Imogene’s Last Stand
Author: Candace Fleming
Illustrator: Nancy Carpenter
Published October 13th, 2009 by Schwartz & Wade
Goodreads Summary: Meet Imogene, a plucky heroine with a passion for history.
As a baby, Imogene’s first words were “Four score and seven years ago.” In preschool, she fingerpainted a map of the Oregon Trail. So it’s not surprising that when the mayor wants to tear down the long-neglected Liddleton Historical Society to make room for a shoelace factory, Imogene is desperate to convince the town how important its history is. But even though she rides through the streets in her Paul Revere costume shouting, “The bulldozers are coming, the bulldozers are coming!” the townspeople won’t budge. What’s a history-loving kid to do?
Filled with quotes from history’s biggest players—not to mention mini-bios on the endpapers—and lots of humor, here’s the perfect book for budding historians.
Review: Imogene is awesome! Her whole life she has loved history and has promoted history. History is her passion. When she finds out that the Liddleville Historical Center is up for demolition, she does everything in her power to save the history center. This, in a nutshell, is what makes her awesome: she is intelligent, passionate, and willing to stand up for her passion. Because of this, and the history allusions throughout the book, make this such an excellent book to use in classrooms. Imogene is such a great role model for any child.
The history aspects of this book were done so cleverly. Throughout Imogene’s story, she uses famous historical quotes to express how she feels at certain points. For example, when she was trying to get others to stop the bulldozing of the historical center dressed in her Paul Revere costume, she rode around Main Street (on her stick horse) yelling, “The bulldozers are coming! The bulldozers are coming!” These clever quotes are throughout the book. Then in the back and front end sheets Imogene’s historical tidbits are shared explaining all of the quotes.
Teacher’s Tools for Navigation: Like I said in the review, this book is a great for promoting history, intelligence, and passion. Like many of the amazing picture books I’ve been reading lately, it also promotes inquiry because it makes history interesting and fun.
Discussion Questions: What is a historical landmark in your city? Find out about what made it a landmark.; Imogene is passionate about history. What are you passionate about? Share the essentials of your passion.
We Flagged: “Imogene loved history. When she was a baby, her first words were “Four score and seven years ago.” As a preschooler, she finger-painted an accurate map of the Oregon Trail. And as a kindergartner, she used her show-and-tell time to give a series of lectures on important woman in history.” (p. 6)
To see a preview of the illustrations, visit Amazon’s “Look Inside” for Imogene’s Last Stand.
Read This If You Loved: Abe Lincoln’s Dream and John, Paul, George, & Ben by Lane Smith, Of Thee I Sing by Barack Obama, Looking at Lincoln by Maira Kalman, Nonfiction books about the historical figures mentioned
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Excellent book! I’ve recommended it to others many times!!
http://www.bighairandbooks.blogspot.com
Cannot wait until granddaughter “Imogene” is old enough to see she has a wonderful book whose great character has the same name. Awesome! Great review, too, Kellee!