Family
Family > children
Angel to Angel
The author-poet celebrates mothers in this collection of poems illustrated by archival photographs of African American families.
| Author: Myers, Walter Dean |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
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 |
|
Boys' War, The
This award-winning book uses firsthand accounts of experiences to offer a look at the role of young (some as young as 12) soldiers in the Civil War.
| Author: Murphy, Jim |
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 |
|
Glorious Angels
The author has collected photographs of children and families from around the world to illustrate his prose-poem about children.
| Author: Myers, Walter Dean |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
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
|
Immigrant Kids
In this unique book, noted nonfiction writer Russell Freedman offers a rare glimpse of what it meant to be a young newcomer to America in the early 1900s.
| Author: Freedman, Russell |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
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.
Mississippi Mud: Three Prairie Journals
Three pioneer children recount their trip across the prairie in a series of easy-to-read poems.
| Author: Turner, Ann |
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
|
Once Upon a Company: A True Story
This is the true story of how 3 children began a business, first making Christmas wreaths and later adding other products.
| Author: Halperin, Wendy Anderson |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies | math
|
Orphan Train Rider: One Boy's True Story
Between 1859 and 1929, more than 200,000 children were sent "west" on Orphan Trains. The chapters in this book alternate between telling the larger history of this event and telling the individual story of one Orphan Train Rider, Lee Nailling.
| Author: Warren, Andrea |
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
|
Way a Door Closes, The
Told in a poetry format, a teenage boy describes his reaction to his father's leaving the family, and then to his return.
| Author: Smith, Hope Anita |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | language arts - writing
|
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
|
Family > children > childhood
American Boy: The Adventures of Mark Twain
This biography of Sam Clemens focuses primarily on his childhood. Readers will see many parallels between young Sam's adventures and those of his famous characters Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn.
| Author: Brown, Don |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
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
Brown Angels: An Album of Picture and Verse
This book is a collection of very short poems and photographs of African-American children. Many of the photos are from the turn of the century.
| Author: Myers, Walter Dean |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Coming Home
The book tells the story of Langston Hughes' lonely childhood, demonstrating that certain themes and ideas that later emerged in Hughes' poetry grew from his experiences as a child.
| Author: Cooper, Floyd |
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.
First Impressions: Andrew Wyeth
This biography of Andrew Wyeth is the result of a friendship between the artist and the author. The book focuses on Wyeth's early years, his relationship with his father, and his development as an artist. One reader felt that the vocabulary might be diff
| Author: Meryman, Richard |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Knoxville, Tennessee
This brief and beautifully illustrated poem celebrates a young child's summer in Knoxville, TN.
| Author: Giovanni, Nikki |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
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.
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
|
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
|
Salt: A Story of Friendship in Time of War
Set in the Indiana Territory, this story of two friends - Anikwa, a Miami Indian and James, the son of a white trader become friends despite the conflict of their heritage. This book is uniquely crafted in two style of poetic verse. Salt plays a symbolic
| Author: Frost, Helen |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies | language arts - reading
|
Silent Music
A young boy in present-day Baghdad learns Arabic calligraphy to distract him from the bombing of his city. The gorgeous illustrations invite the reader to learn to write the Arabic words for "war" and "peace." An author's note gives the historical backg
| Author: Rumford, James |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Stand for Children
Marian Wright Edelman delivered this speech at the Stand for Children demonstration in 1996 in Washington, D.C. Pictures of photo-transfer quilts with multicultural themes illustrate the book. An Author's Note gives background on the demonstration.
| Author: Edelman, Marian Wright |
|
To Go Singing Through the World
The childhood of one of Chile's most famous poets is told through a juxtaposition of the author's narrative and Neruda's own words. This beautifully illustrated biography includes excerpts of poems, maps, a time line, and a concise full-life biography.
| Author: Ray, Deborah Kogan |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
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.
Family > children > childhood memories
Before I Was Your Mother
A mother tells her daughter stories about herself before she became a mother who does many things.
