My university major and minor are Anthropology and History, so my love of Social Studies is definitely well known. I have even served on the board of Manitoba's Social Studies teachers group and presented at their conferences! Recently, I have read a bunch of great books through Netgalley that I think would be great for my classroom so I thought I would share the reviews for you here! All of these books were given to me as Advanced Readers Copies in the electronic form, but I am hoping one day to go pick up a copy for my classroom and I think you might like them too!
Liberty's Civil Rights Road Trip
By: Michael Waters
This book is great! I can definitely see using it as a starting point for discussions about civil rights and black history month with my Grade 3 students. The story follows a young girl named Liberty as she and her family, friends and others take a bus tour of some of the important historical locations related to the civil rights movement such as Martin Luther King Jr.‘s house. The story ends with an author’s note and a series of background information about the people and places mentioned in the book. Additionally, portraits of each or the people are included on the pages of the story in black and white so children can imagine the person while history is being discussed.
Three Lines in a Circle
By: Michael Long
This book is fabulous! I wish I had known about it a few months ago! As a grade 3 teacher (in Canada) I often teach about symbols of peace, such as dove, poppy and the peace symbol, around Remembrance Day (Nov. 11). My students this year were so interested in the peace sign. This book would have been perfect for that lesson as it describes the world during war and during protests and gives context for young students about what events led to the need for a symbol of peace. The book is easy to follow, appropriate for young and middle grade readers and would be a great addition to classroom libraries. I can easily see myself using this book as a starting point for lessons in the future.
The Purple Pail
By: Christine Leronimo
The Purple Pail is a picture book about a pail (think beach toy) that finds many uses across the world. From a market, to a vineyard to a floating candle ceremony, the purple pail is part of many cultures and vocations. Each page has colourful pictures and every second page or so has 1-2 lines of text. While there are some challenging words, I could see young readers enjoying the pictures and creating their own story to go along with them.
The book opens with a world map and plots the journey the pail goes on. I think this would be a great entry point for Social Studies lessons on geography and culture. It is also an opportunity for children to see diverse people and multicultural characters. I would highly recommend this book for Social Studies teachers of children in the K-4 range as well as parents of young children ages 3 or so and up.
Magical History Tour #8
By: Fabrice Erre
This story is a graphic novel about the vikings. The book covers mapping, culture, history, mythology, society, and more. At the end of the story there are biographies about a few leaders, information about ships and technology and a timeline. This is the perfect fiction meets non-fiction text for students learning about history and geography from the viking time period.
The funny and inviting pictures and graphic novel text layout makes this book very accessible and appealing. As a grade 3 teacher, I could see this being used in my classroom by students who are interested in vikings and norse mythology. I could also see my colleagues in middle school using this text to support English language learners or students with learning disabilities. Graphic novels are loved by so many students of all ages and I think that this would be a perfect opportunity for a teacher to bring in a text that is accessible for many students without being labeled as "kiddish". I would recommend this book to teachers of students in Gr 2-8 and for families of children interested in the vikings.
ABC democracy
By: Nancy Shapiro
This story follows an alphabet approach where each page represents a different element of government and democracy for each letter. For example, suffrage, justice and voting. It is a perfect introduction to difficult terms related to government without being too complicated or challenging for young children to understand. I teach grade 3 and every time I go to teach about government I am met with confused faces. I think that though this book has a simple concept, it would still go over well with my students and give me an opportunity to support their understanding of these higher level concepts and vocabulary. I would recommend this book for teachers and families of children ages 5-10.
Check out my review of another book in this series - coming soon!
Can you Believe It?
By: Joyce Grant
This book is about fake news and teaching media literacy. It tells readers about the process of real journalism, and the challenge of spotting fake news, all while teaching young people to decide what they trust as they begin or continue to interact with the online world around them. Despite being a picture book, I would actually recommend this book for older students or for teachers to read as a guided or read aloud text. There is a significant amount of text on each page which would be intimidating for young readers. That being said, the pictures and images are interesting and feature chat bubbles, web browsers and profiles as part of telling the story and giving information. I think this book would be great for teachers and families of children in the 8-14 age range.
The Travelling Camera
By: Alexandra Hinriches
This picture book tells the story of Lewis Hine who travelled to several factories and other places where children were working in a variety of awful conditions as part of an attempt to publicize this problem and create social change. The illustrations are very well done and some of Hine's photographs are also in the story. The text is poetic and uses some more challenging or dated words. The content is not graphic or inappropriate for younger children, but I think the concept of labour rights would be challenging for those under the grade 3 level or so. As a Grade 3 teacher, I could see using this book in my social studies classroom as part of rights. I could definitely see this book being used in Grades 4-6, and would have even considered using it as part of my Human Rights lessons in Grade 7 and 8 Social Studies. Additionally, I could see this book being used to introduce the genres of biographies and historical fiction.
Viva’s Voice
By: Raquel Donoso
This children's picture book tells the story of a little girl named Viva who is excited to spend her summer vacation riding the bus with her father who is a bus driver. Her plans change when the bus drivers go on strike, including her father. She asks to go to the picket lines with her father and encourages him to speak for the strikers. The messages in this story include standing up for what you believing, using your voice and labor rights. These are all messages that are important for young readers to learn, no matter what age they are. By creating a book that involves a young girl as part of this message, the author has given children an opportunity to connect with the main character and learn about a topic that may not have otherwise felt important to them. As a grade 3 teacher, I would definitely recommend this book to other teachers and could see this book fitting well in my classroom library. I think this book is appropriate for children in the age 5-11 range, and would be a perfect introduction for discussions about rights and democracy in Social Studies.
Bobby's Story
By: Bryan Patrick Avery
This early chapter book features a young boy named Bobby who meets a highschool student who is sharing flyers about homelessness. Bobby is inspired to share what he has learned with his teacher and classmates. This book features several IBPOC characters and empowers young readers to stand up for what they believe in. The book concludes with discussion questions and writing prompts as well as information about making a flyer and a glossary of words such as awareness, volunteer and homeless.
This book is an early chapter book with 3 chapters, each about 5-8 pages long and includes full and part page pictures that are detailed and in full colour. The font is accessible and there are 20-60 words per page, depending on whether or not there is a picture on the page. Many of the words are decodable or sight words at the grade 1-3 level. I would recommend this book to parents and teachers of children in Grade 1-4 which the target audience likely grade 2s. Children at this age are excited about early chapter books, but still need support such as pictures and decodable text in order to be successful in reading. In my opinion, this book definitely fits in that category!
A Warbler's Journey
By: Scott Weidensaul
This book tells of a warbler's migration from South America to Great Slave Lake in Northern Canada and of the people who notice the bird throughout its journey. The book is filled with beautiful illustrations that capture the differences in the land above which the warbler flies and lands, as well as some remarkable sunsets and storms in the skies. The book also introduces a number of characters and their cultures and families who live in different countries along the warbler's path, including coffee harvesters and Canadian Indigenous groups fighting for rights to protect and use their land. The book starts and ends with information about migration and migratory birds like the warbler. I think this would be a wonderful book for the social studies classroom or when learning about migration in science. As a grade 3 teacher I could definitely see this book in my classroom library and would recommend it to other teachers in the kindergarten to grade 5 range.
Living The Green Spell
By: Florian Bushy
First of all, what an awesome name for an author of books about nature, Love it Florian Bushy, you were made for this!
Now, in all seriousness - this book is part of a series of books about environmental awareness, respect and friendship. Beyond just the mentality of recycling and picking up garbage as part of helping take care of the Earth, this book looks at our interactions with nature and promotes collaboration and problem solving to make lasting change in protecting our planet. The font is very accessible and is on white pages with small pictures in the corners and opposite full page colour and detailed pictures. The idea of villains and superheroes fighting over nature is also something that will interest young children.
As a teacher, I could definitely see this book being part of my classroom library. I would recommend this book to parents and teachers of children in the 4-9 age range.
Each of these books were given to me as ereader ARCs through NetGalley and the publisher. I review a lot of books and choose some of my favourites to share with you here on my blog! I'm excited for these new books to hit the shelves soon! Which ones can you see in your classroom library?
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