Update to Teacher Guide Nov 15 09
Posted 11/15/09
Book List Starting on page 241
Hunger and Poverty
Black Potatoes: The Story of the Great Irish Famine, 1845 – 1850 by Susan Campbell Bartoletti (Houghton Mifflin, 2001) Grades 6 – 10. The Irish potato famine had international repercussions. This book draws from news reports and first-person narratives.
Feed the Children First: Irish Memories of the Great Hunger by Mary E. Lyons (Simon & Schuster, 2002) Grades 4 – 12. First-person accounts of the great Irish potato famine. Includes examples of aid received.
The Adventurous Chef: Alexis Soyer by Ann Arnold (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2002) Picture Book. Biography of Alexis Soyer who created the soup kitchen model in Dublin during the Irish potato famine.
The Can-Do Thanksgiving by Marion Hess Pomeranc (Albert Whitman, 1998) Picture Book. Story of a class project to prepare and serve food for people in need at Thanksgiving.
A Castle on Viola Street by DyAnne DiSalvo-Ryan (HarperCollins, 2001) Picture Book. Story of a family joining Habitat for Humanity volunteers in restoring a home.
The Long March: The Choctaw’s Gift to Irish Famine Relief by Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick (Tricycle Press, 1998) Picture Book. The Choctaw collect $170 to help the people starving in the Irish potato famine in 1847.
Potato: A Tale from the Great Depression by Kate Lied (National Geographic Society, 1997) Picture Book. A true story of a family during the Great Depression who picks potatoes, which they eat and use to barter for other goods.
Uncle Willie and the Soup Kitchen by DyAnne DiSalvo-Ryan (Morrow, 1991). Willie’s nephew works in the soup kitchen and learns about helping hungry people.
Money Hungry by Sharon G. Flake (Hyperion, 2001) Grades 5 – 8. Raspberry Hill lives in the projects and develops schemes to earn money to prevent becoming homeless again.
Seedfolks by Paul Fleischman (Harper Trophy, 1997) Grades 4 – 8. Thirteen different voices tell the story of how a vacant lot becomes a garden that transforms a neighborhood.
La Mariposa by Francisco Jimenez (Houghton Mifflin, 1998) Picture Book. A largely autobiographical story of a boy immigrating to the U.S. from Mexico and his struggles.
Four Feet, Two Sandals by Karen Lynn Williams & Khadra Mohammed (Eerdmans Books for Young Readers, 2007) Picture Book. Two girls living in a refugee camp share one pair of sandals.
The Butter Man by Elizabeth Alalou and Ali Alalou (Charlesbridge, 2008) Picture Book. Baba tells his granddaughter about his childhood in Morocco and of the wait for his father to bring back food and hope during the famine.
Every Human Has Rights: A Phototgraphic Declaration for Kids (National Geographic, 2009). Based on the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights with poetry from the ePals community.
If the World Were a Village by David J. Smith (Kids Can Press, 2002) Picture Book. A book about the world’s people based on imagining that the whole world is a village of 100 people.
Chill Wind by Janet McDonald (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2002) Grades 5 – 8. Aisha is a 19 – year-old black single mother with two children, no high school diploma, and no work history who has to find a way to support herself and her family.
A Place at the Table – Struggles for Equality in America Edited by Marian Fleming (Oxford University Press, 2001) Grades 8 – 12. Examines the efforts of many different people in American history to secure equal treatment in such areas as religion, voting rights, education, housing, and employment.
Food Watch by Martyn Bramwell (Corling Kindersley, 2001) Grades 5 – 8. Draws attention to the most pressing environmental concerns – and suggests positive ways to prevent further damage.
A Life Like Mine (DK in association with UNICEF, 2002) Picture Book. Guided by the Convention on the Rights of the Child, this book shares the lives of children around the world.
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins Scholastic Press, 2008) Grades 5 – 8. This story takes place in the future, in the ruins of a place once known as North America. Panem has a rich capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts which the capitol controls by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of 12 and 18 to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV. Rather unsettling parallels to our present.
Homelessness
Home is Where We Live: Life at a Shelter through a Young Girl’s Eyes by Bonnie Lee Groth (Cornerstone Press, 1995) Grades 4 – 8. A photo essay about how a young girl acclimates to shelter life and comes to accept the people who help her.
Come the Morning by Mark Jonathan Harris (Wayne State University Press, 2005) Grades 6 – 9. Chronicles the lives of homeless in Los Angeles.
Homeless Children by Eleanor H. Ayer (Lucent Books, 1997) Grades 4 – 8. Gives information about resources provided by agencies and youth-led programs, educational issues, health concerns, and various aspects of daily life for homeless children.
Homelessness by Sara Dixon Criswell (Lucent, 1998) Grades 7 – 12. Discusses the role of government, charities, non-profit organizations, and everyday citizens, including youth.
The Other America: Homeless Teens by Gail B. Stewart (Lucent Books, 1998) Young Adult. True stories of the plights of homeless teens.
