What Was the Holocaust?


Gail Herman - 2018
    The Holocaust was a genocide on a scale never before seen, with as many as twelve million people killed in Nazi death camps--six million of them Jews. Gail Herman traces the rise of Hitler and the Nazis, whose rabid anti-Semitism led first to humiliating anti-Jewish laws, then to ghettos all over Eastern Europe, and ultimately to the Final Solution. She presents just enough information for an elementary-school audience in a readable, well-researched book that covers one of the most horrible times in history.This entry in the New York Times best-selling series contains eighty carefully chosen illustrations and sixteen pages of black and white photographs suitable for young readers.

Children of the Dust Bowl: The True Story of the School at Weedpatch Camp


Jerry Stanley - 1993
    with photographs from the Dust Bowl era. This true story took place at the emergency farm-labor camp immortalized in Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath. Ostracized as "dumb Okies," the children of Dust Bowl migrant laborers went without school--until Superintendent Leo Hart and 50 Okie kids built their own school in a nearby field.

Indian Captive: The Story of Mary Jemison


Lois Lenski - 1941
    Meticulously researched and illustrated with many detailed drawings, this novel offers an exceptionally vivid and personal portrait of Native American life and customs.

Calico Bush


Rachel Field - 1931
    She promises her services to the Sargent family for six long years in return for food and shelter. But life as a "bound-out girl" is full of more hardship than Maggie ever could have imagined. Living with the family in an isolated part of northern Maine, Maggie struggles through the harsh, hungry winter of 1743, the constant threat of Indian attacks, and worst of all, the loneliness she suffers knowing that her own family is lost forever. Will the Sargent's house ever feel like home?

Soldier's Heart: Being the Story of the Enlistment and Due Service of the Boy Charley Goddard in the First Minnesota Volunteers


Gary Paulsen - 1998
    He was 15. He didn't know what a "shooting war" meant or what he was fighting for. But he didn't want to miss out on a great adventure. The "shooting war" turned out to be the horror of combat and the wild luck of survival; how it feels to cross a field toward the enemy, waiting for fire. When he entered the service he was a boy. When he came back he was different; he was only 19, but he was a man with "soldier's heart," later known as "battle fatigue."

So Far from the Bamboo Grove


Yoko Kawashima Watkins - 1986
    Though Japanese, eleven-year-old Yoko has lived with her family in northern Korea near the border with China all her life. But when the Second World War comes to an end, Japanese on the Korean peninsula are suddenly in terrible danger; the Korean people want control of their homeland and they want to punish the Japanese, who have occupied their nation for many years. Yoko, her mother and sister are forced to flee from their beautiful house with its peaceful bamboo grove. Their journey is terrifying -- and remarkable. It's a true story of courage and survival.

One World, Many Religions: The Ways We Worship


Mary Pope Osborne - 1996
    In this highly acclaimed book, Mary Pope Osborne introduces readers to the six major religions of the world. One World, Many Religions covers the history, beliefs, and practices of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism. All have had a deep effect on the laws and customs of every country. They have shaped art, literature, music, and education. They have given the world magnificent stories, songs, buildings, holy objects, ceremonies, and festivals." From the Introduction to Many Religions, One World. Best-selling children's author Mary Pope Osborne presents an accessible and elegantly crafted volume that introduces young readers to the world's seven major religions. Six short readable chapters--perfectly targeted to fourth, fifth, and sixth graders--detail the history, beliefs, and practices of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism. Handsomely designed and featuring fifty oversized color photographs and a full complement of reference materials, including a map, time line, and bibliography, this book provides a thorough and thoughtful presentation of the diverse ways people worship around the world. -Outstanding introduction to world religion for young readers.-Unanimously praised when first published in 1996-Newly updated reference materials such as a glossary, map, timeline and bibliography complete this excellent book.-Features over 50 full-color photos.

Casey at the Bat: A Ballad of the Republic Sung in the Year 1888


Ernest Lawrence Thayer - 1888
    Its author would rather have seen it forgotten. Instead, Ernest Thayer's poem has taken a well-deserved place as an enduring icon of Americana. Christopher Bing's magnificent version of this immortal ballad of the flailing 19th-century baseball star is rendered as though it had been newly discovered in a hundred-year-old scrapbook. Bing seamlessly weaves real and trompe l'oeil reproductions of artifacts-period baseball cards, tickets, advertisements, and a host of other memorabilia into the narrative to present a rich and multifaceted panorama of a bygone era. A book to be pored over by children, treasured by aficionados of the sport-and given as a gift to all ages: a tragi-comic celebration of heroism and of a golden era of sport.