Before John Was a Jazz Giant
The author imagines the sounds of John Coltrane's childhood that influenced his musical compositions as an adult. A historical note, selected listening and further reading are included.
| Author: Weatherford, Carole Boston |
|
Before John Was a Jazz Giant
The author imagines the sounds of John Coltrane's childhood that influenced his musical compositions as an adult. A historical note, selected listening and further reading are included.
| Author: Weatherford, Carole Boston |
|
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
|
Dear Willie Rudd
Miss Elizabeth, thinking 50 years back, remembers Willie Rudd, the African American housekeeper who raised her, her mother, and her grandmother. She writes a letter to the long-dead Willie Rudd in which she explains the past and expresses her feelings.
| Author: Gray, Libba Moore |
|
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
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
|
Families
The author interviewed 15 children from a variety of families. Each interview is accompanied by a photo of the family selected by the child.
| Author: Kuklin, Susan |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Four Perfect Pebbles: A Holocaust Story
Author's memoir of the years that shaped her childhood as her Jewish family is trapped in Nazi Germany, sent to prison camps, and escapes to the United States.
| Author: Perl, Lila and Blumenthal, Marion Lazan |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | social studies
|
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.
Grandmama's Pride
This is a most beautiful book focusing on the segregation practiced in the south during the 1950's leading to the civil rights laws passed in the 60's. The illustrations make the book come alive with details showing the inequalities practiced in every day
| Author: Birtha, Becky |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Grandmama's Pride
This is a most beautiful book focusing on the segregation practiced in the south during the 1950's leading to the civil rights laws passed in the 60's. The illustrations make the book come alive with details showing the inequalities practiced in every day
| Author: Birtha, Becky |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Hidden Child
A survivor of the Holocaust describes with illustrations and text his hiding in France during World War II and his search for his family and friends after the war.
| Author: Millman, Isaac |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
How I Discovered Poetry
Marilyn Nelson describes her childhood in America in the 1950s, as the daughter of an African American Army officer. The poems span from her fourth to fourteenth year and touch aspects of civil rights, "Red Scare," atom bomb and the stirrings of the femin
| Author: Nelson, Marilyn |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | social studies | language arts - writing
|
In Coal Country
Living in a small Ohio mining town, a small girl tells of her family's life in the first part of this century.
| Author: Hendershot, Judith |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
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
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
|
Mercedes and the Chocolate Pilot
During the occupation of Germany after WW II, a young girl writes a letter to an American airlift pilot who drops chocolates to children. The author includes a biography of Col. Halvorsen, "the chocolate pilot" of the title.
Mississippi Mud: Three Prairie Journals
Three pioneer children recount their trip across the prairie in a series of easy-to-read poems.
| Author: Turner, Ann |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
My Mama Had a Dancing Heart
In simple poetic language, a ballet dancer recalls how she and her mother welcomed the seasons by dancing outdoors and being together.
| Author: Gray, Libba Moore |
|
No Pretty Pictures: A Child of War
A touching recounting of a Jewish child's survival in Nazi Poland. Hidden with her Catholic nanny, Anita and her younger brother are hidden for years but are eventually caught and imprisoned. After freedom, they are both sent to a sanatorium for tubercul
| Author: Lobel, Anita |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | social studies
|
Other Side, The
Spurred by a letter from her grandmother saying that "they're pulling Shorter down," the poet returns to the people and places of her childhood in Shorter, Alabama. The poems are accessible and concise but filled with powerful feeling. Photographs from
Rescued Images
The author contributes a moving and strikingly illustrated memoir of her experience of being a "hidden child" in Holland during World War II and its far-reaching effect.
| Author: Jacobsen, Ruth |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Richard Wright and the Library Card
This is a 'slice of life' biography about the author Richard Wright set in his late adolescence/ young adulthood. Events deal with discrimination, Richard's discovery of literature, and how he decided to become an author.
| Author: Miller, William |
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
|
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
|
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."
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.
Slavery Time: When I Was Chillun
Excerpts from 12 oral histories from former slaves, gathered during the Depression by WPA workers, provide several perspectives about slave life as remembered by the people interviewed, who were in their 80s and 90s at the time of the interviews.
| Author: Hurmence, Belinda |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
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
|
That Summer
A boy looks back on the summer that his brother became ill and died.
This Land is My Land
By telling his own story in words and in art, Littlefield describes what it is to be Native-American in the United States. He pays tribute to his ancestors and to the Native-American culture and history.
| Author: Littlechild, George |
|
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
|
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.
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.
Zlata's Diary
Eleven-year old Zlata keeps a diary during the siege of Sarajevo in 1992-93. The first part of the diary has insights about a child living her life in war torn Sarajevo, the second part becomes tedious and repetitive.
| Author: Filipovic, Zlata |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Family > children > foster children
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.
