Annotated Bibliography 1/21/09

Historical Fiction:

Author: Ellen Levine
Title: Henry’s Freedom Box
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Date: 2007

Age Level: Elementary (3-4)

Summary:
In this book, Henry is a slave, who is sold from his family at a young age. He meets a woman, marries, her, and they have children. He thinks he couldn’t be happier, but then one day his wife and children are sold, and there is nothing he can do to stop it. Henry decides to mail himself to freedom, with the help of a kind doctor who disagrees with slavery. He boxes himself up, and is shipped to Pennsylvania, where he is free at last.

Strengths:
· This book has a good balance between showing the despair that slaves had to go through when their family was sold, and the joys they could have in life, whether by getting married, or by finally obtaining freedom.
· This book ends on a happy note, when Henry is finally free.
· It is very interesting to think about what it would be like to send yourself somewhere in the mail, and to be so desperate to escape that you would resort to that. This could be an interesting conversation to have with the students.

Concerns:
· This book shows a lot of pain experienced by Henry and his family. I wonder if the students would react poorly to seeing that pain.
· Henry is shown as intentionally hurting himself in order to get off work so he could ship himself to Philadelphia. It would need to be discussed with the class that this is not an acceptable thing to do, and that Henry was very desperate when he did so.

Classroom use/Other comments:
· This book can be used when studying the Civil War, and slavery.
· This book can also be used as a starting point for a project where students use their imaginations. If Henry could be clever enough to think to mail himself to Philadelphia, what are some ways that students could think of, that slaves might have been able to get themselves to freedom?
· I thought this was a fabulous book, very well written, and it really shows what it was like to be a slave, without going into too much detail. It is appropriate for younger grades, although I would still reserve it for 3rd grade and up, because of the subject matter.


Author: Michael Bedard
Title: Emily
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Date: 1992

Age Level: Primary (K-2) or Elementary (3-4)

Summary:
In this book, a young girl moves to a house next door to a woman who never left her house, one who is revealed at the end of the book to be Emily Dickinson. Emily asked the girl’s mother to come play piano for her, and the girl was able to go along. During this time, she was able to discover the meaning of poetry, and to exchange gifts with Emily herself.

Strengths:
· This book gives a good definition to poetry, which can often be a term that is difficult to explain to young children.
· Very descriptive writing, easy to create a picture in your mind of what is happening.
· This book tells a lot about Emily Dickinson, but in the form of a story. It is exciting for the reader, and not dry as sometimes biographies can be.
· This book shows acceptance for those who are different than we are – although Emily chose not to leave her house, the young girl was able to find ways to relate to her, in areas such as a love for gardening.

Concerns:
· I did not find any concerns about this book. It is well written and informative, but fun to read and enjoyable.

Classroom use/Other comments:
· This book could be used when studying poetry, and learning how to write poems.
· This book could be used either in a primary or elementary level classroom. It may be a bit long to use in some primary classrooms, but there is nothing in the subject matter that would prevent a teacher with a class whose attention span was long enough from reading it to them.




Author: Mary Ann Rodman
Title: Yankee Girl
Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux, New York
Date: 2004

Age Level: Upper (5-6)

Summary:
Alice was a 6th grader whose father was an FBI agent in 1964. He was moved from Chicago to Mississippi, where the integrating of schools had just begun. Alice goes to school with people much more prejudiced than she had ever been. There was one black girl who was part of the integration process, Valerie, who was in Alice’s class. Alice had to learn how to balance her desire to be friends with Valerie with her desire to be popular. The other students made it clear that Alice could not have both. This book follows her struggles to find how to do ‘the right thing’ as her parents had raised her, while still trying to fit in with the other sixth graders.

Strengths:
· This book shows very real struggles for middle school students, both in learning to accept everyone, even if they’re different, and in learning not to give in to peer pressure.
· This book shows students how complicated of a process integrating schools truly was.
· Alice can be a great example for students, because even though she had trouble doing what she knew was the right thing throughout the book, she ultimately made good decisions, and it is important for students to see that if they persevere, they can do the right thing also.
· This book handles a delicate topic in a very appropriate manner for school children.

Concerns:
· This book uses the term “nigger”. Even though it is clearly portrayed in the book as an inappropriate term, would this book be able to be read in a classroom?

Classroom use/Other comments:
· This book can be used in a classroom when studying the civil rights movement, and when discussing the integration of schools. This would be a good book to read leading up to the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.
· This book was skillfully written, handled difficult topics well, and had a gripping plot. Many students would relate to the characters in one way or another, and thus be more interested in continuing the book.


Author: Richard Peck
Title: On the Wings of Heroes
Publisher: The Penguin Group
Date: 2007

Age Level: Upper (5-6)

Summary:
This book is about a fifth grade boy living in the time of WWII. When his older brother leaves to fight in the war, Davy and his best friend throw themselves into the war effort, collecting scrap metal and paper, anything the government is asking for. Davy learns a lot about what it means to be at war, and slowly begins learning about his father’s experience fighting in WWI, which he previously had not spoken about. When Davy’s brother goes missing in action, their family has to bond together and stay strong, waiting hopefully for good news that will allow them to be a whole family again.

Strengths:
· This book leaves a lot of room for the teacher to add her own lessons to teach children about WWII. For instance, it discusses hanging stars in windows, but students have to use the context to guess what those stars meant. This could be a lesson for the class, when learning about WWII.
· This book shows many childhood conflicts, such as bullying. For instance, Davy and his friend had been collecting paper for the war effort, and were carefully bringing it back to their houses when older boys, whom they had previously looked up to, stole it all from them. The book shows how upset the boys were, and can be a good model to remind students why bullying is a bad thing.
· This book gives a very good sense of what it was like to live in the 1940s, not just from the perspective of the war, but also what the schools and neighborhoods were like back then.
· This book really makes students appreciate the things they have, especially in school. Davy’s teacher at the beginning of the book, doesn’t know much about math and has one of the students teach most of those lessons. Students can look at their teacher and realize how lucky they are to have someone well educated to teach them.

Concerns:
· This book has some vocabulary that would need to be taught to the children. These are words from the time of the war, such as girdle.

Classroom use/Other comments:
· This would be a fabulous book to use in a unit about WWII. It’s informative and interesting, but also fun to read.


Author: Karen Cushman
Title: The Midwife’s Apprentice
Publisher: Clarion Books
Date: 1995

Age Level: Upper (5-6)

Summary:
In medieval England, a nameless, homeless girl is taken in by a sharp-tempered midwife and, in spite of obstacles and hardship, eventually gains the three things she most wants: a full belly, a contented heart, and a place in this world.

Strengths:
· This book, in terms of being used in a classroom, did not seem to have any strengths.

Concerns:
· This book discusses the midwife and the baker “hugging and kissing, and him with a wife and thirteen children”, which is not appropriate for young children to be reading. If this book were to be read to the children, this part would need to be edited out.
· This book also talks about boys being drunk, which again is not appropriate for children of this age.
· This book discusses the devil.
· No respect is shown to the midwife’s apprentice, even though she is just a girl. She is homeless and unloved, and the midwife takes her in from the cold, but is rude and unhelpful beyond that.

Classroom use/Other comments:
· This book overall does not seem appropriate for schoolchildren, of any age. I would not use this book in my classroom.