leisure, d
Author: Miller, Brandon Marie |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Heart is Big Enough, The
Each of these five stories focuses on a protagonist with special challenges who is approaching adolescence. As author Steven Kellogg notes on the dust jacket, these stories "bring illumination and enjoyment to those of us who have already passed through"
Holes
This story-within-a-story tells of Stanley Yelnats (and his distant relatives, one of whom "cursed" the family), mistakenly sent to a juvenile corrections camp in Texas. At the corrections camp, Stanley finds a real friend, a treasure, and a new sense of
I Thought My Soul Would Rise and Fly
Patsy, a 12-year-old slave girl, keeps a diary during 1865, describing the changes in the plantation that come with the Emancipation Proclamation. The author appends historical notes, archival photographs, the wording of Constitutional Amendments 13,14,
Author: Hansen, Joyce |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Islander, The
An orphaned boy, who grows up with his grandfather on an island off the coast of British Columbia, finds a key-literally--that helps him overcome his loneliness and loss.
Jack
This is a biography of JFK, from birth through HS graduation. A bit of his parents' backgrounds is also provided. Primary documents, letters and school reports, are sprinkled throughout the text.
Author: Cooper, Ilene |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Jayhawker
With the U.S. on the verge of civil war, Elijah Tully and his father ride out of Kansas as Jayhawkers, guerrilla fighters against slavery. After his father is killed, Lije goes undercover among the proslavery bushwhackers to help the abolitionists and t
Author: Beatty, Patricia |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Jim the Boy
In a coming-of-age story set in Appalachia, Jim grows up as a town boy with his mother and uncles but finally makes friends with a mountain boy and meets his mountain grandfather.
Journey
Journey, an eleven-year-old boy whose Mom has left him and his sister to live with her parents, feels angry and betrayed. He spends the summer looking at family photos, learning to recognize the sustaining love of his grandparents, and letting go of his
Author: MacLachlan, Patricia |
|
Leaving and Other Stories, The
The nine short stories in this collection all feature young people on the brink of adulthood. Although themes vary according to story, most are written as reminiscences. Since the author is Canadian, readers will learn about Canadian culture.
Light in the Forest, The
At 15, true son John Butler is returned to his biological white family by his Native American adoptive father. After he escapes with his friend and rescuer Halt Arrow, he is caught between two families and two cultures.
Author: Richter, Conrad |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies | language arts - reading
|
Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy
This coming-of-age novel is a Newbery Honor Book. It tells the story of people in Maine in the early 1900s, a friendship between a minister's son and an island girl, and the ways greed and prejudice change all their lives.
Long Way From Chicago, A
Subtitled "A Novel in Stories," this is a book about Joey and Mary Alice, who leave their home in Chicago each summer during the Depression to spend a week with Grandma Dowdel, who lives in a very small downstate town and who is, to say the least, an unfo
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
|
Love, Loss, and What I Wore
The author reminisces indirectly by depicting and describing outfits she wore at times of loss in her life. This clever book has a limited audience: urban (especially New York), women, and people interested in fashion design.
Lugalbanda
This retelling of the oldest recorded story ever found from Sumer (now Iraq) recounts the journey of a young prince as he crosses the mountains to join a war and find his brothers, overcoming obstacles on his way. The book includes interesting historical
Author: Henderson, Kathy |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Moon Over Tennessee
A boy accompanies his father into the Confederate Army in the Civil War, eventually arriving at the battle of Gettysburg. The story-poem is told in a format of journal entries. Somber black and white woodcuts contribute to the tragic tone. A map and an
Author: Crist-Evans, Craig |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Morning Girl
In alternating chapters, Morning Girl (age 12) and her brother describe life on a Bahamian island in 1492. (Note: this book won the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction.)
Author: Dorris, Michael |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
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 |
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Night the Bells Rang, The
This short novel (76 pages), told from the point of view of a farm boy, tells the story of Mason's struggles with a bully, and of his growing up. Although the book has the feel of a reminiscence, the emotions are complex and the characters ring true.
Author: Kinsey-Warnock, Natalie |
|
Persepolis 2
This graphic novel sequel to Persepolis, depicts the author's rebellious adolescence and early adulthood among dissident outsider friends in Vienna and her voluntary return to her family in fundamentalist Tehran. Readers should be cautioned about referen
Author: Satrapi, Marjane |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Persepolis I: The Story of a Childhood
In this first of two volumes about the author's life, Satrapi tells of her childhood and coming of age in Iran during the Islamic Revolution and the Iran/Iraq war.
Author: Satrapi, Marjane |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies | language arts - writing
|
Poetry for Young People: Edna St. Vincent Millay
Beautifully illustrated collection of Edna St. Vincent Millay's poetry. The volume also includes a sketch of the poet's life.
Author: Francis Schoonmaker |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Raft, The
A city boy spends a magical summer in the woods with an unusual grandmother and discovers not only the creatures of the woods and river but himself as well. This is a beautifully illustrated portrait of a childhood we all might like to claim.
Remember the Bridge
Illustrated by prints and black-and-white photographs and bracketed by two "bridge" poems, the poetry relates the experience of African Americans from Africa to the Civil Rights Movement.
Author: Weatherford, Carole |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Rite of Passage
The book is set in Harlem in the late 1940s. Protagonist Johnny Gibbs, 15, is a model child and student until he learns that he is a foster child who must go to live with another family. Johnny feels betrayed and reacts by running away. What follows pu
Author: Wright, Richard |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Same Stuff as Stars, The
Angel and her little brother Bernie are dropped off at their great-grandma's house. Dad is in jail, and mom is an alcoholic and selfishly unable to be a mother. Together, the new family learns to live together in the crumbling Vermont farmhouse.
Author: Paterson, Katherine |
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Saying It Out Loud
Mindy is a typical 16-year-old teenager when her mother develops a serious medical problem. This touching story alternates between Mindy's current feelings and actions and flashbacks to earlier memories to show her reaction to this terrible tragedy.
Secret Life of Bees, The
Fourteen-year-old Lily and Rosaleen, the black servant who has look after her since her mother died 10 years earlier, run from Lily's abusive father and the brutality and racism of the police. Against the historical events of 1964 in South Carolina, they
Seek
For a senior class autobiography assignment, Robbie creates "a sound portrait" in a radio script format, which includes his extended family and his search for his long-absent father. One reviewer thought that the text is too disjointed and confusing for
Sees Behind Trees
A blind Native American boy learns to "see behind trees", guided by his mother, to use his other senses. He uses his gift to help an old warrior find a land of mystery and beauty that he'd discovered years ago, and could not find again himself.
Author: Dorris, Michael |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | social studies
|
Seventeenth Child, The
The author writes the oral history of her mother, who is the seventeenth child in her family growing up in the South during the Depression.
Author: Rice, Dorothy & Payne, Lucille |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
shadow spinner
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Author: fletcher, susan |
HSE Descriptors:
literature and arts | literature and arts | literature and arts | literature and arts | literature and arts
|
Song of Be
When Be was a child, she and her mother left their people--the Namibian Bushmen--to work on a white man's plantation. Spending time with her grandfather helps her forget how much she misses others. With Namibia on the verge of freedom, Be finds the cour
Author: Beake, Lesley |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Sound the Jubilee
During the Civil War, Maddie, an eleven-year-old house slave, journeys with her mistress to Nags Head near Roanoke Island which has become a Yankee-protected community for run-away slaves. Maddie grows up there with her family and finds a place for herse
Author: Forrester, Saundra |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Speak
This compelling story recounts Melinda's freshman year in high school. She is an outcast because she called the police to an end-of-the-summer party. Her reasons for doing this and her gradual emotional acceptance and psychological healing are the focus o
Step Toward Heaven, A
When Young Ju emigrates with her immediate family to America from Korea, she misses her grandparents. As she grows older, she finds a refuge from her father's physical abuse in school achievement. The author mimics the style of narration with the age of
Stone Water
Grant, a 15-year-old boy, grapples with his grandfather's request to remove him from life support systems. This is a realistic and emotionally riveting portrayal of issues surrounding death.
Tale of Paradise Lost, The
An exquisitly illustrated prose retelling of John Milton's famous poem Paradise Lost.
Author: Willard, Nancy |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
To Kill A Mockingbird
In this classic American novel set in the 30s, Lee tells the story of two children growing up in the South with their lawyer father who represents an African-American man accused of raping a white woman. The novel is rich and complex in plot and theme.
Author: Lee, Harper |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Toning the Sweep
Emily goes to the desert with her mother to help her dying grandmother Ola pack up her house and move. She slowly comes to terms with her family history and her coming loss.
Touching Spirit Bear
Cole, a juvenile "delinquent," is offered jail or "circle justice," a system based on Native American traditions that attempts to provide healing for the criminal, his victim, and the community. Cole's time at a remote Alaskan island and his interactions
Waiting for the Evening Star
This beautifully illustrated book is about Berty, a small boy who lives a happy life in a Vermont farming community. Berty's life changes when his older brother, Luke, decides to leave the family farm to become a soldier in WWI.
Author: Wells, Rosemary |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Watsons Go to Birmingham-1963, The
The ordinary interactions and everyday routines of the Watsons, an African American family from Flint, Michigan are drastically changed after a trip to Alabama in 1963. This is a powerful book, sometimes powerfully funny and sometimes powerfully touching
Author: Curtis, Christopher P. |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
We've Got a Job: The 1963 Birmingham Children's March
Tells the story of the Birmingham Children's March through four participants. As the events unfold, the different perspectives and motivations of the participants shed light on the dynamics of the civil rights movement. In addition to the personal stori
Author: Levinson, Cynthia |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | social studies
|
Words West: Voices of Young Pioneers
Diary and journal excerpts and archival photographs enliven a well-written text about the Westward Movement as seen from the perspective of children. The book includes short biographies of the children who are quoted often as well as a chronology, furthe
Author: Wadsworth, Ginger |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Year Down Yonder, A
This is the sequel to A Long Way From Chicago. Both books have won awards, the Newbery Medal for this one. Mary Alice goes to live with her spunky, trouble-making grandma in rural Illinois because the Depression has torn her family apart.
Young Man and the Sea, The
In an attempt to push his father out of the alcohol-fueled funk he's been in since his wife died, 12-year-old Skiff Beaman repairs the family fishing boat and meets a 900-lb. tuna 30 miles at sea.
Author: Philbrick, Rodman |
|
Young Man and the Sea, The
In an attempt to push his father out of the alcohol-fueled funk he's been in since his wife died, 12-year-old Skiff Beaman repairs the family fishing boat and meets a 900-lb. tuna 30 miles at sea.
Author: Philbrick, Rodman |
|
Young Teddy Roosevelt
A biography of the life of Theodore Roosevelt up to the time of his presidency has illustrations that are as interesting as the well-written text.
Author: Harness, Cheryl |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Emotions-Personal Issues > personal issues > individual > curiosity
Ben Franklin's Almanac
The "scrapbook" format of this biography, explores Ben Franklin's life thematically rather than chronologically, allowing the reader to grasp what a multi-talented person he was. The author includes extensive back matter for further research.
Author: Fleming, Candice |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Charles and Emma
Charles Darwin's struggles with religious beliefs and his developing theory of evolution are the backdrop for this domestic biography of the Darwins. The author includes a genealogy chart, extensive source notes, a bibliography, and a thorough index.
Author: Heligman, Deborah |
HSE Descriptors:
science
|
Charles and Emma
Charles Darwin's struggles with religious beliefs and his developing theory of evolution are the backdrop for this domestic biography of the Darwins. The author includes a genealogy chart, extensive source notes, a bibliography, and a thorough index.
Author: Heligman, Deborah |
HSE Descriptors:
science
|
Confucius
The author has demythologized the figure of Confucius, depicting him as a very human, vulnerable and wise man. In a postscript, the author explains the origin and process of the book, providing resources and an index of Confucian sayings. The illustrati
Author: Freedman, Russell |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Genius: A Photobiography of Albert Einstein
This photobiography of Albert Einstein documents his celebrated scientific achievements and his lesser-known stands for freedom and opposition of tyrants from Hitler to McCarthy. The story of his family life gives insights into his pursuit of questioning
Author: Delano, Marfe Ferguson |
HSE Descriptors:
science
|
Genius: A Photobiography of Albert Einstein
This photobiography of Albert Einstein documents his celebrated scientific achievements and his lesser-known stands for freedom and opposition of tyrants from Hitler to McCarthy. The story of his family life gives insights into his pursuit of questioning
Author: Delano, Marfe Ferguson |
HSE Descriptors:
science
|
Hana's Suitcase
When a suitcase with Hana Brady's name on it arrives at the Toyko Children's Holocaust Education Center, the children have many question about who Hana might have been. In an effort to answer those questions, Fumiko Ishioka, the center's curator, begins a
Author: Levine, Karen |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Librarian Who Measured the Earth, The
A "responsibly imagined" biography of Eratosthenes, the librarian of the great library in Alexandria, Egypt,in the 3rd Century B. C., describes how he measured the circumference of the earth.
Author: Lasky, Kathryn |
HSE Descriptors:
math
|
Library for Juana, A
This beautifully illustrated imaginative biography (little is known) focuses on the early life of Juana Ramirez de Asbaje, who became the first and one of the greatest Mexican poets known as Sor Juana Inez de la Cruz. The author includes a glossary, furt
Author: Mora, Pat |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Odd Boy Out: Young Albert Einstein
This picture book biography of Albert Einstein focuses on his early years when he did not fit in--anywhere. Don Brown illustrates his book in delightful ink and watercolor and includes a biographical note updating the events of the book.
Author: Brown, Don |
HSE Descriptors:
science | math
|
Odd Boy Out: Young Albert Einstein
This picture book biography of Albert Einstein focuses on his early years when he did not fit in--anywhere. Don Brown illustrates his book in delightful ink and watercolor and includes a biographical note updating the events of the book.
Author: Brown, Don |
HSE Descriptors:
science | math
|
Silent Boy, The
Katy,the young and curious daughter of a small-town doctor living in 1908, learns about life, death, and social distinctions from her family and her friend, Jacob, who is "touched."
Something out of Nothing: Marie Curie and Radiation
This is a very readable biography of Marie Curie and her discovery of radiation.
Author: McClafferty, Carla |
HSE Descriptors:
science
|
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
|
Emotions-Personal Issues > personal issues > individual > depression
Can't Get There from Here
This fictional story of homeless teens trying to survive on NYC streets in winter recounts the perils of drugs, sex, starvation, cold, and the help of a few who try to intervene. This is a gripping story, but not for the faint of heart.
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 |
|
Speak
This compelling story recounts Melinda's freshman year in high school. She is an outcast because she called the police to an end-of-the-summer party. Her reasons for doing this and her gradual emotional acceptance and psychological healing are the focus o
Emotions-Personal Issues > personal issues > individual > endurance
47
In this part fictional slave narrative and part science fiction story, 47, a young slave without a name, learns from mysterious Tall John how to "neither a master nor a nigger be".
Author: Mosley, Walter |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Ajeemah and His Son
This very powerful, short chapter book (83 pages) is set first in Africa, then on a slave ship, and then in Jamaica where Ajeemah and his son are taken. It tells the story of a father and son who are captured outside of their village and torn from their
Author: Berry, James |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Amelia Lost: The Life and Disappearance of Amelia Earhart
Informative account of Amelia Earhart's life and death, separating fact from fiction. A leader in women's rights, Amelia was an independent woman who proved women could fly! But, could she have done it without male support? Bibliography and source notes
Author: Fleming,Candace |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | social studies
|
Angel Island
An historical account of the discrimination against the Asian immigrants in the late 1800s-early 1900s. Angel Island, located near Alcatraz Island, was the Ellis Island of the west coast of the U.S. but was more of a prison than a welcoming center. Drawi
Author: Russell Freedman |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies | language arts - reading
|
Bonyo Bonyo: The True Story of a Brave Boy from Kenya
Story of how a Kenyan boy sets a goal of becoming a doctor after his baby sister dies. He succeeds and is now a physician in Akron Ohio.
Author: Oelschlager, Vanita |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | language arts - writing | social studies | science
|
Do I Dare Disturb the Universe:
Charlise Lyles grew up in Cleveland in the 1960s and 1970s. This memoir focuses on life in the projects, her family's struggle to survive, her mother's relentless work to provide opportunities for children. Mostly, though, it's about Charlise-- her though
Dog Lost
An eleven-year old boy and pit bull terrier become best of friends. In an angry rage, the father throws the dog out into the street and the dog is forced to survive. Eventually the boy and his dog are reunited but not before the dog becomes a local hero
Author: Lee, Ingrid |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Dogsong
14-year-old Russel, an Eskimo, feels assailed by the modernity of his life. With the help of a wise elder, Russel learns how (and why) to make a 1400-mile dog run across his country. (Newbery Honor Book)
Author: Paulsen, Gary |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Escaping into the Night
Thirteen year old Halina escapes from a Polish ghetto to a forest community of Jews where she and her friends Batya and Reuven learn to survive despite brutality, extreme hardship, and loss of family. Although this book is fiction, there were real commu
Author: Friedman, D. Dina |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Gleam and Glow
The story of a family who fled from the Bosnian-Serb forces to a refugee camp in 1990. When they returned to their home in 1995 they found everything destroyed except 2 pet fish.
Author: Bunting, Eve |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Gleam and Glow
The story of a family who fled from the Bosnian-Serb forces to a refugee camp in 1990. When they returned to their home in 1995 they found everything destroyed except 2 pet fish.
Author: Bunting, Eve |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
In Memory's Kitchen
While prisoners in Teresienstadt (Terezin) concentration camp, Jewish women created a book of recipes of foods remembered. The introduction relates the fascinating history of this unique cookbook.
Author: De Silva, Cara |
HSE Descriptors:
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
|
Maus I: My Father Bleeds History
This is the first of two volumes about the experiences of the author's parents in the Nazi concentration camps during WWII. The author depicts Jews as mice and Nazis as cats in his illustrations.
Author: Spiegelman, Art |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Maus II: A Survivor's Tale
A powerful graphic novel about a father who survived the Nazi concentration camps and his son in which Jews are depicted as mice and Nazis as cats. The story jumps back and forth between the present life in the Catskills and the past life in the camps.
Author: Spiegelman, Art |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Nothing But Trouble: The Story of Althea Gibson
Althea Gibson was perpetual motion and perpetual trouble until mentors helped her channel her energy into tennis where she became a champion, and the first African American to win the Wimbledon. The colorful illustrations capture her boundless energy.
Author: Stauffacher, Sue |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Nothing But Trouble: The Story of Althea Gibson
Althea Gibson was perpetual motion and perpetual trouble until mentors helped her channel her energy into tennis where she became a champion, and the first African American to win the Wimbledon. The colorful illustrations capture her boundless energy.
Author: Stauffacher, Sue |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Sarah's Key
The story of the roundup of the Jews in France during WWII. A heart-wrenching look at the infamous collaboration of French officials with the Nazis It is told through two people: a 10-year-old Jewish girl and an American journalist 60 years later.
Author: de Rosnay, Tatiana |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies | language arts - reading
|
Sold
Lakshmi is a thirteen-year-old girl who lives with her family in a village in Nepal. Her stepfather sells her into sexual slavery and her life of prostitution begins in a large city in India. The book is written in short paragraphs, sentences, and phrases
Author: McCormick, Patricia |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies | language arts - reading
|
Stone Lamp, The
This book of poems and accounts gives a personal and historical perspective of the meaning of lighting the Menorah lamps representing the eight nights of Hanukkah. The author tells in prose and poetry of real events from 1190 to 1995. Brian Pinkney's vi
Author: Hesse, Karen |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Surrender Tree, The
Cuba has fought three wars for independence and still is not free. Acclaimed poet, Margarita Engle has created a lyrical, powerful portrait of Cuba. The main character is a healer who treats anyone in need. Initially a slave, Rosa becomes a free person w
Author: Engle, Margarita |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies | language arts - reading
|
To Dare Mighty Things: The Life of Theodore Roosevelt
The book depicts T. Roosevelt's life from youth to death. It explains his marriages, children, passions and accomplishments as a politician and conservationist. Full color illustrations and direct quotes help bring the story of Teddy Roosevelt to life.
