A few examples:

We read Heather Vogel Frederick’s The Mother-Daughter Book Club (modern) in conjunction with reading Little Women (classic). 5th grade girls read Little Women?!? It can’t be done! The introduction to Little Women that Ms. Frederick’s book provided created a great deal of enthusiasm for continuing on and reading Little Women. It also inspired a trip to Concord to “walk the story” and experience BOTH books – we had ice cream at the same roadside local favorite that Ms. Frederick had the characters in the book doing and we shared a picnic at Orchard House as described in the book, all the while sharing the same spot that Louisa May Alcott did and picturing in our minds eye the Alcott sisters’ experiences on the property. How can a 5th grade girl get through such a lengthy book at that vocabulary level? Let them fall in love with story and you have them hooked – grade level or book level be damned.

We read Two Girls of Gettysburg (modern) by Lisa Klein in conjunction with reading a historical journal At Gettysburg: Or, What A Girl Saw And Heard Of The Battle by Tillie Pierce (classic). Tillie Pierce was 15 when she experienced the Battle Of Gettysburg and wrote about them in her journal. Tillie’s journal, published in 1889, made her famous and she is to this day considered the voice of the civilain side of this battle and is an incredible role model for girls. Ms. Klein spoke to our book club and explained to the girls how she researched Tillie’s life and the Battle of Gettysburg in order to write her modern historical fiction. We then spent three days in October in Gettysburg literally “walking the story” – seeing Tillie’s home, touring the battlefield, even having an opportunity to meet the owners of the Weikert Farm, a Field Hospital where the story takes place, and where the girls walked the same field where Tillie describes, “limbs stacked four or five feet high, above the fence rails”. The introduction of Ms. Klein’s modern historical fiction provided the appropriate background that made it possible for 5th and 6th grade girls to read a period historical journal and not only get through it but understand it! Try this with The Diary of Anne Frank (classic) and Bartoletti’s 2005 Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler’s Shadow (modern).

And no Dickens? Who wrote a better or more graphic explanation of children surviving during the industrialization than Dickens? You don’t have to roadtrip to enhance the story, the girls read A Christmas Carol and we spent an incredible evening at the Ohio Village, run by our State Historical Society, where the girls experienced a Dickens of A Christmas with an authentic tavern meal, period carolers and music, they even ‘met’ the esteemed author who spoke with the tavern goers, and then ventured around the village to participate in period games and crafts. The horrid living conditions in Dickens England at the time and the fact that Dickens is often attributed with saving Christmas as they know it did not escape the girls – even if they were only in 5th grade and the book level is a 6.7 (meant for 6th graders with 7/10′s of their 6th grade year term completed if you follow that logic).

My picks that are don’t miss!!!

Snow Treasure by Marie McSwigan, 1942
In 1940, when the Nazi’s invade Norway a group of 12 year olds use their sleds to transport $9 million worth of gold past the German soldiers – true story!

A Gathering of Days: A New England Girl’s Journal, 1830 -32 by Joan W. Blos, 1979 and pair it with Laura Ingalls Wilder.

Miracles on Maple Hill by Virginia Sorensen, 1956
The best fiction of how a young daughter copes with her father’s return from the war and his moody and tired behavior.

Amos Fortune Free Man by Elizabeth Yates, 1950
Read this incredible book and pair it with reading Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

The Watson’s Go To Birmingham – 1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis should be what every child has to read before they embark on a study of the Civil Rights Era.

I have hundreds more but will stop here…anxious for ideas and thoughts from any of you.

Welcome!

The Betsy-Tacy books by Maud Hart Lovelace have almost always been a part of my life, and I would continually amaze my parents with random observations about things that I had gleaned from Maud’s books (references to books, places, art, people, music, flora and fauna, etc.)

“How did you know that?” my mom would ask.

“Oh, I read about it in a Betsy-Tacy book,” I’d airily reply.

The All-of-A-Kind Family books by Sydney Taylor taught me a lot about Jewish holidays and customs and a bit about tenement life in the early 20th century).

The Laura Ingalls Wilder books painted a very vivid portrait of pioneer life on the prairie: the Homestead Act; holding down a claim; sod houses; surviving the Long Winter without going completely mad; the intricacies of making cheese, trapping fish, and butchering a pig. Not to mention my being impressed by the fact that Laura could recite the Declaration of Independence by memory!

I have often thought that history classes could be enlivened a bit by slipping in some supplemental readings from children’s literature. What a great way to get people talking, and making connections, and maybe exploring things from a different angle.

Looking forward to more of your posts!