History – Page 23 – Unleashing Readers

Harlem: A Poem by Walter Dean Myers

May 24, 2024November 8, 2013 by Kellee

Harlem: A Poem
Author: Walter Dean Myers
Illustrator: Christopher Myers
Published 1997 by Scholastic Press

Goodreads Summary: Walter Dean Myers calls to life the deep, rich, and hope-filled history of Harlem, this crucible of American culture.

Christopher Myers’ boldly assembled collage art resonates with feeling, and tells a tale all its own. Words and pictures together connect readers -of all ages – to the spirit of Harlem in its music, art, literature, and everyday life, and to how it has helped shape us as a people.

My Review & Teacher’s Tools For Navigation: After reading this book the first time, I knew I was going to have to tackle it differently than just reading a picture book. I wanted to make sense of it and I knew that I didn’t have the background knowledge so I knew that the power of all of the words had not sunk in yet. So, I typed up the poem in Google Drive and began doing my very own close reading of the poem. I started with research of terms and names that I didn’t know, building my knowledge of the culture and history of Harlem. Through this build up of knowledge, I began to understand the beauty behind Myers’s poem. The voice of this poem is one of heartbreak, but strength; proud of not only what he has become, but where he came from. This poem is a celebration of the history of Harlem and its citizens—a celebration of its religion, music, poets, authors, and everything that made/makes it a hub for the civil rights movement and African America culture.

While doing my research, I found an amazing website that I will definitely use when teaching this poetry book- Harlem: A Visual Interpretative Analysis– which takes an excerpt of the poem and an accompanied collage and takes the reader through an analysis of the excerpt and artwork. Fascinating!

This book would be a great one to use across many different subject areas- history, literature, and art.

Discussion Questions: What references to Harlem’s history did Myers entertwine into his poem?; How did Christopher Myers’s illustrations take the poem to another level?; (Writing) Do research about your ancestors and your heritage. Through this research, find people, places, literature, art, musicians, etc. that helped shape who you or your family are. Use this research to construct a poem about your heritage. Find a piece of artwork to accompany your poem.

We Flagged:

The uptown A
Rattles past 110th street
Unreal to real
Relaxing the soul

Shango and Jesus
Asante and Mende
One people, a hundred different
People
Huddled masses
And crowded dreams

Read This If You Loved: Duke Ellington: The Piano Prince and His Orchestra and Ella Fitzgerald: The Tale of a Vocal Virtuosa by Andrea Davis Pinkney, The Complete Poems including Harlem by Langston Hughes, Harlem Summer by Walter Dean Myers, Nonfiction books about Harlem

Recommended For:

History News: Greek News by Anton Powell and Philip Steele

October 16, 2013 by Kellee

Nonfiction Picture Book Wednesday

Nonfiction Picture Book Wednesday is hosted by Kid Lit Frenzy and was started to help promote the reading of nonfiction texts. Most Wednesdays, we will be participating and will review a nonfiction text (though it may not always be a picture book).
Be sure to visit Kid Lit Frenzy and see what other nonfiction books are shared this week!

History News: The Greek News
Author: Anton Powell and Philip Steele
Illustrator: Various
Published March 10th, 2009 by Candlewick Press

Goodreads Summary: At home or at school, these innovative titles make history come alive

Read all About it Now, with The Greek News and The Roman News, life in ancient Greece and Rome is presented in the form of a daily newspaper written at the time. As accessible as your morning paper, The Greek News and The Roman News will give young readers the unforgettable sense of actually being a citizen of an ancient nation.

Stop the presses! What if ancient civilizations had daily newspapers? And they were amusing and compellingly informative? They might just look like this innovative series of historical nonfiction, presented in a unique, kid-friendly format.

Presents a “special edition” of a Greek newspaper which spans the years 1500 to 146 B.C. and contains articles about history, politics, feasts, fashions, theater, gods, and wars.

My Review: Set up like a Greek newspaper, The Greek News takes important events from the history of Greece and transcribes them as articles. The articles range in topics including Sparta, Alexander the Great, politics, army/navy life, trades, sports, woman, mythology, arts, education, philosophy, and traditions.

Teacher’s Tools For Navigation: The book is so well done with each page including a main article as well as other features including sidebars, maps, advertisements, diagrams, illustrations and political cartoons. I think students will like reading/learning about Greece more from this text than other because the unique format shares the information as if it was happening in the present and puts the reader in the middle of Greece. It also throws in some humor which students will love. This text can lead to such great discussions about not only Greece, but war, philosophy, mythology, propaganda, and so many other things.

