Angel Island: Gateway to Gold Mountain

Freedman, Russell. Angel Island: Gateway to Gold Mountain. Clarion, 2013. 96pp. Lexile 1140.

While most people think of Ellis Island as the historic entry point for immigrants, more than a half a million newcomers entered the U.S. through Angel Island in San Francisco Bay.  From 1910 to 1940, immigrants mostly from Asia spent weeks and even months anxiously waiting to see if they would be admitted.  This excellent history quotes from transcripts of the interrogations that decided their fates and incorporates poignant poems in Chinese characters that still adorn the walls of the buildings.  Well-chosen historic photographs enhance the exploration of the island’s history, individual stories, and the discrimination and hardship that Asians faced here.  One chapter focuses on women and another on non-Asian immigrants.  The narrative wraps up gracefully with the story of how the island and buildings were preserved and became part of a state park in 2009, thanks to activism by the Asian-American community.  A gem for the curriculum or independent reading.

Who Was First? Discovering the Americas

Freedman, Russell. Who Was First? Discovering the Americas. Clarion Books, 2007. 88pp. Lexile 1310.

This is an excellent model for inquiry in terms of research and writing.  Freedman takes the title question, "Who Was First?" and starts with Columbus.  But then he moves back chronologically to consider the various claims about others who may have reached North or South America earlier than Columbus.  Some claims are from amateur historians, and Freedman lays out reasons to dismiss them.  But he also highlights an amateur who is believed to be right about an early Viking settlement in Newfoundland.  Freedman demonstrates how views of history change over time.  He shows how archaeology and newer research tools like DNA analysis and linguistic findings change historians' perspectives.  Artwork and maps add interest and information.  The author provides chapter-by-chapter bibliographic essays about his sources, followed by an index.

Reading Std #8: Delineate and evaluate argument and specific claims in a text, assessing reasoning & evidence.  This text repays careful study.  It uses reasoning and evidence to evaluate the topic. Have students lay out the argument and then,  just as Freedman applies analysis to his subject, have students apply it to Freedman's own writing to see if his conclusions are justified.

Good Queen Bess: The Story of Elizabeth I of England

Stanley, Diane, and Peter Vennema. Good Queen Bess: The Story of Elizabeth I of England. Harper 1990. 40pp. Lexile 1060.

Striking illustrations fill this short biography of one of the most famous monarchs in history. Elizabeth I, who was Queen of England for more than forty-four years, took the throne when she was twenty-five. Under her influence, theater and other arts flourished, including the work of William Shakespeare. She never married, instead preserving her power and autonomy. As Stanley writes, "She made her own decisions, and she expected to be obeyed."  When the Spanish Armada tried unsuccessfully to conquer England and convert it to Catholicism, Elizabeth won her soldiers' hearts by riding through their ranks in steel armor, brandishing a sword, as shown in one of the gouache illustrations.  The jewel-like tones and intricate details of the pictures convey Elizabeth's personality and the glamor of her court.

Writing Std #4: Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.  Since this is forty pages, half of which are illustrations, it would serve as an excellent model for biographical writing.  The authors pack a lot of information gracefully into a relatively short text. 

Nonfiction Tie-in: This would pair well with the authors' Bard of Avon: The Story of William Shakespeare, which is similarly beautiful and engaging.  Other biographies with similar formats by the same authors include Cleopatra, Joan of Arc, and Peter the Great. 

Invincible Microbe: Tuberculosis and the Never-Ending Search for a Cure

Murphy, Jim, and Alison Blank. Invincible Microbe: Tuberculosis and the Never-Ending Search for a Cure. Clarion, 2012. 160pp. Lexile 1200

Murphy and Blank make tuberculosis fascinating through a compelling narrative laced with well-chosen anecdotes and grim details.  They open with discussion and photographs of 500,000-year-old skulls and ancient mummies from around the world that show signs of TB.  The chapters then move through history, chronicling the statistics about TB over the years and the sometimes horrible attempts to cure it.  It was linked in the nineteenth century with creativity; Keats, Shelley, Poe, Robert Louis Stevenson, the Brontes and Chopin all suffered from it.  Several rich chapters describe sanatoriums in Europe and the U.S., small worlds unto themselves.  Moving into the twentieth century, the narrative shows progress in public health and science that helped reduce TB's spread but the book wraps up with appalling information about TB's role in the world today.  Historic black-and-white etchings, photographs and memorabilia appear every page or two.  Back matter includes a bibliography, source notes, and an index.

Fiction Tie-in:  Pair this with Queen of Hearts,  Martha Brook's excellent 2011 novel about a teenage girl at a Canadian TB sanatorium in the early 1940s.

The Great Fire

Murphy, Jim. The Great Fire. 1995. 144pp. Lexile 1130.

In this piece of outstanding nonfiction, which is one of the Common Core exemplars, Murphy recreates the Great Fire of 1871, which burned for thirty-one hours and destroyed central Chicago.  He uses vivid writings of people who encountered the fire first-hand: a twelve-year-old girl who almost died, a newspaper reporter, a visitor from New York, and the Chicago Tribune editor-in-chief.  Through their eyes, the reader experiences the sounds and sights of the city burning.  Murphy excels at incorporating narrative techniques more often found in fiction that bring a scene to life (without fictionalizing it).  Readers will get to know the main actors and feel suspense as the fire rages. Murphy analyzes what went wrong before, during, and after the tragic event.  Maps, etchings, photographs, and numerous quotes from primary sources create a sense of immediacy in this excellent Newbery Honor Book.

Reading Std #7:  Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse media and formats, visually and quantitatively, and in words.  Analyze the series of maps that show how the fire spread; explain how the maps relate to the people that the narrative follows.