Celebration
Celebration > holidays
Celebration > holidays > New Year's Day
Auld Lang Syne
Told from first person perspective, this life story of Robert Burns from childhood to adulthood highlights the poets efforts to keep alive Scottish songs and verses. Most familiar to many will be the song of the book's title.
| Author: Findon, Joanne |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
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
|
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.
Communities
Communities > new
Aurora Means Dawn
This picture book tells the story of the first family to settle in Aurora, Ohio and offers a glimpse of the hardships they willingly endured and of the support of their neighbors.
| Author: Sanders, Scott |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
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
|
Children of Topaz, The
The authors provide an introduction to the history of the Japanese internment camps in the United States during World War II as well as a Reference and Reading List. The book is a journal kept by a third-grade class taught by Anne Yamauchi in such a camp
| Author: Tunnell, Michael & Chilcoat, George |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
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
|
Place Called Freedom, A
Freed slave James Starman takes his family from Tennessee to Indiana where they are joined by other African Americans over many years, establishing a very unique community.
| Author: Sanders, S. |
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
|
They Sought A New World
Through Kurelek's art and Margaret Englehart's additional text, this book tells the story of European immigrants to North America. In addition to describing issues like finding work and shelter, aspects of culture -- religion, maintaining cultural tradit
| Author: Kurelek, William |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
This Our Dark Country: The American Settlers of Liberia
This is a history of Liberia which was established on the west coast of Africa in 1822 as a haven for free African Americans. Some U.S. history is also included as background context. End matter includes photos, maps, endnotes, bibliography, and index. Th
| Author: Reef, Catherine |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
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
|
Geography
Geography > locations
Geography > locations > countries
Geography > locations > countries > Newfoundland
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
|
Geography > locations > U.S. states/regions
Geography > locations > U.S. states/regions > New England
Christmas Tree Farm
Photos accompany this simple text about the activities that take place throughout the year at a Christmas tree farm in Rhode Island.
Emily
This book tells the story of a young girl's encounter with the reclusive poet Emily Dickinson and of her friendship with the author. Although the picture book is a fictional account, Cooney's oil paintings and the afterword with biographical information
| Author: Bedard, Michael |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Gathering of Days, A
This book, subtitled A New England Girl's Journal, 1830-32, is a fictitious diary kept by a fourteen-year-old girl during the last few years she spent on her family's farm. During these months Catherine's father remarried, her closest friend died of feve
| Author: Blos, Joan W. |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Giants in the Land
Beautiful black and white scratchboard drawings illustrate how giant pine trees in New England were cut for lumber and masts for the King's navy during American Colonial times.
| Author: Appelbaum, Diana |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies | science
|
Great Stone Face, The
The author retells a famous Hawthorne story about how a New England village interprets a mountain's "face" over the years as fulfilling the prophecy of revealing the noblest person of the time.
| Author: Schmidt, Gary/Hawthorne Nathaniel |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Into the Deep Forest: With Henry David Thoreau
Thoreau's journal entries have been placed into a broader context and are accompanied by stunning paintings and pencil drawings in this 39-page book. The use of present tense verb form may be off putting for some readers.
| Author: Murphy, Jim |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Jip: His Story
Jip, a young orphan in the mid-1850s, lives on a farm, interacts with Put "the lunatic," and wonders about his past. Eventually he attends school and, with the help of Teacher (Lyddie from the Paterson book by the same name) and her Quaker friend, discov
| Author: Paterson, Katherine |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
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
|
Nearer Nature
The author writes reflectively of his winter walks on his Vermont farm and sketches the footprints, animals, and plants that capture his attention. An index enables the reader to find specific information. The descriptions are rich in detail and languag
| Author: Arnosky, Jim |
HSE Descriptors:
science | 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
|
River Ran Wild, A
This book recounts the history of the Nashua River in Massachusetts and New Hampshire life from idyllic Algonquin Indian times to industrial pollution to a restored river due to the efforts of Marion Stoddart who coordinated a citizen campaign. The text
| Author: Cherry, Lynn |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies | science
|
Whale Port
In this book about a fictitious combination of real places, the text and colored-pencil drawings present the chronological development of a New England whaling town and its related businesses. The use of cut away art provides a glimpse inside the building
| Author: Foster, Mark |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Geography > locations > U.S. states/regions > New York
Amazing Impossible Erie Canal, The
After an introduction detailing the need to transport goods back and forth to the settlers in the expanding west, the author takes the reader on the inaugural ride in 1825 that opened the Erie Canal. Illustrations and a time line provide additional infor
| Author: Harness, Cheryl |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
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
|
Gowanus Dogs
A homeless man meets some homeless dogs. The meeting changes everyone's life.
Great Unknown, The
This biography of Charles Wilson Peale, artist and paleontologist, describes how he excavated, assembled, and displayed bones of a prehistoric mastodon in 1801. The author includes a map and a glossary.
| Author: Morrison, Taylor |
HSE Descriptors:
science | language arts - writing
|
Lady Liberty: A Biography
Poetic format shares the stories of the people involved in the building of the Statue of Liberty. It also shares the reactions and contributions of everyday people seeing her rise in NY Harbor. Beautiful illustrations that add to the stories of the peopl
| Author: Rappaport, Doreen |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies | literature and arts
|
Lady Liberty: A Biography
Poetic format shares the stories of the people involved in the building of the Statue of Liberty. It also shares the reactions and contributions of everyday people seeing her rise in NY Harbor. Beautiful illustrations that add to the stories of the peopl
| Author: Rappaport, Doreen |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies | literature and arts
|
Legend of Sleepy Hollow, The
This book is a wonderfully retold version of the classic story by Washington Irving. The illustrations contribute to the mysterious mood.
| Author: Irving, Washington |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | social studies
|
Picnic in October, A
At the insistence of the immigrant grandparents, a family celebrates coming to America and the October birthday of the Statue of Liberty.
| Author: Bunting, Eve |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
River of Dreams
This beautiful book is a tribute to the Hudson River and its strategic, economic and cultural significance throughout history.
| Author: Talbot, Hudson |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies | language arts - reading | language arts - writing
|
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
|
This Is the Rope: A Story from the Great Migration
A rope found by a little girl becomes a multigenerational object to her family and helps to tell the story of their migration from the South. It has many uses and eventually becomes a storytelling prompt.
| Author: Woodeson, Jacqueline |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Geography > locations > U.S. states/regions > New York > Harlem
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 for Solomon Singer, An
In this urban story, a transplanted Hoosier lives a lonely life in New York City and looks for warmth and companionship.
Happy Feet
This very easy, lyrical text with gorgeous illustrations tells the story of the opening of the Savoy in Harlem, which is of special interest to the narrator "Happy Feet" because he was born on that night. The book not only educates the reader about the S
| Author: Richard Michelson |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | social studies
|
Harlem Stomp!
Subtitled "A cultural history of the Harlem Renaissance," this book has 10 chapters that address how Harlem came to be a cultural "magnet" in the 1920s. The book interweaves history, poetry, and archival photos that brings the cultural history of Harlem t
| Author: Hill, Laban Carrick |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies | language arts - reading
|
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 |
|
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
|
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
|
Uptown
Colorful collage and an easy-reading text belie a very sophisticated tour of Harlem including the Metro-North train, brownstones, shopping on 125th street, a barbershop, summer basketball, the Harlem Boys' Chois, and sunset over the Hudson River
Geography > locations > U.S. states/regions > New York > New York City
Berenice Abbott, Photographer
The biography's subtitle "An Independent Vision" suggests the creativity, innovation, perservance that Berenice Abbot exhibited as she pursued the newly emerging field of photography and associated with the leading photographers of the 1920's and 1930's.
| Author: Sullivan, George |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Black Cat
A black cat explores an urban neighborhood. The stunning illustrations are a combination of painting and photography.
| Author: Myers, Christopher |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Blizzard!
This book tells the story of an amazing blizzard that struck the Eastern U.S. in March, 1888. The author tells how the storm affected individuals, workers, communication, transportation, and more. The book is illustrated with vintage photographs and maps
| Author: Murphy, Jim |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies | science
|
Breaking Ground, Breaking Silence
In 1991, New York's long-ignored African Burial Ground was rediscovered. The description of what scientists found there and how they pieced together information about life serves as a backdrop for stories of life for African Americans in Colonial New York
| Author: Hansen, Joyce, & McGowan, Gary |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies | science
|
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
|
Empire State Building
Archival photographs, diagrams, and illustrations accompany this account of the building of the Empire State Building in New York City during the Great Depression. The fact page, glossary, and map expand the book's use in the classroom.
| Author: Mann, Elizabeth |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Man Who Made Parks, The
This is a biography of Frederick Law Olmsted, the first landscape architect and developer of Central Park in NYC (as well as other famous parks).
| Author: Wishinsky, Frieda |
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 |
|
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
|
Peppe the Lamplighter
A young Italian immigrant boy has to find a job lighting the lamps to help support his invalid father and many sisters. His proud father thinks it is inferior work until the night the boy refuses to light the lamps, and his little sister does not return
| Author: Bartone, Elisa |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
River of Dreams
This beautiful book is a tribute to the Hudson River and its strategic, economic and cultural significance throughout history.
| Author: Talbot, Hudson |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies | language arts - reading | language arts - writing
|
September 11, 2001
A New York Times journalist has chosen to tell the chronology of September 11, 2001, through personal stories. Photographs, maps and diagrams, and a bibliography provide additional resources.
| Author: Hampton, Wilborn |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Shutting Out the Sky
Subtitled "Life in the Tenements of New York, 1880-1924,," the chapters in this book offer information and perspectives on all aspects of immigration and life in NYC. Photographs and text document the experiences of five individuals from Belarus, Italy, L
| Author: Hopkinson, Deborah |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Tenement: Immigrant Life on the Lower East Side
Lots of photographs and a fairly easy-to-read text tell the story of the tenements that were built to house immigrants during the turn of the century (19th - 20th). Further reading includes books for adults and children as well as related WWW sites.
| Author: Bial, Raymond |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
This Is the Rope: A Story from the Great Migration
A rope found by a little girl becomes a multigenerational object to her family and helps to tell the story of their migration from the South. It has many uses and eventually becomes a storytelling prompt.
| Author: Woodeson, Jacqueline |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Science
Science > scientists/inventors
Science > scientists/inventors > Newton, Isaac
Library, The
A delightfully illustrated story in verse about a shy, avid reader who gave her books to form a town library.
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