Book picks similar to
Boxes for Katje by Candace Fleming


picture-books
historical-fiction
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history

Something Happened in Our Town: A Child's Story about Racial Injustice


Marianne Celano - 2018
    The story aims to answer children's questions about such traumatic events, and to help children identify and counter racial injustice in their own lives.Includes an extensive Note to Parents and Caregivers with guidelines for discussing race and racism with children, child-friendly definitions, and sample dialogues. Free, downloadable educator materials (including discussion questions) are available at APA's website.

Love in the Library


Maggie Tokuda-Hall - 2022
    But to fall in love in a place like Minidoka, a place built to make people feel like they weren’t human—that was miraculous.After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Tama is sent to live in a War Relocation Center in the desert. All Japanese Americans from the West Coast—elderly people, children, babies—now live in prison camps like Minidoka. To be who she is has become a crime, it seems, and Tama doesn’t know when or if she will ever leave. Trying not to think of the life she once had, she works in the camp’s tiny library, taking solace in pages bursting with color and light, love and fairness. And she isn’t the only one. George waits each morning by the door, his arms piled with books checked out the day before. As their friendship grows, Tama wonders: Can anyone possibly read so much? Is she the reason George comes to the library every day? Beautifully illustrated and complete with an afterword, back matter, and a photo of the real Tama and George—the author’s grandparents—Maggie Tokuda-Hall’s elegant love story for readers of all ages sheds light on a shameful chapter of American history.

Candy Bomber: The Story of the Berlin Airlift's "Chocolate Pilot"


Michael O. Tunnell - 2010
    US Air Force Lieutenant Gail S. Halvorsen knew the children of the city were suffering. To lift their spirits, he began dropping chocolate and gum by parachute.Michael O. Tunnell tells an inspiring tale of candy and courage, illustrated with Lt. Halvorsen's personal photographs, as well as letters and drawings from the children of Berlin to their beloved "Uncle Wiggly Wings."

Linnea in Monet's Garden


Christina Björk - 1985
    Now she understands what it means for a painter to be called an Impressionist. This innovative art book for children contains full-color photos of many of Monet's famous paintings.

The Egyptian Cinderella


Shirley Climo - 1989
    The beauty of the language is set off to perfection by Heller's arresting illustrations. A stunning combination of fluent prose and exquisitely wrought illustrations that makes] a winner for story hours, as well as a useful resource for the study of Cinderella through the ages." -- SLJ. Notable 1989 Children's Trade Books in Social Studies (NCSS/CBC)

Knots on a Counting Rope


Bill Martin Jr. - 1987
    In this poignant story, the counting rope is a metaphor for the passage of time and for a boy's emerging confidence in facing his blindness.

Mercedes and the Chocolate Pilot


Margot Theis Raven - 2002
    The true story of a young German girl, Mercedes Simon, and of the American pilot, Gail Halvorsen, who shared hope and joy with the children of West Berlin by dropping candy-filled parachutes during the Airlift.

How to Heal a Broken Wing


Bob Graham - 2008
    With the help of his sympathetic mother, he gently wraps the injured bird and takes it home. In classic Bob Graham style, the beauty is in the details: the careful ministrations with an eyedropper, the bedroom filled with animal memorabilia, the saving of the single feather as a good-luck charm for the bird's return to the sky. Wistful and uplifting, here is a tale of possibility -- and of the souls who never doubt its power.

Ox-Cart Man


Donald Hall - 1979
    The oxcart man packs his goods - the wool from his sheep, the shawl his wife made, the mittens his daughter knitted, and the linen they wove. He packs the birch brooms his son carved, and even a bag of goose feathers from the barnyard geese.He travels over hills, through valleys, by streams, past farms and villages. At Portsmouth Market he sells his goods, one by one - even his beloved ox. Then, with his pockets full of coins, he wanders through the market, buying provisions for his family, and returns to his home. And the cycle begins again."Like a pastoral symphony translated into picture book format, the stunning combination of text and illustrations recreates the mood of 19-century rural New England."--The Horn Book

Worst of Friends: Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and the True Story of an American Feud


Suzanne Tripp Jurmain - 2011
    But their differing views on how to run the newly created United States turned them into the worst of friends. They each became leaders of opposing political parties, and their rivalry followed them to the White House. Full of both history and humor, this is the story of two of America's most well-known presidents and how they learned to put their political differences aside for the sake of friendship.

Rose Blanche


Roberto Innocenti - 1985
    Then, one day, she follows a truck into the woods and discovers a terrible secret.

Home


Carson Ellis - 2015
    Home may be on the road or the sea, in the realm of myth, or in the artist's own studio. A meditation on the concept of home.

Monsieur Marceau: Actor Without Words


Leda Schubert - 2012
    When he waved his hand or lifted his eyebrow he was able to speak volumes without ever saying a word. But few know the story of the man behind those gestures . . .  Distinguished author Leda Schubert and award-winning artist Gerard DuBois bring their own artistry to this gorgeously written and illustrated picture book biography.

Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain: A Nandi Tale


Verna Aardema - 1981
    A cumulative rhyme relating how Ki-pat brought rain to the drought-stricken Kapiti Plain. Verna Aardema has brought the original story closer to the English nursery rhyme by putting in a cumulative refrain and giving the tale the rhythm of “The House That Jack Built.”

Most People


Michael Leannah - 2017
    Jennifer Morris’s emotive, diverting characters provide the perfect complement to Leannah’s words, leading us through the crowded streets of an urban day in the company of two pairs of siblings (one of color). We see what they see: the hulking dude with tattoos and chains assisting an elderly lady onto the bus; the Goth teenager with piercings and purple Mohawk returning a lost wallet to its owner; and the myriad interactions of daily existence, most of them well intended. Most People is a courageous, constructive response to the dystopian world of the news media.Fountas Pinnell Level M