Discussion Questions: [Writing prompt] Use The Greek News as a guide to create your own newspaper-esque piece sharing the history of a historical fiction book which you have read.

We Flagged: “In 415 B.C., Athens tried to add to its territory by conquering the island of Sicily. The results were disastrous – thousands of Athenian soldiers and hundreds of warships were lost. The Spartans leaped on Athens’s weakness and cut off the city’s supply of wealth from its silver mines…” (“Sparta Attacks!” p. 6)

“You know what it’s like. One minute your life is going smoothly, then, just when you least expect it, the gods turn their back on you and disaster strikes! Don’t panic – The Greek News will tell you everything you need to know about keeping the gods on your side.” (Lead paragraph for “Pleasing the Gods” p. 20-21)

“Socrates is to die! The jury of 501 men has made its decision – Socrates is guilty of not believing in the state-approved gods and of leading young people astray with his teaching.” (“Death by Poison, pg. 27)

Read This If You Loved: Any non-fiction or fiction text about Greece

Recommended For:

The Mary Celeste: An Unsolved Mystery from History by Jane Yolen and Heidi Elisabet Yolen Stemple

October 9, 2013October 9, 2013 by Kellee

Nonfiction Picture Book Wednesday

The Mary Celeste: An Unsolved Mystery from History
Author: Jane Yolen and Heidi Elisabet Yolen Stemple
Illustrator: Roger Roth
Published July 1st, 2002 by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

Goodreads Summary: The Mary Celeste was discovered adrift on the open sea by another ship in 1872 — with no sign of captain or crew. What happened? Did the crew mutiny? Were they attacked by pirates? Caught in a storm? No one ever found out.

Inside this book are the clues that were left behind and the theories of what people think happened aboard that ship. Become a detective, study the clues, and see if you can help solve this chilling mystery from history.

My Review: This is the final book in the Unsolved Mystery from History series and I think it may be my favorite yet. Like The Wolf Girls, I had not heard about the Mary Celeste before this book, but this mystery was just so enthralling! A crew that just disappears?!?! How?!?! After reading the book, I spent hours online reading about the Mary Celeste and it is so interesting. There are so many websites and opinions and theories—all which would be so much fun to share with students.

Teacher’s Tools for Navigation: Like the other books in this series, I would love to see these books used in classrooms (history or language arts/reading). These books promote studying history, asking questions, inquiry, and vocabulary. Each book begins with an introduction about a young girl who enjoys unsolved mysteries from history and then the books are set up like her case notebook. Each page of the case notebook includes a narrative nonfiction section, an informational nonfiction section where facts about the story are explained even more in detail, and then there are vocabulary words from the two sections defined for the reader. Finally, in the back of the books the different theories about what could be the answer to the unsolved mystery are shared and briefly discussed. The set up of this book leads to infinite possibilities of being used in the classroom. Students could debate, write research papers, could do their very own case notebook about a different mystery, etc. Another option is to get all of the Unsolved Mystery from History books and have students get into lit circle groups and have each group read a different mystery then research and share. The other books in the series are about the Salem Witch Trials, the Wolf Girls, and Roanoke.

Discussion Questions: Which of the theories do you think happened?; Do you trust Captain Morehouse? Why or why not?; One theory mentions a kraken. Do you think sea monsters exist?; Study the weather of the Pacific during the time period the ship disappeared. Is weather an option for the crew’s disappearance?

We Flagged: Narrative Nonfiction “The last place the men looked was in the ship’s hold where her cargo- 1,700 barrels of raw alcohol- was well stowed. Not a single barrel had been opened. All in all, Deveau and Wright looked around the Mary Celeste for over half an hour. They found no sign of anyone on board, no signs of struggle.”

Informative Nonfiction “The cargo was alcohol stored in red oak barrels. Red oak is a porous wood that lets alcohol fumes escape. When the barrels were examined, some of the alcohol was found to be gone, but that was entirely due to evaporation. According to reports, the barrels were “in good order” and not “in any way injury.” Besides, the alcohol was was raw alcohol which was to be used for fortifying Italian wines. Anyone drinking it unprocessed would not become drunk, but would rather lapse into a coma or die. Only one hatch was found open, but there was no sign of smoke damage or an explosion in the unventilated hold.”

Vocabulary “Hold: the area inside the ship where cargo is stored; Cargo: the goods being transported by the ship” (p. 20-21)

Read This If You Loved: The other Unsolved Mystery from History books

Recommended For:

I’m so sad that I am done reviewing the Unsolved Mystery from History series, but I hope you have enjoyed learning about them as I enjoyed reading them.