Author: Rappaport, Doreen |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | social studies
|
Emotions-Personal Issues > personal issues > individual > faith/beliefs
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
|
Buddha
The beautifully illustrated story of how the young prince Siddhartha became a Buddha.
Author: Demi |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Buddha
The beautifully illustrated story of how the young prince Siddhartha became a Buddha.
Author: Demi |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Joan of Arc
The author weaves together historical fact and fiction in the story of a modern French girl who idolizes Joan of Arc. An historical map and beautiful illustrations enhance the stories.
Author: Morpurgo, Michael |
HSE Descriptors:
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
|
Emotions-Personal Issues > personal issues > individual > fate
Amelia Lost: The Life and Disappearance of Amelia Earhart
Informative account of Amelia Earhart's life and death, separating fact from fiction. A leader in women's rights, Amelia was an independent woman who proved women could fly! But, could she have done it without male support? Bibliography and source notes
Author: Fleming,Candace |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | social studies
|
Black Pioneers
This well-researched history of African American pioneers, freedom fighters, and participants in the Underground Railroad tells little known stories of brave people who settled the midwest against great odds. The book contains archival photographs, a map
Author: Katz, William Loren |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
I Have an Olive Tree
Colorful, stylized illustrations depict a girl and her mother as they travel back to Greece to see the olive tree her granfather left her when he died, a gift that grows in value as the story progresses.
Author: Bunting, Eve |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
I Heard the Owl Call my Name
Although this book is not universally appealing, some readers respond emotionally and deeply to this story of a young priest's year with the Native American people of British Columbia, his illness, and his acceptance of his fate. The book does not provid
Safekeeping
Radley returns home to Vermont from a volunteer stay in Haiti to complete chaos. She begins a long trek to try to find her parents and some sense of normalcy in a country becoming completely dysfunctional.The underling message is articulated, as a vision
Author: Hesse, Karen |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies | language arts - reading | language arts - writing
|
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
|
Emotions-Personal Issues > personal issues > individual > freedom
47
In this part fictional slave narrative and part science fiction story, 47, a young slave without a name, learns from mysterious Tall John how to "neither a master nor a nigger be".
Author: Mosley, Walter |
HSE Descriptors:
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
|
Coretta Scott
Coretta is a poetic tribute to the life of Coretta Scott King and the Civil Rights movement. This is an amazing biographical tribute in poetry which is most readable and offers all kinds of teaching opportunities.
The art work by Kadir Nelson really make
Author: Shange, Ntozake |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | social studies
|
Days of Jubilee
Subtitled "The End of Slavery in the United States," this book chronicles the U.S. Civil War with particular attention to the different times and circumstances in which slaves were freed. The text is sprinkled with excerpts from slave narratives, letters,
Author: McKissack, Patricia, & McKissack, Frederick |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Dear Mr. President: Abraham Lincoln Letters from a Slave Girl
Fictional correspondences between President Lincoln and a 12-year-old slave girl that discuss his decision to write the Emancipation Proclamation. The author includes a supporting website, index, other recommended books, and photographs.
Author: Pinkney, Andrea Davis |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Dream of Freedom, A
This well written and comprehensive documentation of the Civil Rights Movement, its background, issues, and confrontations is told by a white Southern woman of privilege who grew up during that period. Photographs and fact boxes, index, bibliography, and
Author: McWhorter, Diane |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Escape from Saigon: How a Vietnam War Orphan Became an American Boy
This is an informative account of a child left behind when his American soldier father left Vietnam and his mother died. It traces his journey to America, his adopted family and his eventual return to his homeland to help orphans.
Author: Warren, Andrea |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies | language arts - reading
|
Freedom Riders
This book, illustrated with historical photographs, tells the story of two young men, one white and one black, whose common goal in life is to bring equality between the races. Their story is set during the historic freedom rides of the Civil Rights Move
Author: Bausum, Ann |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Freedom River
In this true story, John Parker, an ex-slave in Ripley, Ohio, helps a family on the Underground Railroad. Beautiful watercolor collages illustrate the story. Historical notes, additional books, suggested websites, and maps make this useful in the classr
Author: Rappaport, Doreen |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Freedom's Children
Thirty African Americans tell their youthful experiences in the civil rights movement. The book includes a chronology, a who's who, a list of acronyms, and a bibliography.
Author: Levine, Ellen |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Friend on Freedom River
This is the story of young Louis, who decides to do what his father would do and help runaway slaves make it across the Detroit River to Canada.
Author: Whelan, Gloria |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Gandhi
The remarkable life of Mahatma Gandhi is told through simple text and beautiful Moghul-inspired illustrations. An author's note includes additional information and maps locate the principle places involved in his life.
Author: Demi |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Giver, The
This Newbery Award-winning novel is set in a utopian community in which all conflict and social problems are unheard of. After a coming-of-age ceremony, Jonas begins to interact with The Giver and learns about the secrets that underlie his perfect world.
Grab Hands and Run
Based on a true story, this 165-page book tells of twelve-year-old Felipe, his sister, and his mother as they flee El Salvador when his father disappears. The family escapes, hides, and runs until, caught, they are finally placed in a new home in Canada.
Author: Temple, Frances |
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
|
Henry's Freedom Box
This simply written picture book tells the true story of Henry Brown, a runaway slave who escaped to freedom by mailing himself in a crate.
Author: Levine, Ellen |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
It Is a Good Day to Die
A brief introduction explains why the account of Custer's battle at Little Bighorn is told through individual recollections long after the encounter. In addition to the personal accounts, the book includes a helpful chronology of events, short biographie
Author: Viola, Herman |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
January's Sparrow
After a fellow slave is beaten to death, Sadie and her family flee the plantation for freedom through the Underground Railroad. As they make a new life in Michigan, they must remain alert for the slave catchers.
Author: Polacco, Patricia |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
January's Sparrow
After a fellow slave is beaten to death, Sadie and her family flee the plantation for freedom through the Underground Railroad. As they make a new life in Michigan, they must remain alert for the slave catchers.
Author: Polacco, Patricia |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Moses
The author's note describes this book on Harriet Tubman as a "fictionalized spiritual journey" comparing her answering the call of God to lead her people out of slavery to Moses leading the Israelites out of bondage in Egypt. The author includes a forewo
Author: Weatherford, Carole |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Music of Dolphins, The
Mila, a feral child raised by dolphins after her parents' death, is rescued, studied and taught human behavior and language at a research center. Different type face and size convey Mila's language development.
My Freedom Trip: A Child's Escape from North Korea
This story describes the flight of a young girl from North to South Korea just before the outbreak of the Korean War. The story is told simply with superb illustrations.
Author: Park, Frances and Park, Ginger |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | social studies
|
Now Is Your Time! the African-American Stuggle for Freedom
The subtitle of this book is The African-American Struggle for Freedom. The book contains 23 chapters on topics such as the Dred Scott Case and Brown v. Board of Education, an afterword, an author's note, a bibliography, and an index.
Author: Myers, Walter Dean |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Now Let Me Fly
This book gives a fictional account of Minna, a young African girl, taken from her homeland and sold into slavery. The epilogue carries the story forward to the Emancipation Declaration.
Author: Johnson, Dolores |
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
|
Pledge of Allegiance, The
This book illustrates the phrases in the Pledge of Allegiance with photographs. Included is a description of what the pledge means (literally), dates to diplay the flag, and some basic flag history.
Author: No author cited |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Pride of Baghdad
This graphic novel of a family of lions liberated from the Baghdad zoo by U.S. bombing raids provides a symbolic understanding of the war from the dangers they encounter.
Author: Vaughan, Brian K. |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Rabbits, The
A myth/allegory about rabbits who take over a country and destroy the environment. The illustrations are simultaneously thought-provoking, beautiful, and ominous. The type face may confuse new readers although it is large and easy to read.
Real Benedict Arnold, The
This well-researched biography examines the facts and rumors of the life of the hero, then traitor, Benedict Arnold against the background of the Continental Congress and the Revolutionary War. Maps and portraits illustrate the text. End notes, sources,
Author: Murphy, Jim |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Remember the Bridge
Illustrated by prints and black-and-white photographs and bracketed by two "bridge" poems, the poetry relates the experience of African Americans from Africa to the Civil Rights Movement.
Author: Weatherford, Carole |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Sarney
A sequel to Nightjohn, the book follows the life of Sarny, the slave girl that Nightjohn taught to read, as she travels to New Orleans in the aftermath of the Civil War to find her children who had been sold into slavery.
Author: Paulsen, Gary |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Silver Packages
A man returns to his childhood home in Appalachia to thank the benefactor on the Christmas Train. The story originally appeared in Rylant's book Children of Christmas: Stories for the Season.
So Far From the Sea
A Japanese American visits Manazar, a Japanese relocation camp in World War II, to visit the grave of a grandfather.
Author: Bunting, Eve |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Sweet Smell of Roses, A
The book jacket says it all: "There's a sweet, sweet smell in the air as two young girls sneak out of their house, down the street, and across town to where men and women are gathered, ready to march for freedom and justice?--with Martin Luther King, Jr.
Author: Johnson, Angela |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
This Is the Dream
Accessible poetry and vivid illustrations portray the dreams and accomplishments of the Civil Rights Movement. The illustrator uses interesting collages for some borders and the endpapers.
Author: Shore, Diane & Alexander, Jessica |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
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
|
Voice of Her Own, A
This biography of Phillis Wheatley, a American Revolution era slave who became the first Black woman poet, includes excerpts of her poetry, an epilogue, and notes by the author and illustrator.
Author: Lasky, Kathryn |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies | language arts - writing
|
Wall, The: Growing up behind the iron curtain
Author-illustrator Peter Sis documents his growing up in Czechoslovakia behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War, using extraordinary drawings in black, white, and red that precede two-page spreads of journal entries. Because the running text at the b
Author: Sis, Peter |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies | language arts - reading | language arts - writing
|
When Harriet Met Sojourner
The author imagines the meeting of two brave activists for the freeing of slaves --Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman when they were in Boston in 1864. The story is told with the aid of very powerful artwork.
Author: Clinton, Catherine |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Emotions-Personal Issues > personal issues > individual > hopes/dreams
145th Street: Short Stories
Engaging short stories written in Myers' natural writing styles that contain serious side plots and portray some of the people who live on one block of 145th Street in Harlem. Characters are portrayed honestly and jump off the page to keep the reader enga
Author: Myers, Walter Dean |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | language arts - writing
|
Angel Island
An historical account of the discrimination against the Asian immigrants in the late 1800s-early 1900s. Angel Island, located near Alcatraz Island, was the Ellis Island of the west coast of the U.S. but was more of a prison than a welcoming center. Drawi
Author: Russell Freedman |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies | language arts - reading
|
At Gleason's Gym
The story of Gleason's Gym in Brooklyn NY, and the many people who use it. It includes a brief story of Sugar Boy Younan, National Silver Gloves Champion 2006. The words and pictures tap into the senses. The illustrations demonstrate the rhythm to the mus
Author: Lewin, Ted |
HSE Descriptors:
literature and arts | social studies
|
Barack Obama, Son of Promise, Child of Hope
Framed by the story of an African American mother and her son, who keeps interjecting questions and comments, the narrative tells the story of Barack Obama around the theme of hope and the importance of education. Both the words of Nikki Grimes and the ar
Author: Grimes, Nikki |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | social studies
|
Block, The
This collection of Langston Hughes poems is complemented by the illustrations of Romare Beardon. An introduction by Bill Cosby precedes the collection, and biographies of the poet and artist conclude it.
Author: Hughes, Langston |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Boy Named Giotto, A
This exquisitely illustrated biography portrays the early years of the Renaissance painter, Giotto, who lived in Italy from 1267-1337.
Author: Guarnieri, Paolo |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Champions on the Bench: The Cannon Street YMCA All-Stars
In 1955, the Cannon St YMCA's Little League team (from SC) cannot play in the Little League World Series because all-white teams refuse to play them. The story told in this book is based on these real events.
Author: Weatherford, Carole Boston |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Champions on the Bench: The Cannon Street YMCA All-Stars
In 1955, the Cannon St YMCA's Little League team (from SC) cannot play in the Little League World Series because all-white teams refuse to play them. The story told in this book is based on these real events.
Author: Weatherford, Carole Boston |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Chanda's Secrets
Sixteen-year-old Chanda, who lives in a fictional sub-Saharan
country that is feeling the impact of HIV/AIDS psychologically(fears, lies, and sundered relationships)and socially (ostracism of tainted people, necessity of hiding), takes a courageous stand
Author: Stratton, Allan |
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 |
|
Christmas in the Big House, Christmas in the Quarters
This story describes the customs used in both the plantation house and the slave quarters during the Christmas season during slavery years. The amount of detail--even recipes and songs are included--is unusual, and yet the book flows well and makes compe
Author: McKissack, Patricia & McKissack, Frederick |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Circuit, The
The author tells the heartbreaking story of a young boy growing up as an undocumented migrant whose family traveled the crop circuit in California in the 1930's. The narrative is told as linked stories. At least two of the chapters have been published a
Author: Jimenez, Francisco |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Don Quixote and the Windmills
This retelling of the famous Spanish novel by Cervantes recounts Don Quixote's first adventure as a knight. An Author's Note contributes historical information about Cervantes.
Author: Kimmel, Eric |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Drawing in the Sand, A
In words and illustrations, Jerry Butler tells his story of becoming an artist--the people who encouraged him and the African American artists who established a tradition for him to join. Some students may find the uses of different type face distracting
Author: Butler, Jerry |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | social studies
|
Dream Keeper and Other Poems, The
A reissue of Hughes' poetry book with seven additional poems (total of 66). The poems are short and make appropriate reading for all levels of learners. Many of the poems deal with issues of the African-American experience.
Author: Hughes, Langston |
HSE Descriptors:
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 |
|
Escape from Saigon: How a Vietnam War Orphan Became an American Boy
This is an informative account of a child left behind when his American soldier father left Vietnam and his mother died. It traces his journey to America, his adopted family and his eventual return to his homeland to help orphans.
Author: Warren, Andrea |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies | language arts - reading
|
Etched in Clay: The Life of Dave Enslaved Potter and Poet
This imaginative volume of poetry is both a tribute to Dave the Potter and a positive biography of a potter who worked his artistic magic despite being a slave. It is poetic in style, autobiographical, written in more than one voice and each entry is jour
Author: Cheng, Andrea |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | language arts - writing | social studies
|
Fanny's Dream
A retelling of the Cinderella story, the book depicts the choices of Fanny Agnes, providing a humorous portrait of a strong woman.
Glass Castle, The: A Memoir
Jeannette Walls' memoir of her dysfunctional but vibrant family and the resilience and loyalty they exhibited.
Glass Castle, The: A Memoir
Jeannette Walls' memoir of her dysfunctional but vibrant family and the resilience and loyalty they exhibited.
Gwendolyn Brooks
This biography describes the influences and hardships of the early years and the political activism of the later years of the African American poet Gwendolyn Brooks. The book includes a chronology, archival photos, an index, a list of published works and
Author: Hill, Christine M. |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | social studies | language arts - writing
|
Hand in Hand
The collection of poems is organized by American historical themes rather than by chronology. There are many poems that are familiar patriotic songs.
Author: Hopkins, Lee (Ed.) |
|
Heart of a Champion, The
These are short biographies of sports figures who have been featured on Wheaties boxes over the years. Subsections, organized by traits that contribute to success (commitment, grace, courage, team effort, and perseverance) are preceded by short essays abo
Here in Harlem
Walter Dean Myers recreates the Harlem of his youth in poetry and populates it with colorful characters through their voices.
Author: Myers, Walter Dean |
|
I Dream of Trains
This is the story of an African-American boy who lives in the South before the Great Migration, who loves trains, and who stands in awe of Casey Jones.
Author: Johnson, Angela |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
I Have Heard of a Land
A hardworking African American woman stakes a homestead claim in the Oklahoma Territory in the period after the Civil War. Told in rich, lyrical language, the beautifully illustrated story reminds us that African Americans were a part of the settlement o
Author: Thomas, Joyce Carol |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
In the Promised Land
From Asser Levy in 1654 to Steven Spielberg today, this book provides one-page illustrated biographies of thirteen famous Jews. In addition, the author includes other print and web resources.
Author: Rappaport, Doreen |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Indigo and Moonlight Gold
A little girl looks at the stars and dreams.
Jimi: Sounds Like a Rainbow
Told in vivid language and stunningly illustrated, this is a story of a talented child who discovers his love of music and learns to see, hear, and interpret the world around him in his own unique way.
Author: Golio, Gary |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | language arts - writing
|
Leonardo's Horse
Contemporary sculptors completed the horse that Leonardo da Vinci began but never finished.
Author: Fritz, Jean |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Let the Celebrations Begin!
During WW II, in the concentration camps, women hoarded buttons and odds and ends in order to make the children dolls and presents for the day they would be released. Although the art has been criticized for being too whimsical for its grim subject matte
Author: Wild, Margaret |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Let Them Play
This beautifully illustrated book tells the true story of the 1955 state champion little league team from South Carolina, who were all African-American and who encountered segregation problems as they continued to win.
Author: Raven, Margot |
HSE Descriptors:
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 Walk to Water, A
When the Sudanese civil war reaches his village in 1985, eleven-year-old Salva becomes separated from his family and must walk with other Dinka tribe members through southern Sudan, Ethiopia, and Kenya in search of safe haven. Based on the life of Salva D
Author: Park, Linda Sue |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Lotus Seed, The
A young girl tells her grandmother's story of carrying a lotus seed with her from Vietnam, losing it, and then regaining it. The author wants to share "how a family's heritage is passed from one generation to the next and how hope, like the lotus seed, ca
Author: Garland, Sherry |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Make Lemonade
When fourteen-year-old LaVaughn takes a job baby-sitting for seventeen-year-old Jolly's two children, neither girl realizes how much she'll learn from the other. Despite no job, a lousy apartment, and a bleak future, Jolly, with the help of LaVaughn and
Author: Wolff, Virginia Euwer |
|
Man Who Walked Between the Towers, The
The book celebrates in pictures and text Philippe Petit's highwire walk between the Trade Center Towers on Aug. 7, 1974.
Author: Gerstein, Mordicai |
|
Mandela
This picture book biography tells Nelson Mandela's story, from his childhood to his imprisonment and ultimate freedom.
Author: Cooper, Floyd |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Minty
Long before her years as leader in the Underground Railroad, Harriet Tubman, nicknamed Minty, was a strong-willed child who dreamed of running away while suffering the brutalities of slavery. Old Ben taught her survival skills that she would need later.
Author: Schroeder, Alan |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Miss Crandall's School
In innovative sonnet form, the authors tell the story of Prudence Crandall who ran a school for "young ladies and little misses of color" in Canterbury, Connecticut, in 1831 until boycotts, vandalism and persecution forced the school to close. An introdu
Author: Alexander, Elizabeth & Nelson, Marilyn |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | social studies
|
More Than Anything Else
Few people around young Booker T. Washington are able to read. But Booker, age 9, finds a chance and takes it. This biography, which also shows life in post-Civil War West Virginia, is full of eloquent language and dramatic, lantern-lit paintings.
Author: Bradby, Marie |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
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 |
|
Now Let Me Fly
This book gives a fictional account of Minna, a young African girl, taken from her homeland and sold into slavery. The epilogue carries the story forward to the Emancipation Declaration.
