Baseball Saved Us

Title: Baseball Saved Us
Author: Ken Mochizuki
Illustrator: Dom Lee
Genre: Historical Fiction

Baseball Saved Us is a book based in 1942 when the U.S. Army moved all Japanese people away from the west coast. It is about a young Japanese boy that goes to a camp and gets mistreated and picked last for everything because he is smaller and weaker, and in general just not a great baseball player. As the camp goes on he stays getting mistreated by the other players until the last game of the season, he gets the game winner hit. From that point on the boy is chosen and more accepted as a Japanese baseball player.

I would read this book to a second grade class to teach them not to judge. I would read this during the baseball little league season so the students can make a more clear relation with the book. For example, I think it is important for the kids to know that it is not nice to judge the striving athletes. Children need to understand that some are more gifted than others and it is important to treat everybody with the same respect.

The Story of Ruby Bridges

Title: The Story of Ruby Bridges
Author: Robert Coles
Illustrator: George Ford

Genre: Historical Fiction

The Story of Ruby Bridges is a children picture book that discusses the events that a black woman named Ruby Bridges had gone through during the year of 1960. Ruby was the first African American that was aloud to go to a white school. The bad part was, that most of the white kids were raised on segregation of the races. Therefore, the white families and children were terrible to Ruby Bridges. The main thing that got Ruby Bridges through was her faith in God. Every morning on the way to school Ruby would pray for the people who hated her. Ruby remained calm during extremely hard times, and did not react poorly to anybody, even when they deserved it!

I would read this book to a third grade class during history class. I would enjoy reading this to the class because it has so many valuable topics. Such as trusting in God during all things (if I am at a private school teaching), and that in today's world we are much nicer people and we do not judge people on their skin color or for any other differences a child may have.

Henry's Freedom Box

Title: Henry's Freedom Box
Author: Ellen Legine
Illustrator: Kadir Nelson
Genre: Historical Fiction

Henry's Freedom Box is about a young African American boy that is a slave and gets taken away from his wife and children to be a slave for a family that bought him. There was one man named Dr. Smith, who agreed that slavery was wrong. They decided to sent Henry in a box to Pennsylvania to get away from being a slave for life. He had to go through trials such as giving himself an injury so he would be aloud to stay home from work (he had to lie so he could get away from the family he is a slave for, so he could meet Dr. Smith and get sent away to good people).

There are many lessons to be taught in this book! The main topic for this book is slavery. I would teach this book to a fourth grade classroom because the reading level is 3rd-5th, but I think that fourth would be able to comprehend a little bit better what slavery is and the seriousness of it. Slavery was a major issue back then. This book is based on a true story of Henry "Box" Brown who escaped slavery from being shipped in a box, just as the story explains. This book will teach kids the severity of slavery in the 1800s and early 1900s.

On the Moon

Title: On the Moon
Author: Anna Milbourn
Illustrator: Benji Davies
Genre: Historical Fiction

This is a cute characterized book that is about a girl that is curious about going to the moon. She has learned all types of things, such as how to get to the moon, on a spaceship, and how we will get back!

I would use this book in a fourth grade science class to introduce the ideas of outer space and how to it is possible for people to fly to the moon, land on the moon and then return home safe and sound. With this book it could also introduce the history lesson for the few people that have already been to the moon and their success stories!

Miss Lady Bird's Wildflowers

Title: Miss Lady Bird's Wildflowers
Author: Kathi Appelt
Illustrator: Joy Fisher Hein
Genre: Historical Fiction

Kathi Appelt is a woman who has written a large variety of children's books. Kathi Appelt first learned about Lady Bird Johnson from her grandmother, who worked on the presidential campaign in 1964. This story talks about a little girl who's mother passed away of an illness and how she lived on to find happiness and go to college in 1930 when it was very uncommon for woman, and become a successful grown woman and got married four years later! The entire time from when she was young, to older with children, the story kept the importance of the flowers and trees and the beauty in the outdoors and wildflowers.

This story could teach a lot about our history. One lesson I would teach my class with this book is how unlikely it was for woman to go to college back in the day and the reasons why. Another important factor that would be fun to teach a classroom based on this book is the beauty and the importance of our fields of wildflowers and how they grow and how it is okay to have one thing that is important to you that you go to when you are having a hard time in your life. It is okay to have a "get away" spot, and this spot for Miss Lady Bird was in any area full of trees, flowers, or anything that grows outside, she found beauty in it and it is important to take a step back and see the beauty in the things we see everyday.