Evolution: The Story of Life on Earth


Jay Hosler - 2011
    Evolution features the same characters introduced in the highly regarded The Stuff of Life: A Graphic Guide to Genetics and DNA, now here to explain the fundamentals of the evolution of life on earth. On the heels of explaining to his planetary leader the intricacies of human genetics in The Stuff of Life, the intrepid alien scientist Bloort-183 is charged in this sequel with covering the wider story of evolution. Using the same storytelling conceit that Plenty magazine declared “so charming that you won’t even notice you’ve absorbed an entire scientific field” and that caused Seed to pick The Stuff of Life as a best book of 2008, Evolution brilliantly answers Wired’s demand, “What’s the solution to America’s crisis in science education? More comic books!” Evolution, the most accessible graphic work on this universally studied subject, takes the reader from earth’s primordial soup to the vestigial structures, like the coccyx and the male nipple, of modern humans. Once again, the award-winning illustrations of the Cannons render the complex clear and everything cleverly comedic. And in Hosler, Evolution has an award-winning biology teacher whose science comics have earned him a National Science Foundation grant and an interview on NPR’s Morning Edition.

The Underground Railroad: An Interactive History Adventure


Allison Lassieur - 2007
    . .You are slave catcher looking to get rich by chasing escaped slaves, OR . . .You are part of the Underground Railroad, helping slaves escape to freedom.

What Is the Declaration of Independence?


Michael C. Harris - 2016
    He was drafting the Declaration of Independence, a document that would sever this country's ties with Britain and announce a new nation—The United States of America. Colonists were willing to risk their lives for freedom, and the Declaration of Independence made that official. Discover the true story of one of the most radical and uplifting documents in history and follow the action that fueled the Revolutionary War.

Discovering Great Artists: Hands-On Art for Children in the Styles of the Great Masters


MaryAnn F. Kohl - 1997
    Featuring more than 150 activities, this guide teaches the styles, works, and techniques of the great masters—Van Gogh, Michelangelo, Rembrandt, and more—through innovative, hands-on, open-ended activities for children Kindergarten through Middle School (ages 6 to 13).

Who Was Alexander Hamilton?


Pam Pollack - 2017
    He joined a local militia during the American Revolution, rose to the rank of Major General, and became the chief aide to General George Washington. After the war, he became the first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury. He founded the Bank of New York and The New York Post newspaper. He served as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention and is also celebrated as a co-author of The Federalist Papers, a series of essays that are still used today to interpret the U.S. Constitution.The end of his life became a national scandal when he was shot and killed in a duel with then-Vice President Aaron Burr.

Sylvia & Aki


Winifred Conkling - 2011
    When Sylvia and her brothers are not allowed to register at the same school Aki attended and are instead sent to a “Mexican” school, the stage is set for Sylvia’s father to challenge in court the separation of races in California’s schools. Ultimately, Mendez vs. Westminster School District led to the desegregation of California schools and helped build the case that would end school segregation nationally.Through extensive interviews with Sylvia and Aki—still good friends to this day—Winifred Conkling brings to life two stories of persistent courage in the face of tremendous odds.

What the Eagle Sees: Indigenous Stories of Rebellion and Renewal


Eldon Yellowhorn - 2019
    Only a change of worlds.” —Chief Seattle [Seatlh], Suquamish Chief What do people do when their civilization is invaded? Indigenous people have been faced with disease, war, broken promises, and forced assimilation. Despite crushing losses and insurmountable challenges, they formed new nations from the remnants of old ones, they adopted new ideas and built on them, they fought back, and they kept their cultures alive. When the only possible “victory” was survival, they survived. In this brilliant follow up to Turtle Island, esteemed academic Eldon Yellowhorn and award-winning author Kathy Lowinger team up again, this time to tell the stories of what Indigenous people did when invaders arrived on their homelands. What the Eagle Sees shares accounts of the people, places, and events that have mattered in Indigenous history from a vastly under-represented perspective—an Indigenous viewpoint.