Author: Johnson, Dolores |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
One and Only Ivan, The
When Ivan, a gorilla who has lived for years in a down-and-out circus-themed mall, meets Ruby, a baby elephant that has been added to the mall,he decides that he must find them a better life. Although a work of fiction, this story comes from a true story
Author: Applegate, Katherine |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | science
|
Parvana's Journey
Disguised as a boy, Parvana rescues a baby and joins with a young boy as she travels through war-torn Afghanistan searching for her family. The telling of the story through the child's perspective allows the reader to approach a sensitive current event an
Author: Ellis, Deborah |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Perilous Journey of The Donner Party, The
The Donner Party, consisting of 81 people who set out for a new life in California in the mid 1850's, got trapped in the mountain snows with diminishing supplies. Harrowing tales of survival followed the few who made it out alive. The book includes archi
Author: Calabro, Marian |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Pick and Shovel Poet
This moving biography recounts the life of Italian immigrant poet Pascal D'Angelo. The author includes some of D'Angelo's poems as well as archival photos of immigrant life, an extensive bibliography and an index.
Author: Murphy, Jim |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Raisin in the Sun, A
When an African-American family chooses to integrate an all-white neighborhood, all of their value systems and relationships come under pressure.
Author: Hansberry, Lorraine |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
School for Pompey Walker, A
At the dedication of a school named for him, Pompey Walker tells how he and a white friend, Jeremiah, raised money to build a school for ex-slave children. With the help of his friend, Pompey allows himself to be sold over and over again, escaping each t
Author: Rosen, Michael J. |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Seventeenth Child, The
The author writes the oral history of her mother, who is the seventeenth child in her family growing up in the South during the Depression.
Author: Rice, Dorothy & Payne, Lucille |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Sixteen Years in Sixteen Seconds: The Sammy Lee Story
Faced with discrimination for being Korean-American in the 1930s did not deter Sammy Lee from wanting to become an Olympic diver - a dream he realized with great determination.
Author: Yoo, Paula |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Sixteen Years in Sixteen Seconds: The Sammy Lee Story
Faced with discrimination for being Korean-American in the 1930s did not deter Sammy Lee from wanting to become an Olympic diver - a dream he realized with great determination.
Author: Yoo, Paula |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Something Permanent
Walker Evans' photographs of southern United States during the Depression years are stark and haunting, and Cynthia Rylant's short poems describe their stories beautifully.
Author: Rylant, Cynthia |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | social studies
|
Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt
Based on a true incident, this story tells of a young slave girl's brainstorm of sewing a map of the Underground Railroad onto a quilt so that others could find their way to freedom.
Author: Hopkinson, Deborah |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Sweet Music in Harlem
Inspired by a real photograph of jazz musicians taken in 1958, the fictional story recounts young C. J.'s search through Harlem for his uncle's hat, a hat his uncle wants to wear in a photograph. Included is the historical photograph with the identities
Author: Taylor, Debbie |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Swifter, Higher, Stronger: A Photographic History of the Summer Olympics
This account of Olympics and Olympians through the years is stunningly illustrated with photographs that capture the action and emotion of the events. An appendix of rich detail includes a map and statistics.
Author: Macy, Sue |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Taste of Salt
This gripping novel tells the story of two teenagers in Haiti, Djo, one of Aristides' orphaned boys who is hospitalized with terrible injuries, and Jeremie, a convent-educated girl who visits Djo to hear his stories and who begins to fall in love with him
Thank you, Mr. Falker
While in 5th grade, Trisha, the central, autobiographical character, encounters a new teacher who helps her overcome her difficulties with reading that had caused her such humiliation since first grade.
Author: Polacco, Patricia |
|
This Is the Dream
Accessible poetry and vivid illustrations portray the dreams and accomplishments of the Civil Rights Movement. The illustrator uses interesting collages for some borders and the endpapers.
Author: Shore, Diane & Alexander, Jessica |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Tin Forest, The
An old man living in a wasteland of scrap metal dreams of a green forest full of birds and animals. This charming, beautifully illustrated modern legend extolls the benefits of dreaming and ideas in accomplishing change.
True Believer
This is not exactly a sequel to Make Lemonade, but the style is similar and many of the characters are the same-- LaVaughn, her mother, Jolly and her children [they have a minor role in this book]. LaVaughn is 15, lives in the inner city, and str
Author: Wolff, Virginia Euwer |
|
Uncle Jed's Barbershop
A woman tells the story of her Uncle Jed, an African-American barber who traveled a regular route, saving his money for his own shop. When she became sick, he gave up his money for her operation, and when the Depression came, he lost everything again. F
Author: Mitchell, Margaree K. |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Voice That Challenged a Nation, The
A detailed biography of Marian Anderson, an exceedingly talented woman who overcame some racial barriers and tolerated others in order to do what she loved best, recounts how she became involved in the Civil Rights Movement. In addition to wonderful arch
Author: Freedman, Russell |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Waiting for the Owl's Call
This narrative is rich in beautiful language - similes, personifications that describes the daily lives of Afghanistani children who work at rug looms looms using ancient patterns handed down from their ancestors. The narrator mentally creates new patter
Author: Whelan, Gloria |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Waiting for the Owl's Call
This narrative is rich in beautiful language - similes, personifications that describes the daily lives of Afghanistani children who work at rug looms looms using ancient patterns handed down from their ancestors. The narrator mentally creates new patter
Author: Whelan, Gloria |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
We The People
American history from Colonial times to the present is presented through 65 poems about individuals--some real and some imaginary. A timeline of historic events runs across the lower part of the page and a note about writing the book appears at the end.
Author: Katz, Bobbi |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | 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
|
Words with Wings
This riveting collection of paintings, prints, and sculpture by African-American artists enrich poems by outstanding African-American poets. The book includes a beautifully written introduction about the role of art and poetry and brief biographies of th
Author: Rochelle, Belinda ed. |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Emotions-Personal Issues > personal issues > individual > human strength
Ann and Seamus
This story of a real event in 1828 alternates chapters in free verse of the two characters of the title. Ann, a real teenager, wants to experience the world beyond Newfoundland, and Seamus, a fictional Irish immigrant, wants to find fortune and a wife.
Author: Major, Kevin |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | social studies
|
Baboon King, The
Set in Africa, this powerful book explores the themes of the importance of community through the exile of Morengaru from his tribe and survival, not against but with nature, in his life with a group of baboons.
Bearing Witness
This selection of powerful personal stories of the Holocaust in various literary and artistic forms gives testimony of the extraordinary bravery of ordinary people. A map of concentration camps, a bibliography, and brief introductory notes for each excer
Author: Rochman, Hazel & McCampbell, Darlene (Eds.) |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Brothers In Hope
The author, who worked with the International Rescue Committee, tells the story of the "lost boys" of Sudan, orphaned by war, who walked to refuge in Ethiopia, and later to Kenya. The first person narrative and vibrant illustrations add immediacy to the
Author: Williams, Mary |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Cat with the Yellow Star, The: Coming of Age in Terezin
Ela Weissberger's life before, during, and after she and her family were forced to live in the Jewish ghetto of Terezin during WWII. Photographs reinforce Ela's memories of survival and hope.
Author: Rubin, Susan Goldman |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Coal Miner's Bride, A: The Diary of Anetka Kaminska
In journal format, the life of a thirteen year old girl in 1896 comes to life. Anetra Kaminska is sold to an older widower of three children in a mining town, for the price of her and her brother's tickets from Poland to America. Her life is extremely ha
Author: Bartoletti, Susan Campbell |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | language arts - writing | social studies
|
Danger Along the Ohio
The Dunn family is traveling down the Ohio River in 1793. The children become separated from their father and must fend for themselves while heading toward Marietta.
Author: Willis, Patricia |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Fever 1793
This is a very compelling fictionalization of life for one teenaged girl, her family, and her friends during the yellow fever outbreak in Philadelphia in 1793.
Author: Anderson, Laurie Halse |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
First in the Field: Baseball Hero Jackie Robinson
This biography of Jackie Robinson, which focuses on his life until he retired from professional baseball, is accompanied by photographs. A timeline that notes African American sports milestones concludes the book.
Author: Dingle, Derek T. |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Giver, The
This Newbery Award-winning novel is set in a utopian community in which all conflict and social problems are unheard of. After a coming-of-age ceremony, Jonas begins to interact with The Giver and learns about the secrets that underlie his perfect world.
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
|
Heart of a Champion, The
These are short biographies of sports figures who have been featured on Wheaties boxes over the years. Subsections, organized by traits that contribute to success (commitment, grace, courage, team effort, and perseverance) are preceded by short essays abo
Into the Volcano
Two brothers face an erupting volcano and a variety of other troubles in their search for their mother.
Into the Volcano
Two brothers face an erupting volcano and a variety of other troubles in their search for their mother.
John Henry
This beautifully illustrated, award-winning book tells the tale of the ex-slave John Henry who outraced the steam engine in digging a tunnel through the side of the Allegheny Mountains. The book begins with introductory notes from both Julius Lester and
Leon's Story
A custodian at a Maryland school tells his own story of growing up poor in North Carolina, of racism, of hatred, of resilience, of Martin Luther King, and of the things that matter in life.
Author: Tillage, Leon Walter |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Mandela
This picture book biography tells Nelson Mandela's story, from his childhood to his imprisonment and ultimate freedom.
Author: Cooper, Floyd |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Martin Luther King
Folk art paintings accompany this biography of Dr. King. A timeline of important events in his life concludes the book.
Author: Bray, Rosemary |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Maus I: My Father Bleeds History
This is the first of two volumes about the experiences of the author's parents in the Nazi concentration camps during WWII. The author depicts Jews as mice and Nazis as cats in his illustrations.
Author: Spiegelman, Art |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Maus II: A Survivor's Tale
A powerful graphic novel about a father who survived the Nazi concentration camps and his son in which Jews are depicted as mice and Nazis as cats. The story jumps back and forth between the present life in the Catskills and the past life in the camps.
Author: Spiegelman, Art |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Mother Teresa
This is a beautifully illustrated biography of the woman who became Mother Teresa.
Author: Demi |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Nikola Tesla
This biography of little-known scientist Nikola Tesla recounts his life and work on harnessing and advocating for alternating-current electricity with its many engineering applications that we take for granted. Archival photographs illustrate the text.
Author: Dommermuth-Costa, Carol |
HSE Descriptors:
science
|
North Star to Freedom
This book is subtitled "The Story of the Underground Railroad," and it is that, but it's also more-- the history of slavery is presented, biographies of key figures are provided, lesislation is discussed. The author is Canadian, so this provides an intere
Author: Gorrell, Gena K. |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Oh, Freedom!
Most of the book is transcripts of interviews children conducted with people who were involved in the Civil Rights Movement. Several essays that provide a chronology of African-American life and a foreword by Rosa Parks complement the interviews.
Author: King, Casey, & Osborne, Linda |
HSE Descriptors:
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
|
Out of the Dust
Set in Oklahoma during the Dust Bowl years of the Depression, this powerful book tells in unobtrusive blank verse the story of personal tragedy and community hardship through the experiences of Billy Jo, a 15-year-old girl. The book is so credible that
Author: Hesse, Karen |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | social studies
|
Rosa
Giovanni tells the story of Rosa Parks' infamous bus ride. In the telling, the author speaks to the strength of the African-American community in their struggle for equal rights. The author weaves other tales (Emmett Till) into the story to give the rea
Author: Giovanni, Nikki |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Sees Behind Trees
A blind Native American boy learns to "see behind trees", guided by his mother, to use his other senses. He uses his gift to help an old warrior find a land of mystery and beauty that he'd discovered years ago, and could not find again himself.
Author: Dorris, Michael |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | social studies
|
Show Way
Simple text and stunning illustrations tell the intergenerational story of Woodson's ancestors.
Author: Woodson, Jacqueline |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Swifter, Higher, Stronger: A Photographic History of the Summer Olympics
This account of Olympics and Olympians through the years is stunningly illustrated with photographs that capture the action and emotion of the events. An appendix of rich detail includes a map and statistics.
Author: Macy, Sue |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
There Comes a Time
This book, winner of the 2001 Laura Ingalls Wilder Award, chronicles the Civil Rights Movement in the U.S. The book begins with slave trading and ends with the "Black Power" movement of the late 1960's. A timeline, bibliography, and index are included.
Author: Meltzer, Milton |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
With Courage and Cloth
This story of women's suffrage in the U.S. concentrates on the early 20th century, although previous activities serve as a context. Illustrated with archival photos from the time,the book includes a chronology, bibliography, profiles, and other sources.
Author: Bausum, Ann |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Emotions-Personal Issues > personal issues > individual > isolation
Black Book of Colors, The
This book is written in Braille alphabet so the sighted reader can share the reading experience with the blind reader. The books is printed in black pages to further simulate the reading experience of the blind reader. This books has been printed around
Author: Cottin, Menena |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | social studies
|
Gifts from the Sea
The lives of a lighthousekeeper and his daughter are changed by the discovery of a baby washed ashore after a shipwreck on the coast of Maine in the 1850's.
Author: Kinsey-Warnock, Natalie |
|
Gold Coin, The
A thief follows an old woman and learns a lesson about giving.
Henry David's House
These seamlessly woven excerpts from Thoreau's Walden and the beautiful watercolor illustrations together describe constructing and living in the house at Walden Pond.
Author: Schnur, Steven (ed.) |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
In the Days of the Vaqueros
Russell Freedman has created another interesting non-fiction book, this time on the vaqueros, who were the forerunners of cowboys. As usual, the author illustrates his essays with paintings, archival photographs and includes useful resources in a bibliog
Author: Freedman, Russell |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Log Cabin Quilt, The
Elvirey, her brother, grandmother, and father move to a log cabin in the Michigan woods after her mother dies. Granny's quilting scraps serve a greater purpose during a winter storm.
Author: Howard, Ellen |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Music of Dolphins, The
Mila, a feral child raised by dolphins after her parents' death, is rescued, studied and taught human behavior and language at a research center. Different type face and size convey Mila's language development.
Nikola Tesla
This biography of little-known scientist Nikola Tesla recounts his life and work on harnessing and advocating for alternating-current electricity with its many engineering applications that we take for granted. Archival photographs illustrate the text.
Author: Dommermuth-Costa, Carol |
HSE Descriptors:
science
|
Poet Slave of Cuba, The: A Biography of Juan Francisco Manzano
This true story of 19th Century Cuban poet Juan Francisco Manzano, who was born a slave, is told in free verse from various points of view--the boy, his mother, his father, and his owners.
Author: Engle, Margarita |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | social studies
|
Printer, The
A son retells the story of his father, a deaf printer working in a newspaper plant in the 1940's who used sugn language to save his co-workers from a fire. In addition, the author gives biographical information about his father who was the model for the
Remembering Manzanar
Shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. government ordered forced evacuation of Japanese Americans who lived in the western U.S. This is the story of one relocation camp, Manzanar. The text is supported with archival photographs, end notes, Int
Author: Cooper, Michael L. |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Run Far, Run Fast
When a mother tells a young girl in 14th C Europe to "run far, run fast" to escape the pestilence, the girl discovers that she cannot outrun the plague but is helped by a friendly man. The exquisite pen and ink drawings are integral to the story. The on
Author: Decker, Timothy |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Run Far, Run Fast
When a mother tells a young girl in 14th C Europe to "run far, run fast" to escape the pestilence, the girl discovers that she cannot outrun the plague but is helped by a friendly man. The exquisite pen and ink drawings are integral to the story. The on
Author: Decker, Timothy |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Shake Rag
As a boy, Elvis Presley discovers "good news" music at a traveling church that gives his guitar playing a distinctive sound when he records later in 1954.
Shin-chi's Canoe
Shin-chi's toy canoe, given to him by his father, sustains him during his first year at an Indian residential school. This story occurs when Native Americans were forced to attend Indian residential schools where they were made to learn the white man's w
Author: Campbell, Nicola I. |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Talking With Adventurers
Several National Geographic scientists/explorers are interviewed in a Q & A format. What makes the book such an interesting read is how they see themselves and their work. The book offers maps, fabulous photographs, and contact information for particip
Author: Cummings, Pat and Linda, (compilers) |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies | science
|
Thank you, Mr. Falker
While in 5th grade, Trisha, the central, autobiographical character, encounters a new teacher who helps her overcome her difficulties with reading that had caused her such humiliation since first grade.
Author: Polacco, Patricia |
|
Wild Boy, The
The author tells a very sympathetic account of the wild child of Aveyron, France, who was captured and studied in the early 1800's. Dr. Itard and his housekeeper become the family of this boy who never acquired all the traits of a "civilized" person.
Author: Gerstein, Mordicai |
|
With a Hammer for My Heart
When 15-year-old Lawanda befriends a WW II veteran living in an old school bus, she sets in motion events that will change her life and all those around her. The well-written story unfolds with each chapter telling the story from the point of view of eac
Author: Lyon, George Ella |
|
Emotions-Personal Issues > personal issues > individual > laziness
Hired Hand, The
When Old Sam hires a new hand to work at the sawmill, the hired hand teaches Sam's lazy son a lesson when the son tries to con an old man. Retold from an oral African American tale, the story is beautifully illustrated by Jerry Pinkney.
Author: San Souci, R. |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Emotions-Personal Issues > personal issues > individual > life choices
Amelia Lost: The Life and Disappearance of Amelia Earhart
Informative account of Amelia Earhart's life and death, separating fact from fiction. A leader in women's rights, Amelia was an independent woman who proved women could fly! But, could she have done it without male support? Bibliography and source notes
Author: Fleming,Candace |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | social studies
|
Chess Rumble
Since his sister died, Marcus is in trouble all the time at school. Then he meets CM and learns to take control of his life through the game of chess. This book was inspired by inner-city chess enrichment programs.
Chess Rumble
Since his sister died, Marcus is in trouble all the time at school. Then he meets CM and learns to take control of his life through the game of chess. This book was inspired by inner-city chess enrichment programs.
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 |
|
Do I Dare Disturb the Universe:
Charlise Lyles grew up in Cleveland in the 1960s and 1970s. This memoir focuses on life in the projects, her family's struggle to survive, her mother's relentless work to provide opportunities for children. Mostly, though, it's about Charlise-- her though
Fanny's Dream
A retelling of the Cinderella story, the book depicts the choices of Fanny Agnes, providing a humorous portrait of a strong woman.
First Part Last, The
[revised from dust jacket] Bobby is a classic urban teenaged boy-- impulsive, eager, restless. On his 16th birthday, he learns that his girlfriend Nia is pregnant. Their lives change dramatically, both during the pregnancy and after baby Feather is born.
Giver, The
This Newbery Award-winning novel is set in a utopian community in which all conflict and social problems are unheard of. After a coming-of-age ceremony, Jonas begins to interact with The Giver and learns about the secrets that underlie his perfect world.
If: A Fathers Advice to His Son
Sports themed photographs accompany Kiplings poem about the qualities that make up a mature person.
Author: Kipling, Rudyard |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
In Our Mothers' House
Marmee and Meema, two wonderfully innovative, creative mothers, provide a loving home for adopted children and are the glue for a community-oriented neighborhood, except for one family who snubs them for being different.
Author: Polacco, Patricia |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
In Our Mothers' House
Marmee and Meema, two wonderfully innovative, creative mothers, provide a loving home for adopted children and are the glue for a community-oriented neighborhood, except for one family who snubs them for being different.
Author: Polacco, Patricia |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Library, The
A delightfully illustrated story in verse about a shy, avid reader who gave her books to form a town library.
Like Sisters on the Homefront
When 14-year-old Gayle gets into "trouble," she and her baby Jose leave New York City to live with family in rural Georgia. At first bored with and distressed about her situation, Gayle eventually makes friends with her cousin Cookie. Through "tellings" b
Author: Williams-Garcia, Rita |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
More Choices: Stories for Adult New Readers
These three stories fit with George Ella Lyon's collection Choices, but were not included in the original collection because some readers found them too controversial. Our readers found them powerful and moving, addressing life situations that m
Author: Lyon, George Ella |
|
My Name is Georgia
This simple biography of Georgia O'Keefe describes how she was true to her life-long goal of being an artist and how she gained inspiration for her paintings from the natural world around her.
