Moses: When Harriet Tubman led her people to freedom by Carole Weatherford

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Weatherford, C. (2006). Moses : when Harriet Tubman led her people to freedom. New York, NY. Jump At The Sun.

Grades: pre-k to 3rd

Awards:
2007 Caldecott Honor Book
2007 Coretta Scott King Book Award for Illustrator
2007 NAACP Image Award Nominee for Outstanding Literary Work

Summary: The focus of this poetic picture book was on Harriet Tubman and her journey to freedom. Tubman’s religious faith is powerfully displayed as she struggles to make it to freedom. When she’s in doubt of what to do next she questions God for the answers. After Tubman makes it to freedom, God calls her to be the Moses of her people. Tubman made nineteen trips back to the south and freed as many as three hundred slaves.

Credibility of Author: Weatherford read Tubman’s narrative and several biographies of her. Also, she spent a lot of time on Maryland’s eastern shore, the region where Tubman grew up.

National Standards:
Social Studies: Power, Authority, Governance, People, Places, Environment, and Culture

Access Features: There is a forward that tells about slavery and the Underground Railroad. There is an author’s notes page that gives the reader more information about Harriet Tubman and her struggles.

Description of Illustrations: Kadir Nelson used water color and acrylic to display the dramatic features of each event of Harriet Tubman’s struggles. Each dark painting displays the danger she faced and the lighter paintings, her courage. In addition, God’s words are in all-caps in a larger font to display the powerful spiritual content. This typography helps readers see God from Harriet's viewpoint.

My Response to the Book:
This was an amazing book to read. I really got caught up in the pictures of this book. They are very dramatic and emotional. I have always enjoyed reading books about the history and people who over came adversity. I was wonderful to see the spiritual side of Tubman and the strong faith that she had to keep her going.

How I would use this book in my classroom:
I would use this book during Black History month or when we are just discussing overcoming adversities. This book would help student to see the many problems that people had to overcome in order for us to live in a free world.

Kids At Work: Lewis Hine and the Crusade Against Child Labor

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Freedman, Russell. (1994). Kids at Work: Lewis Hine and the Crusade Against Child Labor. New York, NY. Scholastic, Inc.

Awards: 1996 IRA Teacher’s Choice
1995 ALA Best Book for Young Adults
1995 ALA Notable Book for Children
1995 Horn Book Fanfare Selection
1995 Jefferson Cup Award
1995 Jane Adams Book Award
1995 Notable Children’s Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies
1995 Orbis Pictus Award
1994 Golden Kite Award
1994 New York Public Library, 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing
1994 School Library Journal, Best Book of the Year
1994 Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year
1994 Parenting Magazine Reading Magic Award

Grade level/s: 4th-8th

Credibility of the author: Freedman is a biographer and author of nearly 50 books for young people. He is most notable for receiving the 1988 Newbery Medal with his work Lincoln: A Photobiography. In 1998, he received the Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal for his lifelong contribution to children's literature.

Summary: This book’s focus was on the photographs taken by Lewis Hine, an investigative photographer for the National Child Labor Committee. His photographs portrayed children in the workforce in the early twentieth century. These photographs represented the awful life that these children had to live and what was taken away from them at this time. The children in these photographs worked in dangerous conditions in the coal mines, factories, cotton mills, and etc. Fortunately, Hine’s photographs helped to bring about the United States Children’s Bureau in 1912. These photographs have given children back their right to be themselves at such young ages and a right to an education.

National and State Standards: United States Studies: Examine the historical development of the United States of America, Discover how democratic values were established and have been exemplified by people, events, and symbols, Analyze the ideals, principles, and practices of citizenship in a democratic society.

Illustrations: There are full-page photographs accompanied with captions throughout the book. The photographs were printed as duotones using black and gray ink.

Access features: Table of contents, index, bibliography, subject index, chapter titles, captions to the photographs, acknowledgments, and picture credits

How I would use this book:
I would use this book as a discussion about the rights that children have and how time has brought about changes. I would discuss the photographs and how many of my students grandparents and great grandparents had to live and the rights that they had growing up.

Personal Response: This book made me think back to all of the stories that were shared with me by my grandfather. He often discussed how he had to pick cotton and work in the fields. The photographs of the children in this book made me realize how often we take things for granted when forgetting how the past plays a part in every thing that we do. It is a great book to read not only as a child but as an adult as well.

Related text: Growing Up In a Coal Country by Susan Campbell Bartoletti, Immigrant Kids by Russell Freedman, and Children of the Dust Bowl: The true storyof the school at Weedpatch Camp by Jerry Stanley

Whales by Seymour Simon

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Simon, S. (1989). Whales. New York, NY. HarperCollins Publishers.

Ages: 5 to 8

Summary: The focus of this book in on whales, as the title of the book lets the reader know. It describes the length and weight of the different types of whale by making comparisons that the reader has knowledge about. One such comparison is the heart of a blue whale is the size of a small car. The weight of each whale is compared to how many elephants it would take to equal that amount. The author describes how each whale swims and catches its food. Also, he tells the reader the ocean of where each whale can be found. In the conclusion of this book, Simon discussed the International Whaling Commission (IWC). The IWC was established to set rules about whaling. Despite the IWC rules, countries still allow whaling. This has continued to decrease the population of whales making some of them endangered of extinction.

National Standards: The characteristics of organisms, Life cycles of organisms, Organisms and environments: Investigate the diversity of living things and Explore the basic patterns of living systems.

Credibility of Author: Seymour Simon is the author of over 200 science books (over half of which have been named Outstanding Science Trade Books for Children by the National Science Teachers Association). He has been honored by many awards for his work including the New York State Knickerbocker Award for Juvenile Literature; the Hope S. Dean Memorial Award from the Boston Public Library; the Eva L. Gordon Award, presented by the American Nature Society, for his contribution to children's science literature; and the Washington Post/Children's Book Guild Award for Non-fiction for the body of his work.

Description of Illustrations: This book was selected by the New York Times Book Review as one of the Best Illustrated Children's Books of 1989. The photographs in this book were taken by Ocean Images, Inc., Wood Hole Oceanographic Institution, and Nicklin & Associates. Each photograph captures what the text is describing on the page to the right of it.

Access Features: Page with famous quote by Moby Dick, or The White Whale

How to use in classroom: I would use this book in science if I was discussing mammals. Students could use this book as an independent reader and make comparisons to humans.

Related text: Seymour Simon has written many books that could be used as a study on animals including books titled: Sharks, Snakes, Crocodiles and Alligators, and Big Cats.

My Response: This was an easy reading and informative book. It is one that I would want to use in my classroom. Even though my students are just beginning to learn to read, I feel that it is one that they would not struggle with. I feel that they would enjoy it as well.

Kids At Work Freedman, R.

This book was very eye-opening. I didn't realize to the extent as to what the work force was like at the beginning of the 1900's. The photographs in this book impart an emotion that makes one realize the pain that these children must have been feeling and enduring. These photographs help me to realize what my grandparents must have gone through. I remember growing up and hearing of the stories about farming and picking cotton. I often questioned my grandfather about his level of education and why he didn't finish. He was only able to complete school through the sixth grade. I never was given what I thought was a clear answer, until now. I remember that he would always tell me that farming was his job and he had to quit school. This book helped me to realize that he wasn't given an option for continuing his education. This book helps to reflect on just how far we have come to give children back their rights to be children and to ensure that they have the right to an education.

Hines did an extraordinary job in capturing the images of these children with only a primitive camera. He went to great lengths that many would not have to obtain such heart felt images. This book captured Hine's passion and commitment for his calling.