Roanoke, The Lost Colony: An Unsolved Mystery from History by Jane Yolen and Heidi Elisabet Yolen Stemple

October 13, 2013October 2, 2013 by Kellee

Nonfiction Picture Book Wednesday

Roanoke, The Lost Colony: An Unsolved Mystery from History
Author: Jane Yolen and Heidi Elisabeth Yolen Stemple
Illustrator: Roger Roth
Published July 1st, 2003 by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

Goodreads Summary: In 1587 John White was chosen by Sir Walter Raleigh to lead a new colony at Roanoke off the Atlantic coast. After bringing many men, women, and children to the new land, White went back to England to gather supplies for the long winter. But when he finally returned to the fort almost three years later, he found that all of the colonists had vanished. The only signs of life left were the letters CRO carved into a tree and the word CROATOAN carved into one of the fort’s posts. Some people think that the Spanish army captured the colonists; some people think that the local native people murdered them; others think that the colonists went off to live with the native people and start a new life. Still others think that the colonists tried to sail home to England and were lost at sea. No one knows for sure. Become a detective as you read this true story, study the clues, and try to figure out the fate of the lost colony of Roanoke. The Unsolved Mystery from History series is written by acclaimed author Jane Yolen and former private investigator Heidi Elisabet Yolen Stemple. Read carefully and check your clues. You might be the first to solve a puzzle that has baffled people for years.

My Review: Just like all of the others in this series, I found this story fascinating. Unlike, The Wolf Girls, this is a mystery from history that I wanted to learn more about. I had heard of Roanoke, but I didn’t know anything except that it is the lost colony where everyone disappeared. I was never taught about Roanoke, so this was my initial introduction to the colony and man, it is all so fascinating!

Teacher’s Tools For Navigation: I am going to sound like a broken record here, but this, like the other parts of the series, can be used in such amazing ways in the classroom! Check out my Salem Witch Trials and The Wolf Girls reviews to read about how I envision these books being used in the classroom.

Discussion Questions: What do you think happened to everyone? Do you agree with any of the theories given at the end or do you have one of your own?

We Flagged: Narrative nonfiction “The colonists left Portsmouth on April 26, 1587. They planned to meet with the soldiers, then go to Chesapeake Bay, north of Roanoke, where the land was more fertile and the harbor was safer. They sailed in three boats: a flyboat; a pinnace; and the flagship, Lyon. After a month and a haft at sea they reached the Americas at last, stopping first on several islands. At Santa Cruz several colonists ate green fruit. Their lips and tongues swelled badly. A number of people drank from a pond that had ‘water so evil’ they fell dreadfully ill. Some who washed their faces in the water had swollen eyes for five or six days after. They captured five huge tortoises for meat—so large, sixteen men become exhausted hauling them back to the ship.”

Informational nonfiction “For long ocean journeys several types of ships were generally used, including: Flagship- the fleet’s largest, best, or safest ship, on which the commander sailed; Flyboat- a large boat with one or two masts, generally square rigged; Pinnace- a smaller, faster, more maneuverable boat that sometimes carried oars.”

Vocabulary “Fertile: capable of supporting a plentiful crop; Tortoise: land turtle of the warm climates, a good food source because the meat doesn’t spoil quickly” (p. 10-11)

Read This If You Loved: Any of the Unsolved Mysteries from History, Nonfiction books about Roanoke

Recommended For:

Crankee Doodle by Tom Angleberger

October 13, 2013September 21, 2013 by Kellee

Crankee Doodle
Author: Tom Angelberger
Illustrator: Cece Bell
Published June 4th, 2013 by Clarion Books

Goodreads Summary: “Yankee Doodle went to town / a-riding on a pony / stuck a feather in his hat / and called it macaroni.” Many know the song “Yankee Doodle Dandy,” but few understand it. This unapologetically silly picture book reveals that the legendary ride to town (and the whole macaroni thing) was all suggested by Mr. Doodle’s overeager pony. This just makes Mr. Doodle cranky: “I do not want macaroni. I do not want a feather. I do not want any other clothing, any other pasta, or any other parts of a bird. I do not want anything that they have in town!” A historical note ends this colorful, comical take on a nonsensical old song.

My Review: Tom Angleberger and Cece Bell are a match made in heaven (good think they found each other)! This book is funny from page one and will definitely get the reader giggling. The hilarious story line mixed with the colorful, exaggerated, silly illustrations make the reader purely engaged in the book. This book will definitely make the reader sing “Yankee Doodle” and want to read the book again.

Teacher’s Tools For Navigation: What I love about this book is that it’ll be a perfect read aloud, but it also connects to history by having a historical note in the back. Who wrote “Yankee Doodle”? No one knows, but what a great conversation started and a way to introduce Colonial America.

