MONUMENT MAKER

MONUMENT MAKER : Daniel Chester French and the Lincoln Memorial is a nonfiction picture book about  connections. As the first spread says, “history shapes our lives. And what we do with our lives can shape history.”

Daniel was a boy during the Civil War, but his brother Will joined the war effort.

When Abraham Lincoln was shot Dan and his classmates wore black bands on their sleeves in his honor.

Although Dan came from a family of lawyers, sculpting was his contribution to history.

The author, Linda Booth Sweeney's connection to Dan was showing an artist who persevered to become a master of his craft and honoring his celebration of Abraham Lincoln. Her planning this book using illustrations was central to her process.

“Where possible, I  imagined each spread as a scene.  Page turns were the signal to the reader one scene was ending and another was about to begin,” she said.

Teachers might consider using the illustrations for writing assignments. Put yourself  in Dan’s shoes. What would you have done if you had been Dan?  

And if you're a student whose family planned to visit the Lincoln Memorial this summer but might not, read Linda's book instead!

Here is an inspiration to young girls everywhere, I DISSENT: Ruth Bader Ginsburg Makes Her Mark by Debbie Levy.

 Girls can relate to this snippet: "In elementary school, Ruth was excellent in some classes--and less excellent in others. Her favorites were English, history, and gym."

The book details the many ways she protested on her way to becoming Supreme Court Justice.

This is a good title for Women's History Month.

Put Yourself in Phillis Wheatley's Shoes

A VOICE OF HER OWN: the story of Phillis Wheatley, Slave Poet by Kathryn Lasky is a picture book biography of Phyllis Wheatley that would be good for grades 3-5.

It has more information than the shorter picture book biographies which is important for school projects.

Take this sample which brings the reader into the mindset of a slave.

“At first there was just blackness….. Then the blackness dissolved into darkness, and the world in the creaking hold of the slave ship slid with shadows.”

Teachers, here’s  possible school assignments for Black History Month.

Have your students write a play about how a slave would feel on one of these ships .What smells would they encounter? What sounds? What would it feel like to be chained up?


Have your students write poems with Phillis Wheatley as the subject.

Athletes to Know

Wilma Rudolph by Isabel Martin is an ideal biography for grades two and three. It has chapter titles: Meet Wilma, Growing Up, Adult Years and Later in Life. The back page gives suggestions for critical thinking using the Common Core.

Sample: “Wilma Rudolph was a famous Olympic track runner from Tennessee.She was very fast.”

Teachers will like the glossary, suggested titles for further reading and internet sites.

History Through the Eyes of Unknown People

Sometimes you can learn about  American history through stories of people you may have never heard  of.  One example is: Searching for Sarah Rector : the Richest Black Girl in America by Tonya Bolden.

Because Sarah and her family had a relationship with the Creek Nation, they qualified to receive land.  Sarah's land had oil wells.

Sample: "If that first oil well kept kicking.... eleven-year old Sarah Rector would be able to afford piles of playthings, clothes, and doodads, not to mention a bigger house for her family."

Activity

Do you know someone who  participated in a historical event?
Ask this person for an interview.
 Find out what he or she thought while the event was going on.
What details does the interviewee remember?

Different ways of looking at Albert Einstein

Children's biographies can present new ways of looking at famous people, in this case, the scientist Albert Einstein. For example, ON A BEAM OF LIGHT : A STORY OF ALBERT EINSTEIN by Jennifer Berne, Albert doesn't talk for the first two years of his life. "He just looked around with his big curious eyes.Looked and wondered. Looked and wondered." Then be began asking  many questions because there were mysteries in the world and he wanted to  understand them. This picture book biography gives the reader a senses of his personality.




For more facts about Albert, one can check ALBERT EINSTEIN, BRILLIANT SCIENTIST by Amanda Doering Tourville. This is a beginner biography is  32 pages and is equipped with FUN FACTS (example: "Einstein failed a physics class in college. This was partly because he did not show up for class."); TIMELINE, GLOSSARY, INDEX, and TABLE OF CONTENTS.

The Boy Who Loved Math

Paul Erdos, the subject of the picture book biography, The Boy Who Loved Math by Deborah Heiligman may be unknown to many readers but  they might be interested to know that he was a mathematician  who's mother didn't  make him go to school, who took such good care of him that she even cut up his meat and buttered his bread for him. He did have to put up with Fraulein, the woman who took care of him when his mother was at work.

Paul developed a special interest in prime numbers, which this book defines: "Prime numbers are special.
They can't be divided evenly. A prime number can be divided only by itself and 1."

He eventually did go to school and then traveled to England to work with other mathematicians. He still didn't know how to butter his bread but learned how when he went out to dinner with other mathematicians.

As years went on, he found his way of living: as a house guest of the mathematician he was working with at the time. The mathematician's family would do things for Paul, like his mother had done: laundry, cooking, etc.

This  is an interesting book  about a fascinating man with math thrown in too.

Silent Star

This week's review is a picture book biography: Silent Star: the Story of Deaf Major Leaguer William Hoy by Bill Wise.



William Hoy lost his hearing to meningitis during his childhood. He played baseball at the Ohio School for the Deaf and wanted to play  major league baseball. Instead he learned shoemaking and eventually opened his own shop but played baseball for fun.

Here's  sample: "One June day in 1885, a coach for an amateur baseball team passed through Houcktown. Always  looking for new players, he stopped to watch the game behind the shoemaker's shop. The coach marveled at William's baseball skills."

William did go on to play professional baseball and was entered into the American Athletic Association of the Deaf's Hall of Fame in 1951.

Lady Almina

How many of you are fans of the television show, Downton Abbey, the Masterpiece Classic series on public television?
Although Cora Crawley,  Countess of Grantham, is a fictional character,
there was a real life woman who is the subject of a book,  Lady Almina and the real Downton Abbey: the Lost Legacy of Highclere Castle by  the Countess of Carnarvon.


Highclere Castle is the real name of the estate where Downton Abbey was filmed.

The fictional Cora was the daughter of a wealthy American. Lady Almina was the daughter of Lord Alfred Rothschild, whose wealth made the marriage possible.

Here is a sample:

"On Wednesday 26 June 1895, Miss Almina Victoria Marie Alexandra Wombwell, a startling pretty nineteen-year-old of somewhat dubious social standing, married George Edward Stanhope Molyneux Herbert, the 5th Earl of Carnarvon, at St. Margaret's, Westminster."

This title  is an interesting choice for high school students with an interest in British history.

Almina's husband, Lord Carnarvon, had financed Howard Carter's exploration in Egypt and the discovery of King Tutankhamun's tomb.  So this book contains information about that as well.