Author: Winter, Jeanette |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Restless Spirit: The Life and Work of Dorothea Lange
This biography of photographer Dorthea Lange contains many of her photographs. Lange photographed and helped raise awareness of the poor conditions of the migrant workers during the Depression.
Author: Partridge, Ellizabeth |
HSE Descriptors:
literature and arts | social studies
|
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
|
Riding the Tiger
This is an allegory that features a bored, lonely 10-year-old's who is offered a ride by an exciting and somewhat scary tiger and discovers that it is easier to get on the tiger than to get off.
Author: Bunting, Eve |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | social studies
|
Sees Behind Trees
A blind Native American boy learns to "see behind trees", guided by his mother, to use his other senses. He uses his gift to help an old warrior find a land of mystery and beauty that he'd discovered years ago, and could not find again himself.
Author: Dorris, Michael |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | social studies
|
Sound the Jubilee
During the Civil War, Maddie, an eleven-year-old house slave, journeys with her mistress to Nags Head near Roanoke Island which has become a Yankee-protected community for run-away slaves. Maddie grows up there with her family and finds a place for herse
Author: Forrester, Saundra |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Strongest Man in the World, The: Louis Cyr
The text of this book goes far beyond just being the biography of a famous 20th century strong man, Louis Cyr. It is a description of early health mores and an evolution of the circus concept. Additionally, we learn a little about the other famous circus
Author: Debon, Nicolas |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Swan Lake
An expanded retelling of the story of Tchaikovsky's ballet Swan Lake.The author retells the story of Swan Lake within his narrative of the Damavand empire. Van Allsburg's illustrations highlight the events of the story.
Author: Helprin, Mark |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Tea With Milk
May (the author's mother) is learning American ways when her family moves back to Japan. When her parents hire a matchmaker to find her a husband, May moves to Osaka, begins a career, and finds her own happiness.
Time to Love, A
Beautifully illustrated and ably introduced by sons of the author, this book retells six Bible stories from different perspectives, all revealing aspects of love--father/son, friends, brothers, lovers, and daughters-in-law. Teachers can promote religious
Author: Myers, Walter Dean |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
We've Got a Job: The 1963 Birmingham Children's March
Tells the story of the Birmingham Children's March through four participants. As the events unfold, the different perspectives and motivations of the participants shed light on the dynamics of the civil rights movement. In addition to the personal stori
Author: Levinson, Cynthia |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | social studies
|
Emotions-Personal Issues > personal issues > individual > life choices > goal setting
Alice Ramsey's Grand Adventure
Alice Ramsey and three other women face floods, mud, and travel without maps as they drive from New York to San Francisco--in 1909. The charming watercolors add realistic humor to the narrative.
Author: Brown, Don |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Amelia to Zora: Twenty-Six Women Who Changed the World
Minute biographies of 26 illustrious women with quotes from each. Discover woman who have changed people's lives and read about their childhood, hardships and successes to inspire girls and women of all ages.
Author: Chin-Lee, Cynthia |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Amelia to Zora: Twenty-Six Women Who Changed the World
Minute biographies of 26 illustrious women with quotes from each. Discover woman who have changed people's lives and read about their childhood, hardships and successes to inspire girls and women of all ages.
Author: Chin-Lee, Cynthia |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Bonyo Bonyo: The True Story of a Brave Boy from Kenya
Story of how a Kenyan boy sets a goal of becoming a doctor after his baby sister dies. He succeeds and is now a physician in Akron Ohio.
Author: Oelschlager, Vanita |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | language arts - writing | social studies | science
|
Clara Schumann
This biography chronicles the life of Clara Schumann, child prodigy and wife of composer Robert Schumann and mother of eight children. The book is illustrated with portraits and diary excerpts. A preface, an epilogue, a timeline, and an index make the b
Author: Reich, Susan |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Delicious: The Life & Art of Wayne Thiebaud
Illustrated with lush reproductions of his paintings, this biography of painter Wayne Theibaud recounting his long career and late fame, is a story of perseverance from outside the mainstream. Thiebaud paints "things that have been overlooked," like food,
Author: Rubin, Susan Goldman |
HSE Descriptors:
literature and arts
|
Delicious: The Life & Art of Wayne Thiebaud
Illustrated with lush reproductions of his paintings, this biography of painter Wayne Theibaud recounting his long career and late fame, is a story of perseverance from outside the mainstream. Thiebaud paints "things that have been overlooked," like food,
Author: Rubin, Susan Goldman |
HSE Descriptors:
literature and arts
|
Facing the Lion
Enhanced by a few, vivid color photos, this memoir recounts the Maasi childhood and first encounters with European and American culture of an American teacher who spends part of each year working in Kenya. An afterword brings the reader up to date with L
Author: Lekuton, Joseph |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Fantastic Jungles of Henri Rousseau, The
Whimsical biography of Henri Rousseau illustrated in his style of artwork. This book recounts the life of Henri Rousseau who began painting at the age of 41. Spare text written in lovely figurative language - "the flowers open their hearts" and "He holds
Author: Markel, Michelle |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies | language arts - reading
|
Far Beyond the Garden Gate
Don Brown has written another intriguing book about an extraordinary woman, one who perservered in her desire to explore Tibet never seen by a Western woman. An author's note, a bibliography, and a map extend the possibilities of this beautifully illustr
Author: Brown, Don |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Find Where the Wind Goes
This is an autobiography of Mae Jemison, the first woman of color to become an astronaut. She uses the metaphor of "wind" to describe events from her life.
Author: Jemison, Mae |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies | language arts - writing
|
Glass Castle, The: A Memoir
Jeannette Walls' memoir of her dysfunctional but vibrant family and the resilience and loyalty they exhibited.
Glass Castle, The: A Memoir
Jeannette Walls' memoir of her dysfunctional but vibrant family and the resilience and loyalty they exhibited.
In the Promised Land
From Asser Levy in 1654 to Steven Spielberg today, this book provides one-page illustrated biographies of thirteen famous Jews. In addition, the author includes other print and web resources.
Author: Rappaport, Doreen |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Make Lemonade
When fourteen-year-old LaVaughn takes a job baby-sitting for seventeen-year-old Jolly's two children, neither girl realizes how much she'll learn from the other. Despite no job, a lousy apartment, and a bleak future, Jolly, with the help of LaVaughn and
Author: Wolff, Virginia Euwer |
|
Maritcha: A Nineteenth Century American GIrl
Based on an unpublished memoir, this picture book tells the story of daily life for a middle-class African American girl in New York in the 19th century. Maps and photographs illustrate the story.
Author: Bolden, Tonya |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Nikola Tesla
This biography of little-known scientist Nikola Tesla recounts his life and work on harnessing and advocating for alternating-current electricity with its many engineering applications that we take for granted. Archival photographs illustrate the text.
Author: Dommermuth-Costa, Carol |
HSE Descriptors:
science
|
Right Word: Roget and His Thesaurus, The
The story of Peter Mark Roget, creator of Roget's Thesaurus complete with his biography, time line of current events and wonderful illustrations. Both Robert F Sibert medal and Caldecott Honor Book.
Author: Bryant, Jen |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | social studies | language arts - writing | science
|
Sea Clocks
The true story of Englishman John Harrison's life-long struggle to win the Longitude Prize is told in a free-verse format. An author's note and a facts page contribute further information.
Author: Borden, Louise |
HSE Descriptors:
science
|
Silver Packages
A man returns to his childhood home in Appalachia to thank the benefactor on the Christmas Train. The story originally appeared in Rylant's book Children of Christmas: Stories for the Season.
Sixteen Years in Sixteen Seconds: The Sammy Lee Story
Faced with discrimination for being Korean-American in the 1930s did not deter Sammy Lee from wanting to become an Olympic diver - a dream he realized with great determination.
Author: Yoo, Paula |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Sixteen Years in Sixteen Seconds: The Sammy Lee Story
Faced with discrimination for being Korean-American in the 1930s did not deter Sammy Lee from wanting to become an Olympic diver - a dream he realized with great determination.
Author: Yoo, Paula |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Steamboat! The Story of Captain Blanche Leathers
The story of Blanche Leathers, the country's first female steamboat captain, sailing on the Mississippi River.
Author: Gilliland, Judith Heide |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Swifter, Higher, Stronger: A Photographic History of the Summer Olympics
This account of Olympics and Olympians through the years is stunningly illustrated with photographs that capture the action and emotion of the events. An appendix of rich detail includes a map and statistics.
Author: Macy, Sue |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Thank You, Sarah: The Woman Who Saved Thanksgiving
After years of lobbying, Sarah Hale, an editor and writer, won the battle to have Thanksgiving declared a national holiday. Back matter includes historical and biographical information. Adults may find the tone of voice and some illustrations childish a
Author: Anderson, Laurie Halse |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Voice That Challenged a Nation, The
A detailed biography of Marian Anderson, an exceedingly talented woman who overcame some racial barriers and tolerated others in order to do what she loved best, recounts how she became involved in the Civil Rights Movement. In addition to wonderful arch
Author: Freedman, Russell |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Woman for President, A: The Story of Victoria Woodhull
Victoria Woodhull, a little-know women's rights activist, overcame many obstacles to become a financial adviser, a newspaper publisher, and an Equal Rights Party candidate for President--in 1872. Check out the end papers and the web site for the Woodhull
Author: Krull, Kathleen |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Young Man and the Sea, The
In an attempt to push his father out of the alcohol-fueled funk he's been in since his wife died, 12-year-old Skiff Beaman repairs the family fishing boat and meets a 900-lb. tuna 30 miles at sea.
Author: Philbrick, Rodman |
|
Young Man and the Sea, The
In an attempt to push his father out of the alcohol-fueled funk he's been in since his wife died, 12-year-old Skiff Beaman repairs the family fishing boat and meets a 900-lb. tuna 30 miles at sea.
Author: Philbrick, Rodman |
|
Emotions-Personal Issues > personal issues > individual > life choices > problem solving
African Princess
Illustrated with paintings, photographs, and artifacts, six biographies tell us about royal African women from Ancient Eygpt to the present: Hatshepsut of Egypt; Njinga of Matamba; Taytu Tetal of Ethiopia; Amina of Zaria; Tata Ajache of Dahomey; and Eliz
Author: Hansen, Joyce |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Angels in the Dust
A poignant story of a family living in the Dust Bowl trying to make ends meet.
Author: Raven, Margot Theis |
HSE Descriptors:
science | social studies
|
Baboon King, The
Set in Africa, this powerful book explores the themes of the importance of community through the exile of Morengaru from his tribe and survival, not against but with nature, in his life with a group of baboons.
Ben Franklin's Almanac
The "scrapbook" format of this biography, explores Ben Franklin's life thematically rather than chronologically, allowing the reader to grasp what a multi-talented person he was. The author includes extensive back matter for further research.
Author: Fleming, Candice |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Black Ships Before Troy
This beautifully illustrated book retells Homer's epic poem The Iliad about the Trojan War. A glossary of names is included.
Author: Sutcliff, Rosemary |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Black Star, Bright Dawn
Bright Dawn, a teenaged Eskimo girl, takes her father's place in the grueling Iditarod, the 1000-mile dogsled race through the cold wilds of Alaska. In the process, she learns about herself, her family, and her culture.
Blanche on the Lam
A spunky African-American woman, who works as a housekeeper for a wealthy southern family with many secrets, must solve a murder in order to clear herself. Blanche relies on her own intelligence and an "old girl" network of domestics. The language is oc
Author: Neely, B. |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Boss of the Plains
The illustrations and text tell how and why the cowboy hat, called the Boss of the Plains, was created by John B. Stetson in 1859. A bibliography and biography extend the usefulness of the book.
Brooklyn Bridge, The
This award winner tells the history of an unusual American family, the history of an important U.S. bridge, and the story of how that bridge was crafted and designed. It ends with a list of statistics and an index.
Author: Mann, Elizabeth |
HSE Descriptors:
science | math
|
Bucking the Sarge
Teenage Luther, who is exploited by his slumlord mother, keeps his equilbrium through many humorous misadventures before finding his own way.
Author: Curtis, Christopher Paul |
|
Can't Get There from Here
This fictional story of homeless teens trying to survive on NYC streets in winter recounts the perils of drugs, sex, starvation, cold, and the help of a few who try to intervene. This is a gripping story, but not for the faint of heart.
Charles and Emma
Charles Darwin's struggles with religious beliefs and his developing theory of evolution are the backdrop for this domestic biography of the Darwins. The author includes a genealogy chart, extensive source notes, a bibliography, and a thorough index.
Author: Heligman, Deborah |
HSE Descriptors:
science
|
Charles and Emma
Charles Darwin's struggles with religious beliefs and his developing theory of evolution are the backdrop for this domestic biography of the Darwins. The author includes a genealogy chart, extensive source notes, a bibliography, and a thorough index.
Author: Heligman, Deborah |
HSE Descriptors:
science
|
Chess Rumble
Since his sister died, Marcus is in trouble all the time at school. Then he meets CM and learns to take control of his life through the game of chess. This book was inspired by inner-city chess enrichment programs.
Chess Rumble
Since his sister died, Marcus is in trouble all the time at school. Then he meets CM and learns to take control of his life through the game of chess. This book was inspired by inner-city chess enrichment programs.
Chuck Close Up Close
This biography of the contemporary artist Chuck Close captures his inventiveness in text and vivid color photographs. An index of illustrations, an essay on portraits, a bibliography, and a list of museums that display the artist's work provide informati
Author: Greenberg, Jan & Jordan, Sandra |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Cloudmakers, The
In A.D. 751 during a time of war, a Chinese grandfather and grandson have 7 days to prove that they can "make clouds" or risk being sold into slavery. The result is Chinese paper, which earns them their freedom and marks a turning point in human history.
Author: Rumford, James |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Dear Mr. President: Abraham Lincoln Letters from a Slave Girl
Fictional correspondences between President Lincoln and a 12-year-old slave girl that discuss his decision to write the Emancipation Proclamation. The author includes a supporting website, index, other recommended books, and photographs.
Author: Pinkney, Andrea Davis |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Dogsong
14-year-old Russel, an Eskimo, feels assailed by the modernity of his life. With the help of a wise elder, Russel learns how (and why) to make a 1400-mile dog run across his country. (Newbery Honor Book)
Author: Paulsen, Gary |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Dragon New Year, The
A beautifully illustrated, imaginative tale about why the Chinese celebrate New Year with firecrackers. A bereaved mother is helped by Buddah to thwart the New Year dragon. The author includes the background information for his created myth.
Family Farm
Two children learn that their family is in danger of losing its farm. They devise a plan for saving it.
Far Beyond the Garden Gate
Don Brown has written another intriguing book about an extraordinary woman, one who perservered in her desire to explore Tibet never seen by a Western woman. An author's note, a bibliography, and a map extend the possibilities of this beautifully illustr
Author: Brown, Don |
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
|
Fly Away Home
A homeless boy and his dad live at the airport while the father tries to find an apartment and a job. They hide out from airport officials but receive support from another down-on-their-luck family.
Forbidden Schoolhouse
With the help of her family and a few powerful friends, Prudence Crandall began a school for African-American girls in Canterbury, Connecticut, in 1833 despite boycotts, vandalism, and legal battles. An appendix provides historical research on the student
Author: Jurmain, Suzanne |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Freedom Walkers
This detailed account of the Montgomery bus boycott that began the Civil Rights Movement includes material on the leadership of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rev. Ralph Abernathy, but also focuses on other heroes like Rev. Robert Graetz, Joanne Robinson and
Author: Freedman, Russell |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Genius of Leonardo, The
Giacomo, a servant of Leonardo da Vinci, recounts the later life of the famous Italian Renaissance painter and inventor. The magnificent illustrations capture sketches, works of art, and daily life and the text includes quotation in italics from the note
Author: Visconti, Guido |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
George Washington Carver
This biography of George Washington Carver, known as the "peanut man," is illustrated with his art work and archival photographs and includes notes, bibliographical resources and an afterword.
Author: Bolden, Tanya |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies | science
|
George Washington Carver
This biography of George Washington Carver, known as the "peanut man," is illustrated with his art work and archival photographs and includes notes, bibliographical resources and an afterword.
Author: Bolden, Tanya |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies | science
|
Gutenberg
This black and white picture book tells the story of Johann Gutenberg, creator of the printing press. It includes a map, time line, and afterword.
Author: Fisher, Leonard Everett |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Hero and the Minotaur, The
This retelling of the Greek hero Theseus' journey to the island of Crete to slay the minotaur and his return to become King of Athens is magnificently illustrated in the style and colors that recall Greek pottery designs. Stylized maps decorate the end
Author: Byrd, Robert |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Holes
This story-within-a-story tells of Stanley Yelnats (and his distant relatives, one of whom "cursed" the family), mistakenly sent to a juvenile corrections camp in Texas. At the corrections camp, Stanley finds a real friend, a treasure, and a new sense of
Into the Volcano
Two brothers face an erupting volcano and a variety of other troubles in their search for their mother.
Into the Volcano
Two brothers face an erupting volcano and a variety of other troubles in their search for their mother.
Invention of Hugo Cabret, The
Part fiction, part graphic novel, this winner of the 2008 Caldecott Medal tells the story of an orphaned boy who maintains and repairs clocks in a Paris train station and discovers the history of an automaton and its maker. When he meets a mysterious toy
Author: Selznick, Brian |
HSE Descriptors:
science | social studies
|
Invisible Allies
Subtitled "Microbes that Shape our Lives," this book uses cheese, chocolate, and bread to explain what microbes are, how they work, and their roles in our lives. The book includes clear photos and a complete glossary of terms.
Author: Farrell, Jeanette |
HSE Descriptors:
science
|
Invisible Enemies
This well-written but long book describes seven deadly diseases--Small Pox, Leprosy, Plague, Tuberculosis, Malaria, Cholera, and AIDS--the epidemics they caused, and the treatments developed by courageous scientists. The author includes a glossary, a bib
Author: Farrell, Jeanette |
HSE Descriptors:
science
|
Journey of the Red Wolf
The author-photographer traces the red wolf from near extinction in 1971 to their current reintroduction into their native habitat. The book includes and Afterword, a list of Where to See Red Wolves, and an Index.
Author: Smith, Roland |
HSE Descriptors:
science
|
Kid Who Invented the Trampoline, The
Here are 50 short expository pieces about inventions. The selections are interesting and easy to read.
Author: Wulffson, Don |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Leonardo daVinci
This fascinating biography of Leonardo daVinci emphasizes his scientific curiosity and observation of the natural world that he recorded in his illustrated notebooks. The author has included very helpful resources: location of the notebooks today; books
Author: Krull, Kathleen |
HSE Descriptors:
science
|
Librarian of Basra, The
A true story of the librarian of Basra, Iraq, who saved the books in the town library during the current war. In an end note, the author brings the reader up-to-date on the librarian.
Longitude Prize, The
This history documents the competition between "ocean clocks" and "lunars" to win the 20,000 pound prize (about $12 million today) from the British Parliament for a replicable and simple way to determine longitude at sea. The story follows John Harrison,
Author: Dash, Joan |
HSE Descriptors:
math | science
|
Luba, the Angel of Bergen-Belsen
This is the story of Luba Tryszynska, a prisoner at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp who hid 52 abandoned Jewish children until the camp was liberated. Front and back matter establish the historical context with a map and a bibliography. An epilogue tel
Author: McCann, Michelle R. |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Man Who Walked Between the Towers, The
The book celebrates in pictures and text Philippe Petit's highwire walk between the Trade Center Towers on Aug. 7, 1974.