Every Living Thing
Each story in this collection features an animal, and in every case the existence of the animal helps to foster the feelings of love or compassion in the people. The stories touch upon topics such as alcoholism, aging, loneliness, and foster parenting.
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.
Gratefully Yours
Orphaned by a New York tenement fire in 1920, Hattie rides an orphan train to Nebraska where she joins the Jansen household, Henry and his wife Elizabeth. The story relates the loss and healing process that both Hattie and Elizabeth experience. The stor
| Author: Buchanan, Jane |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Locomotion
Lonnie, a.k.a. Locomotion, is encouraged by his teacher Ms. Marcus to write poetry. His poems, in many, many forms but all accessible, tell his story of losing parents in a fire, separation from his sister, group homes, and foster care.
| Author: Woodson, Jacqueline |
|
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
|
Looks Like Daylight:Voices of Indigenous Kids
For two years writer and activist Deborah Ellis traveled across the United States and Canada, interviewing Indigenous young people. The result is a collection of frank and often surporising interviews with kids aged 9 to 19, as they talk about their dail
| Author: Ellis, Deborah |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - writing | social studies | language arts - reading
|
Peace, Locomotion
This book is a collection of the letters and poems Lonnie, hero of the book Locomotion, writes to his sister Lili, who lives with a different foster parent than Lonnie does. The book is remarkably upbeat while dealing with the family issues that Lonnie an
| Author: Woodson, Jacqueline |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - writing
|
Peace, Locomotion
This book is a collection of the letters and poems Lonnie, hero of the book Locomotion, writes to his sister Lili, who lives with a different foster parent than Lonnie does. The book is remarkably upbeat while dealing with the family issues that Lonnie an
| Author: Woodson, Jacqueline |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - writing
|
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
|
Train to Somewhere
Marianne heads west with 14 other children on an Orphan Train, certain that her mother will be waiting for her at one of the stops. No one shows interest in adopting Marianne until the train arrives at a place called Somewhere, where Marianne meets her n
| Author: Bunting, Eve |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
History
History > topic
History > topic > war
History > topic > war > children and war
Anne Frank: Beyond the Diary
This nonfiction reference book is filled with photographs and details about Anne Frank, her family, and the world in which she lived.
| Author: Verhoeven, Rian & van der Rol, Ruud |
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
Boys' War, The
This award-winning book uses firsthand accounts of experiences to offer a look at the role of young (some as young as 12) soldiers in the Civil War.
| Author: Murphy, Jim |
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
|
Cats in Krasinski Square, The
With a simple text and marvelous watercolors, Hesse tells a true story of the bravery of the Jewish Resistance who helped the Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto during World War II. End matter provides more historical background.
| Author: Hesse, Karen |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Drummer Boy
A 13-year-old boy, awed by hearing Lincoln make a speech, lies about his age to take part in the Civil War. He becomes a drummer boy and in this role experiences much of war's horror.
| Author: Turner, Ann |
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
|
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
|
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
|
Four Perfect Pebbles: A Holocaust Story
Author's memoir of the years that shaped her childhood as her Jewish family is trapped in Nazi Germany, sent to prison camps, and escapes to the United States.
| Author: Perl, Lila and Blumenthal, Marion Lazan |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | 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
|
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
|
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
|
Hidden Child
A survivor of the Holocaust describes with illustrations and text his hiding in France during World War II and his search for his family and friends after the war.
| Author: Millman, Isaac |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
I Never Saw Another Butterfly
This book consists of poems and drawings done by children living in the Terezin Concentration Camp in Czechoslovakia during World War II, a solid introduction, and historical information stating the fates of the children authors/artists. Students and tea
| Author: Volavkova, Hana (Ed.) |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Katie's Trunk
This book, which provides a glimpse of the beginnings of the American Revolution, is based on a true incident that happened to one of the author's ancestors. It's set around the time of the Boston Tea Party and tells the story of what happened to Katie,
| Author: Turner, Ann |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Long Way Gone, A: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
The story of a Sierra Leonian boy who at age 12 was recruited and forced into being a gun toting, drug crazed soldier and then learned how to live with what he had done after going through a UNICEF rehabilitation program.
| Author: Beah, Ishmael |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Love You, Soldier
This touching story about the effects of WW II on one family is told through the eyes of seven-year-old Katie. (NOTE: This is a short chapter book that will be very easy for students to read.)
| Author: Hest, Amy |
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
|
Mercedes and the Chocolate Pilot
During the occupation of Germany after WW II, a young girl writes a letter to an American airlift pilot who drops chocolates to children. The author includes a biography of Col. Halvorsen, "the chocolate pilot" of the title.