Fly Away Home by Eve Bunting (Clarion, 1991) Picture Book. Story of a homeless boy living with his father in an airport terminal.
Asphalt Angels by Ineke Holtwijk (Front Street, 1995) Grades 10 – 12. Alex is thrown out of the house by his stepfather and lives among the street kids, falling into a life of theft and panhandling for survival.
Darnell Rock Reporting by Walter Dean Myers (Delacorte, 1994) Grades 4 – 7. Darnell works on the school newspaper and becomes interested in a veteran who is homeless. He begins to understand that everyone deserves a second chance.
Dew Drop Dead by James Howe (Simon & Simon, 2000) Grades 4 – 7. A mystery of a dead body that is discovered; the mystery includes the new homeless shelter at church. The challenges and difficulties of being homeless are revealed in this story.
Soul Moon Soup by Lindsay Lee Johnson (Front Street, 2002) Grades 6 – 10. Phoebe describes her life being homeless, sleeping in the shelters and doorways of the city. She is then sent to the country to live with her Gram and learn how to put her life together.
Work
HYPERLINK "http://www.amazon.com/Carpet-Boys-Gift-Pegi-Deitz/dp/0884482499/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1245247348&sr=1-1" The Carpet Boy's Gift by Pegi Deitz Shea and Leane Morin (Tilbury House, 2003) Picture Book. Inspired by the true story of Iqbal Masih, a boy from Pakistan who fought for the rights of child laborers. Nadeem has been forced to work in a carpet factory under inhumane conditions to repay a "loan" made to his parents.
Stolen Dreams - Portraits of Working Children by David L. Parker (LernerPublications, 1998) Grades 5 – 8. Photos and stories of the lives of working children in India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Mexico and the U.S.A.
War
Anna’s Goat by Janice Kulyk Keefer (Orca Book Publishers, 2000) Picture Book. Based on a true story of WWII, this story tells of a refugee family who are given a goat for milk and companionship.
The Lost Boys of Natinga: A School for Sudan’s Young Refugees by Judy Walgren (Houghton Mifflin, 1998) Grades 5 – 8. Photo essay inside a refugee camp and school for boys in southern Sudan documents the struggle of boys who have been forced from their homes.
The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis (Scholastic Inc., 2002) Grades 5 – 8. Story of a family’s struggles during the Afghan War.
Parvana’s Journey by Deborah Ellis (Groundwood Books, 2002) Grades 5 – 8. A sequel to The Breadwinner, this book tells of Parvana’s journey to search for her family in Taliban controlled Afghanistan.
A Little Piece of Ground by Elizabeth Laird (Haymarket Books, 2006) Grades 5 – 8. One boy’s telling of the human cost of the occupation of Palestinian lands.
The Boy in Striped Pajamas by John Boyne (David Fickling Books, 2007) Grades 5 – 8. Holocaust story of a naive young boy whose father is put in charge of Auschwitz.
People Who Have Made a Difference
Paths to Peace - People Who Changed the World by Jane Breskin Zalben (Dutton’s Children’s Books, 2006) Picture Book. Sixteen people who tried to make the world a better place are profiled in this book. These include Mahatma Gandhi, Albert Einstein, Eleanor Roosevelt, Mother Teresa, Cesar Chavez, Wangari Maathai, and several others.
Kids With Courage - True Stories About Young People Making a Difference by Barbara A. Lewis (Free Spirit, 1992) Grades 5 – 8. Stories of young people who take action to make a difference in the world.
Harvesting Hope – The Story of Cesar Chavez by Kathleen Krull (Harcourt, Inc. 2003) Picture Book. A biography of one of America’s civil rights leaders who worked to improve the lives of thousands of migrant farmworkers.
Ten Amazing People And How They Changed the World by Maura D. Shaw (Skylight Paths, 2002) Grades 4 – 8. Profiles of Black Elk, Dorothy Day, Malcolm X, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Janusz Korczak, Mother Teresa, Albert Schweitzer, Thich Nhat Hanh, and Desmond Tutu.
Free the Children by Craig Kielburger (Harper Perennial, 1998) Grades 6 – 12). A young man fights against child labor and proves that children can change the world.
Generation Fix Young Ideas for a Better World by Elizabeth Rusch (Beyond Words, 2002) Grades 5 – 8. Each chapter in the book tells the stories of kids who saw a problem (hunger homelessness, violence, discrimination . . . ) and did something about it.
Take Action! A Guide to Active Citizenship by Marc and Craig Kielburger (John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2002) Grades 5 – 8. Covers the basics of how to become socially involved – fight for children’s rights, help those suffering from hunger and poverty, work on environmental issues – and tells the stories of other young people who have made an impact.
I Can Make a Difference - A Treasury to Inspire Our Children by Marian Wright Edelman (HarperCollins, 2005)Grades 5 – 8. Stories, poems, songs, quotations, and folktales from a variety of cultures and peoples to let children know that they can make a difference in the world.