Author: Gerstein, Mordicai |
|
Marvelous Mattie
Based on the life of Margaret E. Knight, the book portrays an imaginative girl who overcomes the barriers of poverty and sexism to become an inventor of over 90 inventions with 22 patents. The author's note gives more biographical information while paten
Author: McCully, Emily |
HSE Descriptors:
science
|
Marven of the Great North Woods
Marven's immigrant Russian Jewish family sends him alone by train and by ski to a logging camp in Minnesota to escape the diphtheria epidemic in the city of Duluth. He finds a niche for himself in very different cultural surroundings through the friendsh
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
|
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.
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.
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.
More Spice Than Sugar: Poems about Feisty Females
All the poems in this collection are about women and girls, some famous and some not. The three sections of the book are "When I Am Me," "She's a Winner" (about sports), and "Against the Odds." Work from some famous poets is included.
Author: Morrison, Lillian (comp.) |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies | language arts - reading
|
My Brothers' Flying Machine
This biography of Wilber and Orville Wright is told by their younger sister.
Author: Yolen, Jane |
HSE Descriptors:
science
|
Nobody Particular
A graphic novel format depicts the activist Diane Wilson and her fight against water pollution along the Gulf Coast of Texas. The illustrations contain diagrams to explain problems of pollution.
Author: Bang, Molly |
HSE Descriptors:
science
|
North by Night
Lucy Spencer and her Ohio farm family are involved in the Underground Railroad in 1851, a time when The Fugitive Slave Act levied severe punishment and fines for harboring runaway slaves. Lucy makes a courageous decision that changes her life and that of
Author: Ayres, Katherine |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Number the Stars
In 1943, during the German occupation of Denmark, ten-year-old Annemarie learns how to be brave when she helps shelter her Jewish friend from the Nazis. It is about the power of the Danish Resistance, heroes of a nation, the power of human decency over th
Author: Lowry, Lois |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies | language arts - reading
|
Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place, The
Margaret Rose Kane, 12 years old, escapes oppressive summer camp with the help of her great-uncles and then helps them rescue from urban renewal the sculptural "towers" that they have been creating for 45 years.
Author: Konigsburg, E. L. |
|
Queen of the Falls
An engaging story about the first person to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel - a 63 year old school teacher. Van Allsburg combines sepia toned illustrations with a smooth and flowing text while using tension to hold the reader's interest.
Author: Van Allsburg, Chris |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | social studies
|
Real Benedict Arnold, The
This well-researched biography examines the facts and rumors of the life of the hero, then traitor, Benedict Arnold against the background of the Continental Congress and the Revolutionary War. Maps and portraits illustrate the text. End notes, sources,
Author: Murphy, Jim |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Roanoke
Based on extensive research, this book explores the political intrigue surrounding the disappearance of the first American colony at Roanoke, in what is now North Carolina. The suspenseful text is supplemented with archival photographs and paintings, a t
Author: Miller, Lee |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Ruth and the Green Book
An easy narrative about travel in this country by car for African Americans in the 50s and 60s. Ruth's story is fiction, but the "The Negro Motorist Green Book" and its role in helping a generation of African American travelers avoid some of the indigniti
Author: Ramsey, Calvin A. |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | social studies
|
Same Stuff as Stars, The
Angel and her little brother Bernie are dropped off at their great-grandma's house. Dad is in jail, and mom is an alcoholic and selfishly unable to be a mother. Together, the new family learns to live together in the crumbling Vermont farmhouse.
Author: Paterson, Katherine |
|
Sea Clocks
The true story of Englishman John Harrison's life-long struggle to win the Longitude Prize is told in a free-verse format. An author's note and a facts page contribute further information.
Author: Borden, Louise |
HSE Descriptors:
science
|
shadow spinner
1
Author: fletcher, susan |
HSE Descriptors:
literature and arts | literature and arts | literature and arts | literature and arts | literature and arts
|
Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World
On an expedition to cross Antarctica, Ernest Shackleton and his crew lost their ship in the ice flow. Shackleton and five others left in small boats to get help. This is a higher reading level version of Spirit of Endurance by the same author.
Author: Armstrong, Jennifer |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Sigmund Freud
This biography introduces the history of the study of the physical and emotional aspects of the mind as well as the colorful life of Sigmund Freud. Additional resources include an appendix, a bibliography, web sites, and an index.
Author: Krull, Kathleen |
HSE Descriptors:
science
|
Snowflake Bentley
This is a biography of Wilson Bentley, a scientist who photographed thousands of snowflakes in order to study their formations. Additional information is presented in sidebars throughout the book.
Author: Martin, Jacqueline Briggs |
HSE Descriptors:
science
|
Something out of Nothing: Marie Curie and Radiation
This is a very readable biography of Marie Curie and her discovery of radiation.
Author: McClafferty, Carla |
HSE Descriptors:
science
|
Spirit of Endurance
The book employs maps, archival photographs, blueprints, and paintings to tell the exciting story of Ernest Shackleton's rescue of his men on his expedition in Antarctica when their boat, The Endurance, was destroyed in an ice floe. The author includes a
Author: Armstrong, Jennifer |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Talking With Adventurers
Several National Geographic scientists/explorers are interviewed in a Q & A format. What makes the book such an interesting read is how they see themselves and their work. The book offers maps, fabulous photographs, and contact information for particip
Author: Cummings, Pat and Linda, (compilers) |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies | science
|
Team Moon
This fact-filled book commemorates the achievement of 400,00 people of "team moon" who were responsible for the first walk in space in July, 1969. Color photographs, biographies, annotated source material, websites for further information, a glossary, a
Author: Thimmesh, Catherine |
HSE Descriptors:
science
|
To Fly
In short 2-3 page chapers with delightful watercolor illustrations, the narrative traces the Wright bothers' step-by-step evolution as aviation engineers. The author provides a timeline, a bibliography, notes, and an index.
Author: Old, Wendie |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies | science
|
Veil of Snows, The
In the absence of her husband who has not returned from battle, the queen prepares her city for assault. Aided by a small force of loyal soldiers and the Singer of Tales who narrates the story, the queen escapes the besieged city and heads for the safety
Author: Helprin, Mark |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | social studies
|
War, The
A young prince, who dislikes war, cleverly provides an alternative to fighting.
Washington at Valley Forge
In Freedman's inimitable style, he captures the grit and triumphs over the lack of provisions for General Washington's winter encampment at Valley Forge during the Revolutionary War. Excellent and unfamiliar paintings of Washington accompany the text. Th
Author: Freedman, Russell |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
We Are One: The Story of Bayard Rustin
Bayard Rustin's biography not only emphasizes his well-known role as advisor and organizer to leadership in the Civil Rights Movement but expands our view with his activities as speaker, singer, actor, artist, and non-violent activist. This biography pro
Author: Brimner, Larry Dane |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Weave of Words, A
A young king uses his literacy and weaving skills to send a message to the queen who frees him from his captors. The copyright page contains information on the origins of this Armenian tale.
Author: San Souci, Robert |
|
Well, The
Set in Mississippi in the early 1900's, African American David Logan and his family share their well with blacks and whites in their community which leads to racial violence.
What Jamie Saw
The power and lyricism of this remarkable book is evident in the opening sentence. "When Jamie saw him throw the baby, saw Van throw the little baby, saw Van throw his little sister Nin, when Jamie saw Van throw his baby sister Nin, then they moved." Jam
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.
Wolf on the Fold
Six linked storeis follow an Australian family from 1935 to 2002 as different generations cope with discord and violence. The use of flashbacks may cause some readers difficulty.
Words West: Voices of Young Pioneers
Diary and journal excerpts and archival photographs enliven a well-written text about the Westward Movement as seen from the perspective of children. The book includes short biographies of the children who are quoted often as well as a chronology, furthe
Author: Wadsworth, Ginger |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Written in Bones
This thoroughly researched book explores human history through the study of bones. Maps, photographs, and archival materials illustrate the text. The text is complex and the print small.
Author: Bahn, Paul |
HSE Descriptors:
science | social studies
|
Young Man and the Sea, The
In an attempt to push his father out of the alcohol-fueled funk he's been in since his wife died, 12-year-old Skiff Beaman repairs the family fishing boat and meets a 900-lb. tuna 30 miles at sea.
Author: Philbrick, Rodman |
|
Young Man and the Sea, The
In an attempt to push his father out of the alcohol-fueled funk he's been in since his wife died, 12-year-old Skiff Beaman repairs the family fishing boat and meets a 900-lb. tuna 30 miles at sea.
Author: Philbrick, Rodman |
|
Emotions-Personal Issues > personal issues > individual > life choices > regret
Leonardo's Horse
Contemporary sculptors completed the horse that Leonardo da Vinci began but never finished.
Author: Fritz, Jean |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Nellie Bly
This biography recounts the life of the woman who opened up the field of journalism to women through her undercover investigative reporting during the turn of the century through WW I.
Author: Fredeen, Charles |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Sarah's Key
The story of the roundup of the Jews in France during WWII. A heart-wrenching look at the infamous collaboration of French officials with the Nazis It is told through two people: a 10-year-old Jewish girl and an American journalist 60 years later.
Author: de Rosnay, Tatiana |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies | language arts - reading
|
Wolf on the Fold
Six linked storeis follow an Australian family from 1935 to 2002 as different generations cope with discord and violence. The use of flashbacks may cause some readers difficulty.
Emotions-Personal Issues > personal issues > individual > life choices > righting wrongs
Alia's Mission
This graphic storybook/graphic novel is based on the true story of the chief librarian at the Central Library in Basra, Iraq. It tells the story of how she tried to save the books from destruction during the Iraq War.
Author: Stamaty, Mark Alan |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies | language arts - reading
|
Amelia to Zora: Twenty-Six Women Who Changed the World
Minute biographies of 26 illustrious women with quotes from each. Discover woman who have changed people's lives and read about their childhood, hardships and successes to inspire girls and women of all ages.
Author: Chin-Lee, Cynthia |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Amelia to Zora: Twenty-Six Women Who Changed the World
Minute biographies of 26 illustrious women with quotes from each. Discover woman who have changed people's lives and read about their childhood, hardships and successes to inspire girls and women of all ages.
Author: Chin-Lee, Cynthia |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
As Good as Anybody
Martin Luther King Jr. and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, who had both experienced discrimination, joined forces in the Civil Rights Movement.
Author: Michelson, Richard |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Bad News for Outlaws: The Remarkable Life of Bass Reeves, Deputy U.S. Marshal
The life of Bass Reeves, from slavery to US marshal, the most feared and respected lawman in the territories. This is a story of a remarkable African-American hero of the Old West. Actual photos, western vocabulary, timeline,further reading/websites, res
Author: Nelson, Vaunda Micheaux |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Bad News for Outlaws: The Remarkable Life of Bass Reeves, Deputy U.S. Marshal
The life of Bass Reeves, from slavery to US marshal, the most feared and respected lawman in the territories. This is a story of a remarkable African-American hero of the Old West. Actual photos, western vocabulary, timeline,further reading/websites, res
Author: Nelson, Vaunda Micheaux |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Black Pioneers
This well-researched history of African American pioneers, freedom fighters, and participants in the Underground Railroad tells little known stories of brave people who settled the midwest against great odds. The book contains archival photographs, a map
Author: Katz, William Loren |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Bread and Roses, Too.
This is a fictionalized history of the 1912 Lawrence, Massachusetts, factory strike. The main characters are two children, a girl whose family is active in the strike, and a homeless boy. Aspects of the strike itself and of outsiders' attempts to help the
Author: Paterson, Katherine |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Bucking the Sarge
Teenage Luther, who is exploited by his slumlord mother, keeps his equilbrium through many humorous misadventures before finding his own way.
Author: Curtis, Christopher Paul |
|
Dear One, The
15-year-old, pregnant Rebecca arrives at her mother's college friend's house to await the birth of her baby. She and others in the house learn to embrace differences and develop friendships.
Author: Woodson, Jacqueline |
|
Dream of Freedom, A
This well written and comprehensive documentation of the Civil Rights Movement, its background, issues, and confrontations is told by a white Southern woman of privilege who grew up during that period. Photographs and fact boxes, index, bibliography, and
Author: McWhorter, Diane |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Eleanor
This biography of Eleanor Roosevelt's early life conveys the emotionally impoverished childhood amid wealth and power. The book captures the indomitable spirit of the woman who would become the greatest and most beloved First Lady and a leader in her own
Author: Cooney, Barbara |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Eleanor Roosevelt
Freedman relates this biography of Eleanor Roosevelt with the interest of suspense fiction which is accompanied by extensive archival photographs. The book traces her evolution from a shy young girl from an unhappy home to America's most acclaimed First
Author: Freedman, Russell |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Eleanor, Quiet No More
The author tells the story of Eleanor Roosevelt's life simply, each phase emphasizing a quote of hers. In addition to lovely, soft illustrations, the author includes a timeline, selected bibliograph, and web sites.
Author: Rappaport, Doreen |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Eleanor, Quiet No More
The author tells the story of Eleanor Roosevelt's life simply, each phase emphasizing a quote of hers. In addition to lovely, soft illustrations, the author includes a timeline, selected bibliograph, and web sites.
Author: Rappaport, Doreen |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Fiery Vision: The Life and Death of John Brown
Brown is one of the controversial figures in American history who continues today to evoke both anger and admiration. This gripping biography of John Brown, abolitionist and crusader for equality of races, describes the events of his life that led to Har
Author: Cox, Clinton |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Fiery Vision: The Life and Death of John Brown
Brown is one of the controversial figures in American history who continues today to evoke both anger and admiration. This gripping biography of John Brown, abolitionist and crusader for equality of races, describes the events of his life that led to Har
Author: Cox, Clinton |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Firefly Letters: A Suffragette's Journey to Cuba, The
This powerful book shares the plight of women and slavery in Cuba, a beautiful, lush island with many ugly truths. The early feminist, Fredrika Bremer, travels from Denmark to record life in this society and finds a great deal of prejudice and wrongs. Dur
Author: Engle, Margarita |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies | language arts - reading
|
Francie
This engaging novel shows a slice of life in small-town Alabama in the 1940s, as told from the perspective of 13-year-old Francie. Francie, her mother, and her brother anxiously await a chance to join her father in Chicago. In the meantime, Francie comes
Freedom Riders
This book, illustrated with historical photographs, tells the story of two young men, one white and one black, whose common goal in life is to bring equality between the races. Their story is set during the historic freedom rides of the Civil Rights Move
Author: Bausum, Ann |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Friend on Freedom River
This is the story of young Louis, who decides to do what his father would do and help runaway slaves make it across the Detroit River to Canada.
Author: Whelan, Gloria |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Harvesting Hope: The Story of Cesar Chavez
This is a picture biography of Cesar Chavez. It focuses on his childhood and initial efforts at organizing farm workers in the mid-60s, creating The National Form Workers Association.
Author: Krull, Kathleen |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Heavenly Village, The
This is subtitled "A Novel," but it's really more a loosely connected set of short stories, all of which take place in the "Heavenly Village," a place for those who have died but are not quite yet ready to leave earth behind. (Note: religious overtones, i
Author: Rylant, Cynthia |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Hero Beowulf, The
This prose retelling of the first part of the earliest poem in English (Anglo Saxon, actually) has strong, vibrant illustrations and helpful supplementary material.
Author: Kimmel, Eric A. |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Martin's Big Words
Brief and easy-to-read biographical statements are accompanied by MLK's words and award-winning illustrations. An abbreviated Civil Rights chronology and bibliography conclude the book.
Author: Rappaport, Doreen |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Monster
16-year-old Steve Harmon is on trial for murder. This riveting book tells his story in the form of his journals and a film script he is writing.
Author: Myers, Walter Dean |
|
Nobody Particular
A graphic novel format depicts the activist Diane Wilson and her fight against water pollution along the Gulf Coast of Texas. The illustrations contain diagrams to explain problems of pollution.
Author: Bang, Molly |
HSE Descriptors:
science
|
Number the Stars
In 1943, during the German occupation of Denmark, ten-year-old Annemarie learns how to be brave when she helps shelter her Jewish friend from the Nazis. It is about the power of the Danish Resistance, heroes of a nation, the power of human decency over th
Author: Lowry, Lois |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies | language arts - reading
|
Only Passing Through
Strong illustrations help tell this biography of Sojourner Truth. An Author's Note updates the relevance of Sojourner Truth and provides a helpful timeline.
Author: Rockwell, Anne |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Rosa
Giovanni tells the story of Rosa Parks' infamous bus ride. In the telling, the author speaks to the strength of the African-American community in their struggle for equal rights. The author weaves other tales (Emmett Till) into the story to give the rea
Author: Giovanni, Nikki |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Si, Se Puede (Yes, We Can!)
Text in both English and Spanish on each page tells the story of a mother who becomes active in union organization. This story is based on the 2000 janitors' strike in Los Angeles. An essay by Luis J. Rodriguez describes a real-life activist whose goals a
Author: Cohn, Diana |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Sir Gawain & the Green Knight
The author retells this famous tale of one of the knights of King Arthur's famous Roundtable, in which Gawain accepts a challenge of a giant green knight that leads to further trials at the end of one year. Vivid illustrations contribute to the sense of
Author: Morpurgo, Michael |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Somewhere In the Darkness
Jimmy, a teenager, lives in the city with Mama Jean. Then he meets Crab, a "man with something to prove. Maybe Crab's not sure what it is; maybe Jimmy's not sure he wants to know. But it may be the last chance Crab has to tell Jimmy who he was, and who
Author: Myers, Walter Dean |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Sundiata
With roots in the 13th Century history of Mali in West Central Africa, the legend of Sundiata and how he gains the kingship prophesied at his birth is illustrated with exquisite cut paper artwork. Historical facts are included in the endmatter and a beau
Author: Wisniewski, David |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Touching Spirit Bear
Cole, a juvenile "delinquent," is offered jail or "circle justice," a system based on Native American traditions that attempts to provide healing for the criminal, his victim, and the community. Cole's time at a remote Alaskan island and his interactions
When Harriet Met Sojourner
The author imagines the meeting of two brave activists for the freeing of slaves --Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman when they were in Boston in 1864. The story is told with the aid of very powerful artwork.
Author: Clinton, Catherine |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Women of Hope
The author wrote essays on thirteen African American women to accompany photographs of the Bread and Roses Cultural Project. The essays feature inspiring women who exhibited courage in overcoming barriers of race and gender in fighting for rights we all
Author: Hansen, Joyce |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Wreath for Emmett Till, A
Told in a poetic form known as heroic crown sonnets, the thoughtfully illustrated poem causes the reader to experience the murder of 14 year old Emmett Till in Mississippi. The author provides an introduction to the poetic form, biographical information
Author: Nelson, Marilyn |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies | language arts - reading
|
Emotions-Personal Issues > personal issues > individual > life choices > sacrifice
9-11 Artists Respond: Volume One
Over 100 graphic artists draw their reactions to the 9-ll attack on the World Trade Center. There are as many styles and points-of-view as artists. Although graphic in nature, some texts would be difficult for beginning readers due to size and type face
Author: No author cited |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Buddha
The beautifully illustrated story of how the young prince Siddhartha became a Buddha.
Author: Demi |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Buddha
The beautifully illustrated story of how the young prince Siddhartha became a Buddha.
Author: Demi |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Coal Miner's Bride, A: The Diary of Anetka Kaminska
In journal format, the life of a thirteen year old girl in 1896 comes to life. Anetra Kaminska is sold to an older widower of three children in a mining town, for the price of her and her brother's tickets from Poland to America. Her life is extremely ha
Author: Bartoletti, Susan Campbell |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | language arts - writing | social studies
|
Hitler Youth
By following a dozen German youth, the author examines the attraction and occasionally the resistance of the role of the Hitler youth movement in Nazi Germany. The author includes additional material for further exploration.