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
|
Mud City
Shauzia, with her dog, has fled Afghanistan and survives on the streets of Peshawar, Pakistan, and in a refugee camp. This is the second part of a trilogy.
| Author: Ellis, Deborah |
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
|
No Pretty Pictures: A Child of War
A touching recounting of a Jewish child's survival in Nazi Poland. Hidden with her Catholic nanny, Anita and her younger brother are hidden for years but are eventually caught and imprisoned. After freedom, they are both sent to a sanatorium for tubercul
| Author: Lobel, Anita |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | social studies
|
October 45
Subtitled "Childhood Memories of the War," this book tells the author's observations of life from September, 1939, when France and England enter the war against Germany, through October, 1945, when Besson goes back to school in peace for the first time.
| Author: Besson, Jean Louis |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Once On This Island
Twelve-year-old Mary and her older brother and sister tend the family farm on Michigan's Mackinac Island while their father is away fighting the British in the War of 1812.
| Author: Whelan, Gloria |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | social studies
|
One More Border
Illustrated with paintings, documents, and photos, this is the true story of a family's escape from war-torn Europe during WW II.
| Author: Kaplan, William |
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
|
Rescued Images
The author contributes a moving and strikingly illustrated memoir of her experience of being a "hidden child" in Holland during World War II and its far-reaching effect.
| Author: Jacobsen, Ruth |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Roses in My Carpet, The
This story of a young refugee boy from Afghanistan was inspired by a real child. The boy lives in a refugee camp and weaves rugs.
| Author: Khan, Rukhsana |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
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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
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Shin's Tricycle
This powerful story tells about the effects of the atom bomb on an ordinary Japanese family, especially on the little boy Shin. It ends with an author's note about the Peace Museum.
| Author: Kodama, Tatsuharu |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Silent Music
A young boy in present-day Baghdad learns Arabic calligraphy to distract him from the bombing of his city. The gorgeous illustrations invite the reader to learn to write the Arabic words for "war" and "peace." An author's note gives the historical backg
| Author: Rumford, James |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Silent Witness A True Story of the Civil War, The
Lulu McLean, age four, lived in Manassas, Virginia on a plantation when the Civil War started. General Beauregard established his headquarters in her home. Shortly after, Lulu's father moved the family to Appomattox Court House, where the surrender to end
| Author: Friedman, Robin |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | social studies
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Soldier's Heart
15-year-old Charley Goddard lies about his age to enlist in the Civil War. This book chronicles his war experiences (some very graphic) with the First Minnesota Volunteers. At the end of the book we learn a bit about how the War affected Charley's mind a
| Author: Paulsen, Gary |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Thunder at Gettysburg
This book is written in five chapters of free verse and tells the story of a young girl who was a witness to the battle of Gettysburg in 1863. The text is accompanied by several line drawings and a concluding historical note.
| Author: Gauch, Patricia |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Tree Girl
Based on true experiences that were shared with the author, Gabriela, a Guatemalan girl who loves to climb trees, escapes a massacre, eventually reaching a refugee camp where she is reunited with her little sister, both of whom must overcome the trauma an
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
|
War Boy: A Country Childhood
The author describes his childhood in a small coastal town in England, which was often bombed during WW II. He offers technical descriptions of gas masks, bomb shelters, etc., as well as describing the games children played and how they interacted with s
| Author: Foreman, Michael |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Why War Is Never A Good Idea
This beautifully illustrated poetic essay uses images of water and earth to communicate the destructiveness of war. Dscribes war as a "something which has grown old, but not wise as it destroys beautiful things and nice people."
| Author: Walker, Alice |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Zlata's Diary
Eleven-year old Zlata keeps a diary during the siege of Sarajevo in 1992-93. The first part of the diary has insights about a child living her life in war torn Sarajevo, the second part becomes tedious and repetitive.
| Author: Filipovic, Zlata |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Work
Work > children
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
|
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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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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Once Upon a Company: A True Story
This is the true story of how 3 children began a business, first making Christmas wreaths and later adding other products.
| Author: Halperin, Wendy Anderson |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies | math
|
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
|
Work
Interesting photographs and spare text describe work. (Note that a child's point of view is portrayed.)
| Author: Morris, Ann |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
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
|
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