It starts
with a seed. Just one seed. A carrot seed planted in the ground by a little
boy. Despite the dire predictions of his mother, his father and his big brother
that “it won’t come up,” the little boy firmly believes that the seed will
sprout and grow. He weeds it and waters it. He exhibits amazing patience. And
indeed it grows. Ruth Krauss and Crockett Johnson’s classic storybook The Carrot Seed is a gem, perfect in its
simplicity and beloved by little people. It’s all about faith and hope and the
patience to sustain them. Ideal for preschoolers and their adults.
Related activities and interviews may be found at: TeachingBooks.net
Clara Lemlich and her parents were among
the thousands upon thousands of Jews fleeing persecution and sanctions in
Eastern Europe in the early 1900s. Within two weeks of arriving in New York
City, Clara was a garment worker, earning a few dollars a month to help pay for
food and rent. Fighting off the crushing effects of working conditions in the
factory, Clara attended night school and before long held high the banner of a
different kind of fight – a fight for a general strike among the women workers.
In this picture book biography Brave Girl: Clara and the Shirtwaist Makers’
Strike of 1909, author Michelle Markel captures the spirit of justice and
strength that powered Clara; Melissa Sweet’s vibrant illustrations draw readers
right into the context and details of the story. In an afterword, Markel writes
more about the garment industry, its workers, and the increasing strength of
the labor movement “due in great part to labor leaders like Clara Lemlich and
the thousands of brave girls who picketed in the winter of 1909.” Ages 5-10.
Related activities and interviews may be found at: TeachingBooks.net
Award-winning author Steve Sheinkin has
written a number of remarkable accounts of remarkable people in U.S. history,
meticulously researched and richly narrated. Undefeated: Jim Thorpe and the
Carlisle Indian School Football Team is one of them. Named Wathohuck
by his mother (translated from the Potawatomi as “Bright Path”), Jim spent much
of his childhood outdoors on Oklahoma land granted to Indians amidst the rush
of eastern settlers. At sixteen, Thorpe entered the Carlisle Indian School in
Pennsylvania, one of the schools established around the turn of the twentieth
century to immerse native children in white culture. Such schools were an often
harsh and unforgiving setting where students were forbidden to speak their own
languages. Sheinkin’s story includes “Pop” Warner, Thorpe’s legendary football
coach at Carlisle and a true believer in his skill, smarts and drive as an
athlete. Readers also learn about early football and about the bigotry that
athletes faced on and off the field. At the heart of the book is the riveting
story of the Carlisle Indian School Football Team, its unflinching use of
strategy in the game, and its determination to win, defeating Harvard and Army
in edge-of-the-seat encounters. Ages 12 to adult.
Related activities and interviews may be found at: TeachingBooks.net
Author Karen Hesse, 1998 recipient of
the Newbery Medal for Out of the Dust, gracefully, poetically, painfully
opens up Oklahoma’s devastating dust bowl years of the 1930s through the voice
of fourteen-year-old Billy Jo. Having endured loss after loss, Billy Jo is
endeavoring to survive despite the grim realities of the landscape around her
and her father’s slow deterioration. Hesse crafts Billy Jo’s unsentimental,
powerful fictional journal with a riveting sparseness. Billy Jo likens her
mother to tumbleweed “holding on for as long as she could, then blowing away on
the wind.” She describes her father as “steady, silent and deep” as the sod and
herself as the wheat. “I can’t grow everywhere, but I can grow here, with a
little rain, with a little care, with a little luck.” Readers don’t easily
forget the inner strength of this young protagonist. Ages 10 up.
Related activities and interviews may be found at: TeachingBooks.net