Author: Bartoletti, Susan Campbell |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies | language arts - reading | science
|
Joan of Arc
The author weaves together historical fact and fiction in the story of a modern French girl who idolizes Joan of Arc. An historical map and beautiful illustrations enhance the stories.
Author: Morpurgo, Michael |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
My Sister's Keeper
Set in modern day Rhode Island, this novel tells the story of two sisters: Kate, the elder sister, has a rare form of leukemia and Anna, the younger sister, was conceived as a bone marrow donor for her sister. This book deals with medical and moral ethics
Nazi Olympics, The
Published by the U. S. National Holocaust Museum, this history documents the manipulation of the 1936 Olympics in Berlin by Hitler and the Nazi party and presents the controversy of whether to participate or not on the part of nations and individuals. Ar
Author: Bachrach, Susan |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
One Thousand Tracings: Healing the Wounds of World War II
One family in the USA begins an effort to help those in Europe suffering from the aftermath of WWII by sending shoes and other needed supplies.
Author: Judge, Lita |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
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
|
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
|
Veil of Snows, The
In the absence of her husband who has not returned from battle, the queen prepares her city for assault. Aided by a small force of loyal soldiers and the Singer of Tales who narrates the story, the queen escapes the besieged city and heads for the safety
Author: Helprin, Mark |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | social studies
|
Emotions-Personal Issues > personal issues > individual > life choices > second chances
Birches
On each page Ed Young illustrates trees and forests and the countryside, in browns and sepia tones, and presents them along with several lines of Robert Frost's well-known poem, "Birches." The poem is printed in its entirety again on the last two pages.
Author: Frost, Robert |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Chance of Sunshine, A
The pictures tell most of the story in this almost-wordless book. Two people chance to meet, become separated, and eventually find their way back together.
Dear One, The
15-year-old, pregnant Rebecca arrives at her mother's college friend's house to await the birth of her baby. She and others in the house learn to embrace differences and develop friendships.
Author: Woodson, Jacqueline |
|
Dog Lost
An eleven-year old boy and pit bull terrier become best of friends. In an angry rage, the father throws the dog out into the street and the dog is forced to survive. Eventually the boy and his dog are reunited but not before the dog becomes a local hero
Author: Lee, Ingrid |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Gowanus Dogs
A homeless man meets some homeless dogs. The meeting changes everyone's life.
Hammerin' Hank Grenberg: Baseball Pioneer
The story of Hank Greenberg, first Jewish ballplayer inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Sommer explores the world of baseball as it became more inclusive and gives details of how Greenberg was an exceptional player.
Author: Sommer, Shelley |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies | language arts - reading
|
Heavenly Village, The
This is subtitled "A Novel," but it's really more a loosely connected set of short stories, all of which take place in the "Heavenly Village," a place for those who have died but are not quite yet ready to leave earth behind. (Note: religious overtones, i
Author: Rylant, Cynthia |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Hired Hand, The
When Old Sam hires a new hand to work at the sawmill, the hired hand teaches Sam's lazy son a lesson when the son tries to con an old man. Retold from an oral African American tale, the story is beautifully illustrated by Jerry Pinkney.
Author: San Souci, R. |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Noah's Ark
Well-known author-illustrator Jerry Pinkney retells the story of Noah and the ark that survives the flooding of the earth in a simple narrative and wonderfully detailed pictures.
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 |
|
Riding the Tiger
This is an allegory that features a bored, lonely 10-year-old's who is offered a ride by an exciting and somewhat scary tiger and discovers that it is easier to get on the tiger than to get off.
Author: Bunting, Eve |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | social studies
|
Same Stuff as Stars, The
Angel and her little brother Bernie are dropped off at their great-grandma's house. Dad is in jail, and mom is an alcoholic and selfishly unable to be a mother. Together, the new family learns to live together in the crumbling Vermont farmhouse.
Author: Paterson, Katherine |
|
Touching Spirit Bear
Cole, a juvenile "delinquent," is offered jail or "circle justice," a system based on Native American traditions that attempts to provide healing for the criminal, his victim, and the community. Cole's time at a remote Alaskan island and his interactions
What Jamie Saw
The power and lyricism of this remarkable book is evident in the opening sentence. "When Jamie saw him throw the baby, saw Van throw the little baby, saw Van throw his little sister Nin, when Jamie saw Van throw his baby sister Nin, then they moved." Jam
Emotions-Personal Issues > personal issues > individual > life choices > taking risks
Alice Ramsey's Grand Adventure
Alice Ramsey and three other women face floods, mud, and travel without maps as they drive from New York to San Francisco--in 1909. The charming watercolors add realistic humor to the narrative.
Author: Brown, Don |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Amelia Lost: The Life and Disappearance of Amelia Earhart
Informative account of Amelia Earhart's life and death, separating fact from fiction. A leader in women's rights, Amelia was an independent woman who proved women could fly! But, could she have done it without male support? Bibliography and source notes
Author: Fleming,Candace |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | social studies
|
Ann and Seamus
This story of a real event in 1828 alternates chapters in free verse of the two characters of the title. Ann, a real teenager, wants to experience the world beyond Newfoundland, and Seamus, a fictional Irish immigrant, wants to find fortune and a wife.
Author: Major, Kevin |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | social studies
|
Anne Frank
If you wonder why read another book on Anne Frank, look at this beautifully and realistically illustrated story that simply relates the political situation and gives the characters more three-dimensional personalities. A chronology in the end papers adds
Author: Poole, Josephine |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Anne Frank
If you wonder why read another book on Anne Frank, look at this beautifully and realistically illustrated story that simply relates the political situation and gives the characters more three-dimensional personalities. A chronology in the end papers adds
Author: Poole, Josephine |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Antarctica: Journeys to the South Pole
This non-fiction, photographic picture book tells the history of the Antarctic. The pictures are all accompanied by true stories of heroism and adventure.
Author: Myers, Walter Dean |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies | language arts - writing | language arts - reading
|
Bearing Witness
This selection of powerful personal stories of the Holocaust in various literary and artistic forms gives testimony of the extraordinary bravery of ordinary people. A map of concentration camps, a bibliography, and brief introductory notes for each excer
Author: Rochman, Hazel & McCampbell, Darlene (Eds.) |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Big Mouth and Ugly Girl
In this engrossing 266-page book, Matt, age 17, is falsely accused of trying to blow up his high school. His friends desert him, but a girl who calls herself "Ugly Girl" befriends him, and together they weather public opinion, the police, parents, teache
Author: Oates, Joyce Carol |
|
Black Pioneers
This well-researched history of African American pioneers, freedom fighters, and participants in the Underground Railroad tells little known stories of brave people who settled the midwest against great odds. The book contains archival photographs, a map
Author: Katz, William Loren |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Blanche on the Lam
A spunky African-American woman, who works as a housekeeper for a wealthy southern family with many secrets, must solve a murder in order to clear herself. Blanche relies on her own intelligence and an "old girl" network of domestics. The language is oc
Author: Neely, B. |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Breadwinner, The
This coming-of-age story, told from the point of view of a young Afghan girl left to fend for her family in the times of repressive Taliban influence is both moving and suspenseful.
Author: Ellis, Deborah |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Breadwinner, The
This coming-of-age story, told from the point of view of a young Afghan girl left to fend for her family in the times of repressive Taliban influence is both moving and suspenseful.
Author: Ellis, Deborah |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Chuck Close Up Close
This biography of the contemporary artist Chuck Close captures his inventiveness in text and vivid color photographs. An index of illustrations, an essay on portraits, a bibliography, and a list of museums that display the artist's work provide informati
Author: Greenberg, Jan & Jordan, Sandra |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Daisy Bates: Civil Rights Crusader
Although she is best known for shepherding the "Little Rock Nine" through the dangers and stresses of the first school integration test, Daisy Bates pursued a life of community crusading despite obstacles and personal difficulties before and after Little
Author: Polakow, Amy |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Escape from Slavery: The Boyhood of Frederick Douglass in His Own Words
This edited and illustrated book provides generous excerpts from Douglass's Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. No textbook description of slavery could have even a tiny portion of the power of this chilling account.
Author: McCurdy, Michael (Ed.) |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Far Beyond the Garden Gate
Don Brown has written another intriguing book about an extraordinary woman, one who perservered in her desire to explore Tibet never seen by a Western woman. An author's note, a bibliography, and a map extend the possibilities of this beautifully illustr
Author: Brown, Don |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Finding Lincoln
Louis needs to write an essay but in Alabama in 1951, he's not allowed in the "whites only" library. Lewis solves his dilemma with bravery and the help of a kind librarian. Historical notes are included at the end of the story.
Author: Malaspina, Ann |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Finding Lincoln
Louis needs to write an essay but in Alabama in 1951, he's not allowed in the "whites only" library. Lewis solves his dilemma with bravery and the help of a kind librarian. Historical notes are included at the end of the story.
Author: Malaspina, Ann |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Fire in Their Eyes
Color photographs and lively text follow a group of special wildfire firefighters called "hotshots" through training to their drop by parachute into wildfire zones.
Author: Biel, Karen |
HSE Descriptors:
science
|
Flight
This beautifully illustrated book tells the story of Lindbergh's daring flight over the Atlantic in 1927. It opens with a brief historical note by author Jean Fritz.
Author: Burleigh, Robert |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Forbidden Schoolhouse
With the help of her family and a few powerful friends, Prudence Crandall began a school for African-American girls in Canterbury, Connecticut, in 1833 despite boycotts, vandalism, and legal battles. An appendix provides historical research on the student
Author: Jurmain, Suzanne |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Freedom on the Menu
The author portrays the 1960's Civil Rights sit-ins at the Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina through the eyes of a young Southern black girls. Richly muted paintings illustrate the story.
Author: Weatherford, Carole Boston |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Freedom Riders
This book, illustrated with historical photographs, tells the story of two young men, one white and one black, whose common goal in life is to bring equality between the races. Their story is set during the historic freedom rides of the Civil Rights Move
Author: Bausum, Ann |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Freedom River
In this true story, John Parker, an ex-slave in Ripley, Ohio, helps a family on the Underground Railroad. Beautiful watercolor collages illustrate the story. Historical notes, additional books, suggested websites, and maps make this useful in the classr
Author: Rappaport, Doreen |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Friend on Freedom River
This is the story of young Louis, who decides to do what his father would do and help runaway slaves make it across the Detroit River to Canada.
Author: Whelan, Gloria |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Gandhi
The remarkable life of Mahatma Gandhi is told through simple text and beautiful Moghul-inspired illustrations. An author's note includes additional information and maps locate the principle places involved in his life.
Author: Demi |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Hero and the Minotaur, The
This retelling of the Greek hero Theseus' journey to the island of Crete to slay the minotaur and his return to become King of Athens is magnificently illustrated in the style and colors that recall Greek pottery designs. Stylized maps decorate the end
Author: Byrd, Robert |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Hoot
This charming and funny young adult mystery by the well-known adult mystery writer, Carl Hiassen, involves corporate greed, suburban expansion, environmental protection, child abuse and neglect, bullying, and social protest.
Into the Volcano
Two brothers face an erupting volcano and a variety of other troubles in their search for their mother.
Into the Volcano
Two brothers face an erupting volcano and a variety of other troubles in their search for their mother.
Invisible Enemies
This well-written but long book describes seven deadly diseases--Small Pox, Leprosy, Plague, Tuberculosis, Malaria, Cholera, and AIDS--the epidemics they caused, and the treatments developed by courageous scientists. The author includes a glossary, a bib
Author: Farrell, Jeanette |
HSE Descriptors:
science
|
Let It Shine
These ten essays on African American women introduce well-know and some lesser known freedom fighters. The colorful illustrations, the informative text, and the chatty tone will attract readers. The author's introducation and suggestions for further read
Author: Pinkney, Andrea |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Librarian of Basra, The
A true story of the librarian of Basra, Iraq, who saved the books in the town library during the current war. In an end note, the author brings the reader up-to-date on the librarian.
Lily Cupboard, The
A Dutch farm family hides a Jewish girl, who in turn wants to protect a rabbit.
Author: Oppenheim, Shulamith L. |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Luba, the Angel of Bergen-Belsen
This is the story of Luba Tryszynska, a prisoner at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp who hid 52 abandoned Jewish children until the camp was liberated. Front and back matter establish the historical context with a map and a bibliography. An epilogue tel
Author: McCann, Michelle R. |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Man Who Walked Between the Towers, The
The book celebrates in pictures and text Philippe Petit's highwire walk between the Trade Center Towers on Aug. 7, 1974.
Author: Gerstein, Mordicai |
|
Moses
The author's note describes this book on Harriet Tubman as a "fictionalized spiritual journey" comparing her answering the call of God to lead her people out of slavery to Moses leading the Israelites out of bondage in Egypt. The author includes a forewo
Author: Weatherford, Carole |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
My Freedom Trip: A Child's Escape from North Korea
This story describes the flight of a young girl from North to South Korea just before the outbreak of the Korean War. The story is told simply with superb illustrations.
Author: Park, Frances and Park, Ginger |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | social studies
|
Nellie Bly
This biography recounts the life of the woman who opened up the field of journalism to women through her undercover investigative reporting during the turn of the century through WW I.
Author: Fredeen, Charles |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
North by Night
Lucy Spencer and her Ohio farm family are involved in the Underground Railroad in 1851, a time when The Fugitive Slave Act levied severe punishment and fines for harboring runaway slaves. Lucy makes a courageous decision that changes her life and that of
Author: Ayres, Katherine |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
North Star to Freedom
This book is subtitled "The Story of the Underground Railroad," and it is that, but it's also more-- the history of slavery is presented, biographies of key figures are provided, lesislation is discussed. The author is Canadian, so this provides an intere
Author: Gorrell, Gena K. |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Only Passing Through
Strong illustrations help tell this biography of Sojourner Truth. An Author's Note updates the relevance of Sojourner Truth and provides a helpful timeline.
Author: Rockwell, Anne |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Parvana's Journey
Disguised as a boy, Parvana rescues a baby and joins with a young boy as she travels through war-torn Afghanistan searching for her family. The telling of the story through the child's perspective allows the reader to approach a sensitive current event an
Author: Ellis, Deborah |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Picture Book of Jesse Owens, A
This very readable biography tells the life story of Jesse Owens, the 1936 Olympic star, and the prejudice he combated throughout his life. The book ends with a page of notes and a page of dates.
Author: Adler, David |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Queen of the Falls
An engaging story about the first person to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel - a 63 year old school teacher. Van Allsburg combines sepia toned illustrations with a smooth and flowing text while using tension to hold the reader's interest.
Author: Van Allsburg, Chris |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | social studies
|
Real Benedict Arnold, The
This well-researched biography examines the facts and rumors of the life of the hero, then traitor, Benedict Arnold against the background of the Continental Congress and the Revolutionary War. Maps and portraits illustrate the text. End notes, sources,
Author: Murphy, Jim |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Riding the Tiger
This is an allegory that features a bored, lonely 10-year-old's who is offered a ride by an exciting and somewhat scary tiger and discovers that it is easier to get on the tiger than to get off.
Author: Bunting, Eve |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | social studies
|
Rosa
Giovanni tells the story of Rosa Parks' infamous bus ride. In the telling, the author speaks to the strength of the African-American community in their struggle for equal rights. The author weaves other tales (Emmett Till) into the story to give the rea
Author: Giovanni, Nikki |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Ruth Law Thrills a Nation
The author recounts in easy text and wondrful watercolor illustrations the 1919 flight of Ruth Law from Chicago to New York.
Author: Don Brown |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies | language arts - writing
|
School for Pompey Walker, A
At the dedication of a school named for him, Pompey Walker tells how he and a white friend, Jeremiah, raised money to build a school for ex-slave children. With the help of his friend, Pompey allows himself to be sold over and over again, escaping each t
Author: Rosen, Michael J. |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
She Would Not Be Moved
Kohl tells the historically correct version of the Montgomery Bus Boycott and Rosa Park's role in it. This revised biography of Rosa Parks stresses her activist background and the violent environment of racism to counter the prevailing picture of her as a
Author: Kohl, Herbert |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Sky Pioneer
This biography of American aviatrix Amelia Earhart traces her interest in aviation from childhood to her disappearance on a round-the-world flight in 1937. Photographs, journal entries, maps, a chronology, an afterword, a bibliography, and an index sugge
Author: Szabo, Corinne |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Sold
Lakshmi is a thirteen-year-old girl who lives with her family in a village in Nepal. Her stepfather sells her into sexual slavery and her life of prostitution begins in a large city in India. The book is written in short paragraphs, sentences, and phrases
Author: McCormick, Patricia |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies | language arts - reading
|
Speak
This compelling story recounts Melinda's freshman year in high school. She is an outcast because she called the police to an end-of-the-summer party. Her reasons for doing this and her gradual emotional acceptance and psychological healing are the focus o
Steamboat! The Story of Captain Blanche Leathers
The story of Blanche Leathers, the country's first female steamboat captain, sailing on the Mississippi River.
Author: Gilliland, Judith Heide |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Team Moon
This fact-filled book commemorates the achievement of 400,00 people of "team moon" who were responsible for the first walk in space in July, 1969. Color photographs, biographies, annotated source material, websites for further information, a glossary, a
Author: Thimmesh, Catherine |
HSE Descriptors:
science
|
They Called Her Molly Pitcher
This is an historical/legendary account of Molly "Pitcher" Hays McCauly, who followed her husband to fight in the Revolutionary War and was made a sergeant by General Washington for her courage and bravery. A biography and timeline accompany the colorful
Author: Rockwell, Anne |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
We've Got a Job: The 1963 Birmingham Children's March
Tells the story of the Birmingham Children's March through four participants. As the events unfold, the different perspectives and motivations of the participants shed light on the dynamics of the civil rights movement. In addition to the personal stori
Author: Levinson, Cynthia |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | social studies
|
Wideness and Wonder: The Life and Art of Georgia O'Keeffe
Factual, informative account of Georgia O'Keeffe's interesting journey from farm girl to artist and her stubborn dedication to making art her own way. Illustrated with her works and Alfred Stieglitz's photographs of her. Excellent reference for artists.
Author: Rubin, Susan Goldman |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | language arts - writing | social studies
|
Women of Hope
The author wrote essays on thirteen African American women to accompany photographs of the Bread and Roses Cultural Project. The essays feature inspiring women who exhibited courage in overcoming barriers of race and gender in fighting for rights we all
Author: Hansen, Joyce |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Emotions-Personal Issues > personal issues > individual > morality
Borning Room, The
The narrator remembers growing up in southern Ohio in the 19th century, remembers farm life, celebrates her relatives with their varying ideas about slavery and religion, remembers her part in hiding slaves.
Author: Fleischman, Paul |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Heavenly Village, The
This is subtitled "A Novel," but it's really more a loosely connected set of short stories, all of which take place in the "Heavenly Village," a place for those who have died but are not quite yet ready to leave earth behind. (Note: religious overtones, i
Author: Rylant, Cynthia |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Houdini: The Handcuff King
This graphic novel presents a possible explanation for the success of one of Houdini's famous escapes.
Author: Lutes, Jason & Bertozzi, Nick |
|
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 |
|
Emotions-Personal Issues > personal issues > individual > physical issues
Heart is Big Enough, The
Each of these five stories focuses on a protagonist with special challenges who is approaching adolescence. As author Steven Kellogg notes on the dust jacket, these stories "bring illumination and enjoyment to those of us who have already passed through"
Piano Starts Here
This wonderfully illustrated picture book reads in the first person like a reminiscence, but actually was written long after jazz pianist Art Tatum died. It tells the story of his childhood, his family,his terrible eyesight, and his journey to success. T
Author: Parker, Robert Andrew |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies | language arts - reading
|
Strongest Man in the World, The: Louis Cyr
The text of this book goes far beyond just being the biography of a famous 20th century strong man, Louis Cyr. It is a description of early health mores and an evolution of the circus concept. Additionally, we learn a little about the other famous circus
Author: Debon, Nicolas |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Emotions-Personal Issues > personal issues > individual > physical issues > gender
Brave Harriet
The story of Harriet Quimby, the first woman to earn a pilot's license and the first woman to fly across the English Channel, is told in the first person. An author's note adds historical facts.