In the story, the word macaroni is also discussed. Macaroni used to mean fancy, but now it obviously doesn’t. What a way to begin a discussion of how words change meaning over time. There are TONS of words that have changed their meaning. Going over this and giving would really start a great discussion and could lead to some amazing activities.

Discussion Questions: Why would the British want to make fun of Americans during Colonial America?; How did the horse persuade Doodle to go to town?; How would this story have been different if the pony was the lazy and Doodle wasn’t?

We Flagged: Pony: “Macaroni is just another word for fancy.”
Doodle: “Says you. That’s the silliest thing I ever heard. Macaroni isn’t fancy. It’s macaroni. You know what’s fancy? Lasagna. Lasagna is fancy. Lasagna has all those little ripples in it, and then it gets baked with cheese and tomatoes and vegetables. Then you eat it with some garlic bread. Now, that’s fancy!” (p. 14-15)

Read This If You Loved: Imogene’s Last Stand by Candace Fleming, Rabbit and Robot by Cece Bell, Those Rebels, John and Tom by Barbara Kerley

Recommended For:

Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein

April 23, 2015September 12, 2013 by Ricki

Title: Rose under Fire
Author: Elizabeth Wein
Expected Publication: September 10th, 2013 by Miramax (Disney)

Summary: While flying an Allied fighter plane from Paris to England, American ATA pilot and amateur poet, Rose Justice, is captured by the Nazis and sent to Ravensbrück, the notorious women’s concentration camp. Trapped in horrific circumstances, Rose finds hope in the impossible through the loyalty, bravery and friendship of her fellow prisoners. But will that be enough to endure the fate that’s in store for her?

Elizabeth Wein, author of the critically-acclaimed and best-selling Code Name Verity, delivers another stunning WWII thriller. The unforgettable story of Rose Justice is forged from heart-wrenching courage, resolve, and the slim, bright chance of survival.

Review: Out of the thousands of books I’ve read, this one is going to sit among my all-time favorites. There is a phenomenal balance of history and narrative that will engage readers while offering harrowing lessons in history. I am not an air and space girl. My husband loves planes, and he was giddy when we went to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C. As much as I want to love planes, I don’t find them to be interesting. This book changed my outlook.

Rose under Fire has many similarities with Wein’s Code Name Verity. They are both written in an epistolary format, involve pilots/airplanes, and are set during World War II. Both offer wonderfully complex themes about friendship, loyalty, and the strength of women. However, Rose under Fire focuses more on concentration camps, while Code Name Verity dealt more with the interrogation techniques used during World War II. Neither of these two elements drove the novels, but they are two plot features that make the texts quite different from one other. I found CNV to be a bit slow in the beginning (which isn’t the case with all readers), but I was hooked to Rose under Fire from the very first page. Wein writes characters so vividly that I still feel their presence in my life, long after I finish the books. I recommend this book to everyone. It will appeal to readers of all ages, backgrounds, genders, and interest levels.

Teacher’s Tools for Navigation: Teachers, this is a MUST-HAVE book. It is phenomenally written and shows the truly complexity of young adult literature. It can be used to teach elements like setting, character, dialogue, the epistolary format, imagery, voice, and theme. Students might write letters back to Rose, or they could analyze one of the many well-developed characters in this story. It would also make for a great research unit of topics like the Nuremberg Trials, female WWII pilots, flying bombs, or the experimentation on Holocaust prisoners. History teachers will also find this text to be invaluable.

Discussion Questions: What loyalties did the Holocaust prisoners have for each other? What are some examples of incidents that showed this loyalty?; Why were the Rabbits so important to the concentration camp? What did they add to the story as a whole?; How does Maddie’s friendship with Rose differ from her friendship with Julie?; Why was Nick’s character important throughout the story? How does his level of importance change, and why?; Rose has very different friendships with many of the characters. Describe how three of these friendships differ from one another.; Does the novel end in a hopeful way? Why or why not?

We Flagged: I marked so many passages that it is hard to choose just a few, so I selected two longer quotes that show the quality of Wein’s writing.

Incredible Imagery:

“…and the reason everyone in there was trying to get out in the rain was because they were dying of thirst.

Really dying of it, I think.

Hands and arms and heads stuck out anywhere there was a gap—cupped hands collecting rainwater, some holding bowls or even just a piece of cloth to collect moisture—I saw one woman lying on her back with her hair in the black cinder mud at the tent’s edge, her mouth open, letting a rivulet of water stream down the canvas and into her mouth.”

