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Alphabet City
Although we recommend alphabet books rarely and only with great cautions that teachers do not allow students to feel childish, this one is very unusual. This book is a collection of paintings of urban scenes, and each one presents the letter of the alpha
| Author: Johnson, Steven T. |
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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.
Barrio
Photographs present the life of Jose and his family who live in a barrio or Hispanic neighborhood in San Francisco. A glossary contains Spanish words used in the story. One reviewer felt that the glorification/simplification of the issues addressed may m
| Author: Ancona, George |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
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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
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Butterfly Seeds, The
When Jake sails with his family for America, his grandfather gives him a gift of special seeds that will evoke memories of his grandfather in his new home.
| Author: Watson, Mary |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
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By Dawn's Early Light
The book follows the activities of two children cared for by their grandmother and the activities of their mother who works the night shift at a factory. The story illustrates how a family still finds time to be together.
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.
December
Simon and his mother celebrate Christmas in the cardboard house they built for themselves. They offer to share the little they have with an old woman. Later, Simon sees a miracle.
| Author: Bunting, Eve |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
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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.
Good Morning, City
While most people sleep, some go to work, machines clean streets, subways rumble underground, etc. Through simple text and colorful illustrations, this book depicts morning in the city.
Gowanus Dogs
A homeless man meets some homeless dogs. The meeting changes everyone's life.
Great Fire, The
By weaving personal accounts from survivors together with carefully researched history, Jim Murphy constructs a riveting narrative that recreates the great Chicago fire with drama and immediacy. Authentic photos and drawings complement the text.
| Author: Murphy, Jim |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
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Great Migration, The
This book consists of reprints of a series of sixty paintings, by Jacob Lawrence, depicting the migration of African-Americans from the South to the North. In search of a better life, people moved by the thousands, from rural lifestyles to urban poverty.
| Author: Lawrence, Jacob |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
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In Nueva York
This collection of short, interlocking stories depicts life in one of New York City's Puerto Rican communities.
| Author: Mohr, Nicholasa |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
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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 |
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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 |
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Mama Provi and the Pot of Rice
Mama Provi lives on the first floor of an apartment building and her granddaughter, Lucy, lives on the eighth floor. When Mama Provi heads up with a pot of arroz con pollo to comfort Lucy (who has chicken pox), a simple pot of chicken and rice is transfo
| Author: Rosa-Casanova, Sylvia |
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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
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Memories of Summer
The novel is set in 1955. A father and 2 daughters (Lyric, the narrator, is 13 and sister Summer is 16) move from rural Kentucky to Flint, MI. The story is about the move, about Lyric's adjustment, but mostly about Summer's descent into mental illness and
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 |
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One Yellow Daffodil: A Hanukkah Story
Morris Kaplan, a Holocaust survivor, owns a flower shop that two children visit each Friday to buy Sabbath flowers. The children are surprised to learn that their friend Morris hasn't celebrated Hanukkah since his childhood. They insist that he join the
| Author: Adler, David |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
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Pearl Moscowitz's Last Stand
Pearl M., a long-time resident of her city street, refuses to let the city chop down the last gingko tree on the block. The book depicts the different ethnic groups that have moved on the street, but shows a real community of people interacting and livin
| Author: Levine, Arthur A. |
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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
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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 |
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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
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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
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Sanctuary, The
Little Man, age 10, thinks that Tico and Aaron should let him join their gang. But first he must retrieve a piece of junk from the altar "sanctuary" that "crazy" Lucy Johnson built in her backyard. Little Man gets caught and comes to know and love the o
| Author: Eskridge, Ann |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
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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
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Seedfolks
Thirteen people of different ethnic backgrounds who are strangers to each other tell their stories of a vacant lot in Cleveland that becomes a neighborhood garden. The book jacket refers to the "harvest of hidden lives" and a "hymn to the power of plants
smoky night
1
| Author: bunting, eve |
HSE Descriptors:
literature and arts | literature and arts | literature and arts | literature and arts | literature and arts
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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
|
Tai Chi Morning: Snapshots of China
The travel journal and poems of the author and the travel sketches of the illustrator combine to depict China a decade ago.
Teacup Full of Roses
Three brothers live with their mother, disabled father and aging aunt in Washington, D.C. during the Vietnam war. Paul, the oldest and his mother's favorite, returns home from another drug rehabilitation program just as Joe, the middle very responsible s
| Author: Mathis, Sharon |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
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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
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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
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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 |
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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
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