Author: Moss, Marissa |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Coast to Coast with Alice
A fictionalized account of the real 1909 journey of four women who crossed the country in a Maxwell car becoming the first women to do so. Written as a journal by Minna Jahns, the 15-year-old friend of Alice Ramsey, the narrative includes the physical dif
Author: Hyatt, Patricia Rusch |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Girls
The subtitle, A History of Growing Up Female in America, tells it all. The 10 chapters cover history from colonial America to the Millennium. A good index and Selections for Further Reading make this a good reference text. The author selects girls from
Author: Colman, Penny |
HSE Descriptors:
science
|
Library for Juana, A
This beautifully illustrated imaginative biography (little is known) focuses on the early life of Juana Ramirez de Asbaje, who became the first and one of the greatest Mexican poets known as Sor Juana Inez de la Cruz. The author includes a glossary, furt
Author: Mora, Pat |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
More Spice Than Sugar: Poems about Feisty Females
All the poems in this collection are about women and girls, some famous and some not. The three sections of the book are "When I Am Me," "She's a Winner" (about sports), and "Against the Odds." Work from some famous poets is included.
Author: Morrison, Lillian (comp.) |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies | language arts - reading
|
October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard
On the night of October 6, 1998, a gay twenty-one year old University of Wyoming student named Matthew Shepard, was beaten, tied to a fence and left to die. The book is a collection of 68 poems from various perspectives concerning this crime.
Author: Newman, Leslea |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Rosie the Riveter
This carefully researched book tells the story of the millions of women who worked in factories during WW II, how they got there, and how they were persuaded to return home after the war was over. The volume is illustrated with archival photographs and c
Author: Colman, Penny |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Ruby's Wish
The author tells the story of her Chinese grandmother, Ruby, who yearned for learning and the opportunity to attend the university, which was against custom.
Author: Bridges, Shirin Yim |
|
Separate Battle, A: Women and the Civil War
This must-have addition to a Civil War collection weaves together stories of slave women, abolitionists, women's rights leaders, and famous and not-so-famous women to offer a look at women's experiences during the Civil War. Diaries and letters are frequ
Author: Chang, Ina |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Steamboat! The Story of Captain Blanche Leathers
The story of Blanche Leathers, the country's first female steamboat captain, sailing on the Mississippi River.
Author: Gilliland, Judith Heide |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Wreck of the Zanzibar, The
When Laura Perryman dies, her great-nephew Michael gets her diary. The diary reveals remarkable stories about a time when people lived off the bounty (and at the mercy) of the ocean. This story "of a family bound by respect for nature seamlessly blends
Author: Morpurgo, Michael |
|
Emotions-Personal Issues > personal issues > individual > physical issues > health
American Plague, An
Subtitled "The True and Terifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793," this account focuses on the 1793 outbreak in Philadelphia but also addresses the politics of medical research. It won several awards.
Author: Murphy, Jim |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Bluish
This is a warm, easy to read story of three young girls and their developing friendship. Natalie, whom the children call Bluish, suffers from leukemia.
Author: Hamilton, Virginia |
|
Can't Get There from Here
This fictional story of homeless teens trying to survive on NYC streets in winter recounts the perils of drugs, sex, starvation, cold, and the help of a few who try to intervene. This is a gripping story, but not for the faint of heart.
Charles and Emma
Charles Darwin's struggles with religious beliefs and his developing theory of evolution are the backdrop for this domestic biography of the Darwins. The author includes a genealogy chart, extensive source notes, a bibliography, and a thorough index.
Author: Heligman, Deborah |
HSE Descriptors:
science
|
Charles and Emma
Charles Darwin's struggles with religious beliefs and his developing theory of evolution are the backdrop for this domestic biography of the Darwins. The author includes a genealogy chart, extensive source notes, a bibliography, and a thorough index.
Author: Heligman, Deborah |
HSE Descriptors:
science
|
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
|
Invisible Enemies
This well-written but long book describes seven deadly diseases--Small Pox, Leprosy, Plague, Tuberculosis, Malaria, Cholera, and AIDS--the epidemics they caused, and the treatments developed by courageous scientists. The author includes a glossary, a bib
Author: Farrell, Jeanette |
HSE Descriptors:
science
|
Jim the Boy
In a coming-of-age story set in Appalachia, Jim grows up as a town boy with his mother and uncles but finally makes friends with a mountain boy and meets his mountain grandfather.
Run Far, Run Fast
When a mother tells a young girl in 14th C Europe to "run far, run fast" to escape the pestilence, the girl discovers that she cannot outrun the plague but is helped by a friendly man. The exquisite pen and ink drawings are integral to the story. The on
Author: Decker, Timothy |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Run Far, Run Fast
When a mother tells a young girl in 14th C Europe to "run far, run fast" to escape the pestilence, the girl discovers that she cannot outrun the plague but is helped by a friendly man. The exquisite pen and ink drawings are integral to the story. The on
Author: Decker, Timothy |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Saying It Out Loud
Mindy is a typical 16-year-old teenager when her mother develops a serious medical problem. This touching story alternates between Mindy's current feelings and actions and flashbacks to earlier memories to show her reaction to this terrible tragedy.
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
|
That Summer
A boy looks back on the summer that his brother became ill and died.
Working Children
The author presents the history of child labor in America in four chapters, written with two easy-to-read paragraphs per page , and illustrated with archival black-and-white photogaphs. What distinguishes this book for use in a classroom is the back matt
Author: Saller, Carol |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Young Teddy Roosevelt
A biography of the life of Theodore Roosevelt up to the time of his presidency has illustrations that are as interesting as the well-written text.
Author: Harness, Cheryl |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Emotions-Personal Issues > personal issues > individual > physical issues > physical disability
Bells of Christmas, The
This long picture book may be read slowly, although it is not broken into chapters. It is a reminiscence of an African-American family's celebration of Christmas in the 1890s and is set in the farmlands of Ohio.
Author: Hamilton, Virginia |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Black Book of Colors, The
This book is written in Braille alphabet so the sighted reader can share the reading experience with the blind reader. The books is printed in black pages to further simulate the reading experience of the blind reader. This books has been printed around
Author: Cottin, Menena |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | social studies
|
Chuck Close Up Close
This biography of the contemporary artist Chuck Close captures his inventiveness in text and vivid color photographs. An index of illustrations, an essay on portraits, a bibliography, and a list of museums that display the artist's work provide informati
Author: Greenberg, Jan & Jordan, Sandra |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Cool Moonlight, A
Lila, who has an allergy to sunlight, lives with her disability helped by her family and friends, real and imaginary. The author uses lyrical language deftly to tell the story with great sensitivity and lightness.
Down the Colorado: John Wesley Powell, the One-Armed Explorer
This biography of John Wesley Powell, son of an Ohio abolitionist, a teacher who lead a group of the first exploration of the treacherous Colorado River in 1869--despite the loss of an arm in the Civil War. A timeline, bibliography, and an author's note
Author: Ray, Deborah Kogan |
HSE Descriptors:
science | social studies
|
Down the Colorado: John Wesley Powell, the One-Armed Explorer
This biography of John Wesley Powell, son of an Ohio abolitionist, a teacher who lead a group of the first exploration of the treacherous Colorado River in 1869--despite the loss of an arm in the Civil War. A timeline, bibliography, and an author's note
Author: Ray, Deborah Kogan |
HSE Descriptors:
science | social studies
|
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Russell Freedman scores his usual high marks for this biography of FDR, complete with excellent archival photographs and bibliographical information for further study.
Author: Freedman, Russell |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Russell Freedman scores his usual high marks for this biography of FDR, complete with excellent archival photographs and bibliographical information for further study.
Author: Freedman, Russell |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
I Thought My Soul Would Rise and Fly
Patsy, a 12-year-old slave girl, keeps a diary during 1865, describing the changes in the plantation that come with the Emancipation Proclamation. The author appends historical notes, archival photographs, the wording of Constitutional Amendments 13,14,
Author: Hansen, Joyce |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Jack's Path of Courage: The Life of John F. Kennedy
This biography of John Kennedy follows his life from his childhood to his White House years. The book is laced with many eloquent quotations from Kennedy and those close to him to craft a lyrical portrait of JFK. Vivid artwork.
Author: Rappaport, Doreen |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | social studies
|
Mind's Eye
This is a novel in play form. Courtney, 16 and paralyzed, learns about the power of the mind from an elderly blind woman and a game they play--taking an imaginary trip to Italy using a 1910 Baedeker's guidebook.
Author: Fleischman, Paul |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
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.
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.
Out of the Dust
Set in Oklahoma during the Dust Bowl years of the Depression, this powerful book tells in unobtrusive blank verse the story of personal tragedy and community hardship through the experiences of Billy Jo, a 15-year-old girl. The book is so credible that
Author: Hesse, Karen |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | social studies
|
Phineas Gage: A Gruesome but True Story About Brain Science
As the result of a bizarre mining accident in 1848 in which a metal rod ran through his brain, Phineas Gage provided scientists an opportunity to study the brain and the biological basis of behavior. Photographs, a glossary, a bibliography, and an index
Author: Fleischman, John |
HSE Descriptors:
science
|
Printer, The
A son retells the story of his father, a deaf printer working in a newspaper plant in the 1940's who used sugn language to save his co-workers from a fire. In addition, the author gives biographical information about his father who was the model for the
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
|
Sees Behind Trees
A blind Native American boy learns to "see behind trees", guided by his mother, to use his other senses. He uses his gift to help an old warrior find a land of mystery and beauty that he'd discovered years ago, and could not find again himself.
Author: Dorris, Michael |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | social studies
|
Thank you, Mr. Falker
While in 5th grade, Trisha, the central, autobiographical character, encounters a new teacher who helps her overcome her difficulties with reading that had caused her such humiliation since first grade.
Author: Polacco, Patricia |
|
Under the Shadow of Wings
Obie, a developmentally disabled boy dies causing a variety of emotional response from his friend Tatnall, an 11-year-old girl.
Young Teddy Roosevelt
A biography of the life of Theodore Roosevelt up to the time of his presidency has illustrations that are as interesting as the well-written text.
Author: Harness, Cheryl |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Emotions-Personal Issues > personal issues > individual > physical issues > safety
Boy of the Deeps
On his first day in the coal mines, a boy with his father survive an accident.
Author: Wallace, Ian |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Can't Get There from Here
This fictional story of homeless teens trying to survive on NYC streets in winter recounts the perils of drugs, sex, starvation, cold, and the help of a few who try to intervene. This is a gripping story, but not for the faint of heart.
Cheap Raw Material: How Our Youngest Workers Are Exploited and Abused
This book is a chronological nonfiction account of children as laborers. Child labor in the U.S. is the focus, but historical background (e.g., Rome, England) is also provided. This history is chronicled through quotations from primary sources, stories
Author: Meltzer, Milton |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Just One Flick of the Finger
Young Jack brings his father's gun to school hoping to scare a bully, but events take an unexpected and violent turn.
Author: Lorbiecki, Marybeth |
|
Librarian of Basra, The
A true story of the librarian of Basra, Iraq, who saved the books in the town library during the current war. In an end note, the author brings the reader up-to-date on the librarian.
Monster
16-year-old Steve Harmon is on trial for murder. This riveting book tells his story in the form of his journals and a film script he is writing.
Author: Myers, Walter Dean |
|
Printer, The
A son retells the story of his father, a deaf printer working in a newspaper plant in the 1940's who used sugn language to save his co-workers from a fire. In addition, the author gives biographical information about his father who was the model for the
Something out of Nothing: Marie Curie and Radiation
This is a very readable biography of Marie Curie and her discovery of radiation.
Author: McClafferty, Carla |
HSE Descriptors:
science
|
Stitches: A Memoir
An autobiographical graphic novel that profoundly describes the author's disturbing and often horrific childhood. This is a riveting and groundbreaking work by children's book illustrator David Small.
Author: Small, David |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | language arts - writing
|
Stolen Dreams
This collection of photographic essays on child labor around the world explores the physical and political conditions, the economic and health effects, and what can be done to reduce it. The author/photographer includes a list of questions, a bibliograph
Author: Parker, David |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Under the Shadow of Wings
Obie, a developmentally disabled boy dies causing a variety of emotional response from his friend Tatnall, an 11-year-old girl.
Wolf on the Fold
Six linked storeis follow an Australian family from 1935 to 2002 as different generations cope with discord and violence. The use of flashbacks may cause some readers difficulty.
Working Children
The author presents the history of child labor in America in four chapters, written with two easy-to-read paragraphs per page , and illustrated with archival black-and-white photogaphs. What distinguishes this book for use in a classroom is the back matt
Author: Saller, Carol |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Your Move
When gang initiation threatens his younger brother, James summons the courage to make up his own mind.
Emotions-Personal Issues > personal issues > individual > physical issues > sexuality
Bee & Jacky
A brother and sister suffer the effects of their father's Vietnam trauma and their mother's ineffectualness by resuming a physical relationship. This moving, psychologically honest book is difficult to read because the real or imagined incest is portraye
Buried Alive
This collection of linked poems explores the rich, puzzling and painful experiences of love from teenagers' points of view.
Author: Fletcher, Ralph |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
I Hadn't Meant to Tell You This
A moving story of the friendship between two motherless 12-year-old girls--one black and one white--presents issues of racial prejudice, poverty, and child abuse.
Author: Woodson, Jacqueline |
|
Like Sisters on the Homefront
When 14-year-old Gayle gets into "trouble," she and her baby Jose leave New York City to live with family in rural Georgia. At first bored with and distressed about her situation, Gayle eventually makes friends with her cousin Cookie. Through "tellings" b
Author: Williams-Garcia, Rita |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Now Sheba Sings the Song
This book consists of one long poem and dozens of sketches of African-American women. It is a sensuous book that celebrates the sexuality, the history, and the strength of Black women.
October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard
On the night of October 6, 1998, a gay twenty-one year old University of Wyoming student named Matthew Shepard, was beaten, tied to a fence and left to die. The book is a collection of 68 poems from various perspectives concerning this crime.
Author: Newman, Leslea |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Perfect Shot, The
Ostensibly a murder mystery, this book explores many issues--civil rights, prejudice, judicial system, stereotyping, meaningful teaching--while offering exciting descriptions of basketball. Brian must decide whether to speak out when his girlfriend, her
Author: Alphin, Elaine Marie |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Persepolis 2
This graphic novel sequel to Persepolis, depicts the author's rebellious adolescence and early adulthood among dissident outsider friends in Vienna and her voluntary return to her family in fundamentalist Tehran. Readers should be cautioned about referen
Author: Satrapi, Marjane |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Sigmund Freud
This biography introduces the history of the study of the physical and emotional aspects of the mind as well as the colorful life of Sigmund Freud. Additional resources include an appendix, a bibliography, web sites, and an index.
Author: Krull, Kathleen |
HSE Descriptors:
science
|
True Believer
This is not exactly a sequel to Make Lemonade, but the style is similar and many of the characters are the same-- LaVaughn, her mother, Jolly and her children [they have a minor role in this book]. LaVaughn is 15, lives in the inner city, and str
Author: Wolff, Virginia Euwer |
|
With a Hammer for My Heart
When 15-year-old Lawanda befriends a WW II veteran living in an old school bus, she sets in motion events that will change her life and all those around her. The well-written story unfolds with each chapter telling the story from the point of view of eac
Author: Lyon, George Ella |
|
Emotions-Personal Issues > personal issues >individual> physical issues > sexuality > homosexuality
October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard
On the night of October 6, 1998, a gay twenty-one year old University of Wyoming student named Matthew Shepard, was beaten, tied to a fence and left to die. The book is a collection of 68 poems from various perspectives concerning this crime.
Author: Newman, Leslea |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Emotions-Personal Issues > personal issues > individual > resourcefulness
Adventures of Marco Polo, The
The author recounts the 13th Century life and exploration of the famous Venetian, Marco Polo. The fascinating illustrations reflect the style of the time and place of each segment of the story. The author includes ample supplemental information on the a
Author: Freedman, Russell |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Baboon King, The
Set in Africa, this powerful book explores the themes of the importance of community through the exile of Morengaru from his tribe and survival, not against but with nature, in his life with a group of baboons.
Bad News for Outlaws: The Remarkable Life of Bass Reeves, Deputy U.S. Marshal
The life of Bass Reeves, from slavery to US marshal, the most feared and respected lawman in the territories. This is a story of a remarkable African-American hero of the Old West. Actual photos, western vocabulary, timeline,further reading/websites, res
Author: Nelson, Vaunda Micheaux |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Bad News for Outlaws: The Remarkable Life of Bass Reeves, Deputy U.S. Marshal
The life of Bass Reeves, from slavery to US marshal, the most feared and respected lawman in the territories. This is a story of a remarkable African-American hero of the Old West. Actual photos, western vocabulary, timeline,further reading/websites, res
Author: Nelson, Vaunda Micheaux |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Blanche on the Lam
A spunky African-American woman, who works as a housekeeper for a wealthy southern family with many secrets, must solve a murder in order to clear herself. Blanche relies on her own intelligence and an "old girl" network of domestics. The language is oc
Author: Neely, B. |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Breadwinner, The
This coming-of-age story, told from the point of view of a young Afghan girl left to fend for her family in the times of repressive Taliban influence is both moving and suspenseful.
Author: Ellis, Deborah |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Breadwinner, The
This coming-of-age story, told from the point of view of a young Afghan girl left to fend for her family in the times of repressive Taliban influence is both moving and suspenseful.
Author: Ellis, Deborah |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Bucking the Sarge
Teenage Luther, who is exploited by his slumlord mother, keeps his equilbrium through many humorous misadventures before finding his own way.
Author: Curtis, Christopher Paul |
|
Cat with the Yellow Star, The: Coming of Age in Terezin
Ela Weissberger's life before, during, and after she and her family were forced to live in the Jewish ghetto of Terezin during WWII. Photographs reinforce Ela's memories of survival and hope.
Author: Rubin, Susan Goldman |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Chicken Sunday
Two African-American boys and their white friend, a girl, try to earn enough money to buy Miss Eula Mae the Easter bonnet she's been longing for. The children befriend a Jewish shopkeeper who helps them succeed.
Author: Polacco, Patricia |
|
Children of the Dust Bowl
The book recounts the migration of the "Okies" during the Great Depression to the camps in California. School Superintendent Leo Hart began the Weedpatch School where children of the migrants escaped the ostracism of the locals in a model learn-by-doing
Author: Stanley, Jerry |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Coast to Coast with Alice
A fictionalized account of the real 1909 journey of four women who crossed the country in a Maxwell car becoming the first women to do so. Written as a journal by Minna Jahns, the 15-year-old friend of Alice Ramsey, the narrative includes the physical dif
Author: Hyatt, Patricia Rusch |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Danger Along the Ohio
The Dunn family is traveling down the Ohio River in 1793. The children become separated from their father and must fend for themselves while heading toward Marietta.
Author: Willis, Patricia |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Elijah of Buxton
Eleven-year-old Elijah, the first to be born free in a Canadian settlement for runaway slaves at the end of the Underground Railroad, though considered "fra-gile" and talkative by adults, performs an heroic feat with his chucking stones.
Author: Curtis, Christopher Paul |
|
Fannie in the Kitchen
Accompanied by delightful Victorian-style illustrations, this biography of Fannie Farmer, the cookbook writer, is told in a storybook format with a recipe and cooking tips thrown in for good measure.
Author: Hopkinson, Deborah |
|
Far Beyond the Garden Gate
Don Brown has written another intriguing book about an extraordinary woman, one who perservered in her desire to explore Tibet never seen by a Western woman. An author's note, a bibliography, and a map extend the possibilities of this beautifully illustr
Author: Brown, Don |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
George Washington Carver
This biography of George Washington Carver, known as the "peanut man," is illustrated with his art work and archival photographs and includes notes, bibliographical resources and an afterword.
Author: Bolden, Tanya |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies | science
|
George Washington Carver
This biography of George Washington Carver, known as the "peanut man," is illustrated with his art work and archival photographs and includes notes, bibliographical resources and an afterword.
Author: Bolden, Tanya |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies | science
|
Grand Mosque of Paris: A Story of How Muslims Rescued Jews During the Holocaust, The
Although the authors found little documentary evidence to substantiate the oral stories of how Jews were sheltered in the Grand Mosque and given Arab identity cards during the Nazi occupation of Paris in WW II, they tell an important story with excellent
Author: Ruelle, Karen Gray |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Grand Mosque of Paris: A Story of How Muslims Rescued Jews During the Holocaust, The
Although the authors found little documentary evidence to substantiate the oral stories of how Jews were sheltered in the Grand Mosque and given Arab identity cards during the Nazi occupation of Paris in WW II, they tell an important story with excellent
Author: Ruelle, Karen Gray |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Houdini: The Handcuff King
This graphic novel presents a possible explanation for the success of one of Houdini's famous escapes.
Author: Lutes, Jason & Bertozzi, Nick |
|
In Our Mothers' House
Marmee and Meema, two wonderfully innovative, creative mothers, provide a loving home for adopted children and are the glue for a community-oriented neighborhood, except for one family who snubs them for being different.
Author: Polacco, Patricia |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
In Our Mothers' House
Marmee and Meema, two wonderfully innovative, creative mothers, provide a loving home for adopted children and are the glue for a community-oriented neighborhood, except for one family who snubs them for being different.
Author: Polacco, Patricia |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
In the Days of the Vaqueros
Russell Freedman has created another interesting non-fiction book, this time on the vaqueros, who were the forerunners of cowboys. As usual, the author illustrates his essays with paintings, archival photographs and includes useful resources in a bibliog
Author: Freedman, Russell |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
In the Promised Land
From Asser Levy in 1654 to Steven Spielberg today, this book provides one-page illustrated biographies of thirteen famous Jews. In addition, the author includes other print and web resources.
Author: Rappaport, Doreen |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Invention of Hugo Cabret, The
Part fiction, part graphic novel, this winner of the 2008 Caldecott Medal tells the story of an orphaned boy who maintains and repairs clocks in a Paris train station and discovers the history of an automaton and its maker. When he meets a mysterious toy
Author: Selznick, Brian |
HSE Descriptors:
science | social studies
|
Lost: A Story in String
Using string figures, a grandmother tells a story of the uses of imagination and resourcefulness. Beautiful black-and-white clayboard and ink illustrations and clear diagrams and resources encourage readers to try the string figures.
Love, Loss, and What I Wore
The author reminisces indirectly by depicting and describing outfits she wore at times of loss in her life. This clever book has a limited audience: urban (especially New York), women, and people interested in fashion design.
Lugalbanda
This retelling of the oldest recorded story ever found from Sumer (now Iraq) recounts the journey of a young prince as he crosses the mountains to join a war and find his brothers, overcoming obstacles on his way. The book includes interesting historical
Author: Henderson, Kathy |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Make Lemonade
When fourteen-year-old LaVaughn takes a job baby-sitting for seventeen-year-old Jolly's two children, neither girl realizes how much she'll learn from the other. Despite no job, a lousy apartment, and a bleak future, Jolly, with the help of LaVaughn and
Author: Wolff, Virginia Euwer |
|
Mary Smith
Before the advent of alarm clocks, Mary Smith's job was to wake the workers of her village with her trusty peashooter.
Mermaid Summer, The
Jon and Ana, brother and sister, display intelligence and courage as they break a mermaid's curse on their grandfather and the fishing community.
My Brothers' Flying Machine
This biography of Wilber and Orville Wright is told by their younger sister.
Author: Yolen, Jane |
HSE Descriptors:
science
|
Ninth Ward
This is a powerful reenactment of the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and how it affected the poor section of the ninth ward. The hurricane and subsequent levee failure come to life through the eyes of a twelve year old special girl. The voi
Author: Rhodes, Jewell Parker |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | social studies | science
|
Queen of the Falls
An engaging story about the first person to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel - a 63 year old school teacher. Van Allsburg combines sepia toned illustrations with a smooth and flowing text while using tension to hold the reader's interest.
Author: Van Allsburg, Chris |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | social studies
|
Raft, The
A city boy spends a magical summer in the woods with an unusual grandmother and discovers not only the creatures of the woods and river but himself as well. This is a beautifully illustrated portrait of a childhood we all might like to claim.
Remembering Manzanar
Shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. government ordered forced evacuation of Japanese Americans who lived in the western U.S. This is the story of one relocation camp, Manzanar. The text is supported with archival photographs, end notes, Int
Author: Cooper, Michael L. |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Safekeeping
Radley returns home to Vermont from a volunteer stay in Haiti to complete chaos. She begins a long trek to try to find her parents and some sense of normalcy in a country becoming completely dysfunctional.The underling message is articulated, as a vision
Author: Hesse, Karen |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies | language arts - reading | language arts - writing
|
Shooting for the Moon
This beautifully illustrated biography of Annie Mozee, known to the world as the sharpshooter, Annie Oakley, describes her impoverished childhood as well as her career as a performer.
Story in String, A
When their apartment loses power, Grandma tells the story of a little girl who gets lost in the snow looking for her dog. To illustrate the story, Grandma uses a piece of her knitting yarn to make string figures.
Story of the Three Kingdoms, The
This colorfully illustrated fable celebrates the gift of storytelling.
Author: Myers, Walter Dean |
|
Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt
Based on a true incident, this story tells of a young slave girl's brainstorm of sewing a map of the Underground Railroad onto a quilt so that others could find their way to freedom.
Author: Hopkinson, Deborah |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Symphony of Whales, A
This book is based on the true story of a "whale rescue" by a group of Siberian villagers in the mid-1980s.
Author: Schuch, Steve |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies | science
|
This Vast Land
A fictional account of a young man on the real Lewis and Clark Expedition emphasizes and personalizes the confrontation of races and the conflict between civilization and the wilderness. There are allusions to sex, though minimal.
Author: Ambrose, Stephen |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Trapped:How the World Rescued 33 Miners from 2,000 Feet Below the Chilean Desert
An in-depth recounting of the collapse of a Chilean copper mine in 2010 that entombed 33 miners for 69 days, their heroic struggle to survive and the efforts of those who saved them. The book is riveting in detail and even inspirational. Book contains ex
Author: Aronson, Marc |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | language arts - writing | science
|
Uncommon Traveler
Mary Kingsley, who grew up in Victorian England, isolated, without formal education but with her Father's library, made trips to explore West Africa, where she accomplished many firsts and survived many adventures. The beautiful watercolor illustrations,
Author: Brown, Don |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Under the Sun
After his father sends him and his mother to relatives outside Sarajevo to escape the perils of the war in the former Yugoslavia, 13-year-old Ehmet must find the way through land mines, burned villages, and hostile bands of armed men to his grandparents i
Author: Dorros, Arthur |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Wangari's Trees of Peace: A True Story From Africa
The true story of how Wangari Maathai, a Kenyan educated in the USA, started a movement to replant trees in Kenya, one seedling at a time. Wangari won the Nobel Peace Prize for replenishing of the forests in her country.
Author: Winter, Jeanette |
HSE Descriptors:
science | social studies
|
Weave of Words, A
A young king uses his literacy and weaving skills to send a message to the queen who frees him from his captors. The copyright page contains information on the origins of this Armenian tale.
Author: San Souci, Robert |
|
Words West: Voices of Young Pioneers
Diary and journal excerpts and archival photographs enliven a well-written text about the Westward Movement as seen from the perspective of children. The book includes short biographies of the children who are quoted often as well as a chronology, furthe
Author: Wadsworth, Ginger |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Emotions-Personal Issues > personal issues > individual > responsibilities
Alice Ramsey's Grand Adventure
Alice Ramsey and three other women face floods, mud, and travel without maps as they drive from New York to San Francisco--in 1909. The charming watercolors add realistic humor to the narrative.
Author: Brown, Don |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Black Ships Before Troy
This beautifully illustrated book retells Homer's epic poem The Iliad about the Trojan War. A glossary of names is included.
Author: Sutcliff, Rosemary |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Boy Who Saved Cleveland, The
During a malarial epidemic in the late 18th century Cleveland, Ohio, ten-year-old Seth Doan surprises his family, his neighbors, and himself by having the strength to carry and grind enough corn to feed everyone.
Author: Giblin, James Cross |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Castle Diary: The Journal of Tobias Burgess, Page
Tobias, an 11-year-old boy, goes to serve as a page for a year in his uncle's castle in 13th Century England. Notes for the Reader contains additional historical information.
Author: Platt, Richard |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies | language arts - writing
|
Eleanor Roosevelt
Freedman relates this biography of Eleanor Roosevelt with the interest of suspense fiction which is accompanied by extensive archival photographs. The book traces her evolution from a shy young girl from an unhappy home to America's most acclaimed First
Author: Freedman, Russell |
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
|
Gowanus Dogs
A homeless man meets some homeless dogs. The meeting changes everyone's life.
Miss Rumphius
The Lupine Lady, the great-aunt of the narrator, travels around the world but returns to Maine to plant lupines and make her world a better place.
Author: Cooney, Barbara |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Moon Over Tennessee
A boy accompanies his father into the Confederate Army in the Civil War, eventually arriving at the battle of Gettysburg. The story-poem is told in a format of journal entries. Somber black and white woodcuts contribute to the tragic tone. A map and an
Author: Crist-Evans, Craig |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
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 |
|
My Sister's Keeper
Set in modern day Rhode Island, this novel tells the story of two sisters: Kate, the elder sister, has a rare form of leukemia and Anna, the younger sister, was conceived as a bone marrow donor for her sister. This book deals with medical and moral ethics
Night the Bells Rang, The
This short novel (76 pages), told from the point of view of a farm boy, tells the story of Mason's struggles with a bully, and of his growing up. Although the book has the feel of a reminiscence, the emotions are complex and the characters ring true.
Author: Kinsey-Warnock, Natalie |
|
Princess of the Press
This biography of Ida Wells- Barnett chronicles her remarkable career in civil rights as a journalist against lynching, publisher of African American newspapers, speaker and activist for women's right to vote, and founder of the National Association for t
Author: Medearis, Angela |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Relatively Speaking
Centered around a family reunion, a boy speaks about his older brother, his parents, grandparents, and extended family in short, easily accessible free verse.
Saying It Out Loud
Mindy is a typical 16-year-old teenager when her mother develops a serious medical problem. This touching story alternates between Mindy's current feelings and actions and flashbacks to earlier memories to show her reaction to this terrible tragedy.
Under the Shadow of Wings
Obie, a developmentally disabled boy dies causing a variety of emotional response from his friend Tatnall, an 11-year-old girl.
Emotions-Personal Issues > personal issues > individual > self-esteem
Blacker the Berry, The
The author explores all the warm colors of skin tones in delicious to the tongue words and images.
Author: Thomas, Joyce Carol |
|
Blacker the Berry, The
The author explores all the warm colors of skin tones in delicious to the tongue words and images.
Author: Thomas, Joyce Carol |
|
Bobbin Girl, The
Rebecca, a 10-year-old "bobbin girl" working in the textile factories in Lowell, Massachuesetts in the 1830's must decide if she will participate in the first workers' strike.
Author: McCully, Emily Arnold |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Brown Honey in Broomwheat Tea
This well illustrated book of poetry uses the metaphor of nurturing tea for the extended family.
Author: Thomas, Joyce Carol |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Code Talkers
After attending a white boarding school where his Navajo language and culture were belittled and punished, Ned Begay served as a code talker with the US Marines during operations in the Pacific during World War II. The narrator tells his story to his gra
Author: Bruchac, Joseph |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Fannie in the Kitchen
Accompanied by delightful Victorian-style illustrations, this biography of Fannie Farmer, the cookbook writer, is told in a storybook format with a recipe and cooking tips thrown in for good measure.
Author: Hopkinson, Deborah |
|
Fanny's Dream
A retelling of the Cinderella story, the book depicts the choices of Fanny Agnes, providing a humorous portrait of a strong woman.
Finding Fish
This is the autobiography of Antwone Fisher (basis for a movie made by Denzel Washington). Antwone's childhood was filled with emotional and physical abuse. He found a way to overcome this difficult beginning.
Freedom's Children
Thirty African Americans tell their youthful experiences in the civil rights movement. The book includes a chronology, a who's who, a list of acronyms, and a bibliography.
Author: Levine, Ellen |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Hammerin' Hank Grenberg: Baseball Pioneer
The story of Hank Greenberg, first Jewish ballplayer inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Sommer explores the world of baseball as it became more inclusive and gives details of how Greenberg was an exceptional player.
Author: Sommer, Shelley |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies | language arts - reading
|
Holes
This story-within-a-story tells of Stanley Yelnats (and his distant relatives, one of whom "cursed" the family), mistakenly sent to a juvenile corrections camp in Texas. At the corrections camp, Stanley finds a real friend, a treasure, and a new sense of
If: A Fathers Advice to His Son
Sports themed photographs accompany Kiplings poem about the qualities that make up a mature person.
Author: Kipling, Rudyard |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Jump at de Sun
This interesting biography of the author and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston emphasizes her unique celebration of black life and language at the turn of the century when such topics were unpopular. Her niece wrote the introduction.
Author: Porter, A. P. |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Marvelous Mattie
Based on the life of Margaret E. Knight, the book portrays an imaginative girl who overcomes the barriers of poverty and sexism to become an inventor of over 90 inventions with 22 patents. The author's note gives more biographical information while paten
Author: McCully, Emily |
HSE Descriptors:
science
|
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
|
My Name is Georgia
This simple biography of Georgia O'Keefe describes how she was true to her life-long goal of being an artist and how she gained inspiration for her paintings from the natural world around her.
Author: Winter, Jeanette |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Nellie Bly
This biography recounts the life of the woman who opened up the field of journalism to women through her undercover investigative reporting during the turn of the century through WW I.
Author: Fredeen, Charles |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Razia's Ray of Hope
This is a fictional story about the a young girl in Afghanistan who wants to attend school and the building of the first school for girls in that country.Tolerance and determination are key themes.
Author: Suneby, Elizabeth |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | social studies
|
Rio Grande Stories
In Albuquerque, 7th grade students decide to write a book on their diverse heritage to raise money for the school. As they research traditions and family stories, they learn unexpected things about themselves. Chapters alternate between stories about th
Ruby's Wish
The author tells the story of her Chinese grandmother, Ruby, who yearned for learning and the opportunity to attend the university, which was against custom.
Author: Bridges, Shirin Yim |
|
Stitches: A Memoir
An autobiographical graphic novel that profoundly describes the author's disturbing and often horrific childhood. This is a riveting and groundbreaking work by children's book illustrator David Small.
Author: Small, David |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | language arts - writing
|
Emotions-Personal Issues > personal issues > individual > solitude
I'm in Charge of Celebrations
A desert (Native American?) woman is asked if she is lonely and replies by telling about all the natural wonders she witnesses. The title comes from her idea of marking the calendar for the following year to celebrate whatever she saw. The illustrations
Me, All Alone, at the End of the World
A boy enjoys living quietly by himself at the End of the World until Constantine Shimmer arrives and begins to "improve" the area with an inn and amusement park, demanding that tourists come and have "fun without end.
Author: Anderson, M.T. |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Raft, The
A city boy spends a magical summer in the woods with an unusual grandmother and discovers not only the creatures of the woods and river but himself as well. This is a beautifully illustrated portrait of a childhood we all might like to claim.
Touching Spirit Bear
Cole, a juvenile "delinquent," is offered jail or "circle justice," a system based on Native American traditions that attempts to provide healing for the criminal, his victim, and the community. Cole's time at a remote Alaskan island and his interactions
Emotions-Personal Issues > personal issues > individual > success
Becoming Billie Holiday
Weatherford uses the titles of Billie Holiday songs as titles for poems that tell the story of Billie's life and road to fame.
Author: Weatherford, Carole Boston |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Come See the Earth Turn: The Story of Leon Foucault
A sickly child, a poor student and a medical school dropout, Leon Foucault proved that the world rotated by designed the pendulum that proves that the earth moves on its axis, a puzzle that had eluded more learned scientists for decades.
Author: Mortensen, Lori |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | science | social studies
|
Houdini: The Handcuff King
This graphic novel presents a possible explanation for the success of one of Houdini's famous escapes.
Author: Lutes, Jason & Bertozzi, Nick |
|
If: A Fathers Advice to His Son
Sports themed photographs accompany Kiplings poem about the qualities that make up a mature person.
Author: Kipling, Rudyard |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Jabberwocky
With his wonderfully bright, energetic illustrations, Myers gives an Mezo-American and African American spin to the famous poem by Lewis Carroll.
Myer's "reimagined" famous poem by Carroll is unique in its contemporary setting of an urban street basket
Author: Carroll, Lewis |
HSE Descriptors:
literature and arts
|
Nothing But Trouble: The Story of Althea Gibson
Althea Gibson was perpetual motion and perpetual trouble until mentors helped her channel her energy into tennis where she became a champion, and the first African American to win the Wimbledon. The colorful illustrations capture her boundless energy.
Author: Stauffacher, Sue |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Nothing But Trouble: The Story of Althea Gibson
Althea Gibson was perpetual motion and perpetual trouble until mentors helped her channel her energy into tennis where she became a champion, and the first African American to win the Wimbledon. The colorful illustrations capture her boundless energy.
Author: Stauffacher, Sue |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Old Musician, The
A little girl hears an old man playing a flute and initiates his journey as an ever more popular musician of increasing number of instruments until his celebrity invades his private life.
Queen of the Falls
An engaging story about the first person to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel - a 63 year old school teacher. Van Allsburg combines sepia toned illustrations with a smooth and flowing text while using tension to hold the reader's interest.
Author: Van Allsburg, Chris |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | social studies
|
Restless Spirit: The Life and Work of Dorothea Lange
This biography of photographer Dorthea Lange contains many of her photographs. Lange photographed and helped raise awareness of the poor conditions of the migrant workers during the Depression.
Author: Partridge, Ellizabeth |
HSE Descriptors:
literature and arts | social studies
|
Steamboat! The Story of Captain Blanche Leathers
The story of Blanche Leathers, the country's first female steamboat captain, sailing on the Mississippi River.
Author: Gilliland, Judith Heide |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Strongest Man in the World, The: Louis Cyr
The text of this book goes far beyond just being the biography of a famous 20th century strong man, Louis Cyr. It is a description of early health mores and an evolution of the circus concept. Additionally, we learn a little about the other famous circus
Author: Debon, Nicolas |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
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Uncle Jed's Barbershop
A woman tells the story of her Uncle Jed, an African-American barber who traveled a regular route, saving his money for his own shop. When she became sick, he gave up his money for her operation, and when the Depression came, he lost everything again. F
Author: Mitchell, Margaree K. |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
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Wheels of Change: How Women Rode the Bicycle to Freedom
This is an enlightening text illustrating the importance of the bicycle as a way to change the world by cultivating independence. The photographs, newspaper articles, advertisements, etc., beautifully depict the history, ending with a timeline comparing w
Author: Macy, Sue |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies | language arts - reading
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Wideness and Wonder: The Life and Art of Georgia O'Keeffe
Factual, informative account of Georgia O'Keeffe's interesting journey from farm girl to artist and her stubborn dedication to making art her own way. Illustrated with her works and Alfred Stieglitz's photographs of her. Excellent reference for artists.
Author: Rubin, Susan Goldman |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | language arts - writing | social studies
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