And Beautiful Figurative Language:

“Hope—you think of hope as a bright thing, a strong thing, sustaining. But it’s not. It’s the opposite. It’s simply this: lumps of stale bread stuck down your shirt. Stale gray bread eked out with ground fish bones, which you won’t eat because you’re going to give it away, and maybe you’ll get a message through to your friend. That’s all you need.

God, I was hungry.”

Please note: The above quotes are from the Advanced Reader Copy. The e-book (a galley) did not provide page or chapter numbers. The quotes may change when the book is published.

Read This If You Loved: Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein, Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys, Nazi Hunters by Neal Bascomb, Night by Elie Wiesel

Recommended For:

Thank you to NetGalley and Disney for sending me the Advanced Reader Copy!

The Salem Witch Trials: An Unsolved Mystery from History by Jane Yolen & Heidi Elisabet Yolen Stemple

September 4, 2013September 4, 2013 by Kellee

Nonfiction Picture Book Wednesday

The Salem Witch Trials: An Unsolved Mystery from History
Authors: Jane Yolen & Heidi Elisabet Yolen Stemple
Illustrated by: Roger Roth
Published September 7th, 2004 by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

Goodreads Summary: In 1692 Salem, Massachusetts, witnessed one of the saddest and most inexplicable chapters in American history. When a group of girls came down with a horrible, mysterious bout of illness, the town doctor looked in his medical books but failed to find a reasonable diagnosis. Pretty soon everyone in town was saying the same thing: The girls were ill because they were under a spell, the spell of witchcraft! And still, the question remains: Why did the hysteria occur? The townspeople had many things to worry about back then: smallpox, strife with the local Indians, a preacher demanding higher wages, and the division of land in the community. But did all of those problems justify a witch hunt?

Become a detective as you read this true story, study the clues, and try to understand the hysteria! The Unsolved Mystery from History series is written by acclaimed author Jane Yolen and former private investigator Heidi Elisabet Yolen Stemple. This is an innovative history lesson that’s sure to keep kids thinking throughout.

Review: The mystery of the Salem Witch Trials is one that has haunted the United States for over 3oo years now and is one that students love to read about (and I do, too!). Most of my thoughts about this book are about how awesome this book is for the classroom. The Yolens seemed to have written it specifically for teachers to use.

Teacher’s Tools For Navigation: This book promotes studying history, inquiry, and vocabulary. The book begins with an introduction to a young girl who enjoys unsolved mysteries from history and then the book is set up like her case notebook. Each page of the case notebook includes a narrative nonfiction section about what was going on in Salem, an informational nonfiction section where facts about the story are explained even more in detail, and then there are vocabulary words from the two sections defined for the reader. Finally, in the back of the book the different theories about what could be the answer to the unsolved mystery are shared and briefly discussed. The set up of this book leads to infinite possibilities of being used in the classroom. Students could debate, write research papers, could do their very own case notebook about a different mystery, etc. Another option is to get all of the Unsolved Mystery from History books and have students get into lit circle groups and have each group read a different mystery then research and share.

Discussion Questions: What do you think happened in Salem? [Could be a wonderful debate or cooperative research presentation/paper in class. Have each students, after reading the different theories, decide which they believe is true. Then within their groups come up with evidence that supports the theory that they believe in.]

We Flagged: “Narrative Nonfiction Section: One bitterly cold day in February, Betty and Abigail both fell ill, collapsing onto their small rope beds. They convulsed. They contorted. Their arms and legs jerked about. They shouted bizarre, unintelligible words. They crouched under chairs and cowered as if frightened. In other houses in Salem Village several of their friends began to act the same way.

Informational Nonfiction Section: The other sick girls in Salem village included Ann Punam Jr. (age 12), Mercy Lewis (age 19), Mary Walcott (age 16), Elizabeth Hubbard (age 17), and Mary Warren (age 20). Like Abigail, Elizabeth and Mercy were orphans; Mercy may have witnessed her parents being killed in an Indian attack three years earlier in Main. Mary Walcott had lost her mother when she was eight. Ann and Betty were daughters of landowners, but Marry Warren, Elizabeth, and Mercy were maidservants.

Vocabulary: Convulsed: shook violently, Contorted: Twisted into unusual shapes, Unintelligible: Impossible to understand” (p. 12-13)

Read This If You Loved: I Walk in Dread by Lisa Rowe Fraustino, The Sacrifice by Kathleen Benner Duble, Witch Child by Celia Rees, The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare, Witches: The Absolutely True Tale of Disaster in Salem by Rosalyn Schanzer and other nonfiction books about Salem

Recommended For: