CHILDREN'S LITERATURE, BRIEFLY Reading List James Jacobs ...

expedition when, after being trapped in a frozen sea for nine months, their ship, Endurance, was
finally crushed, forcing Shackleton and his men to make a very long and perilous journey across
ice and stormy seas to reach inhabited land.
Cobb, Vicki, and Kathy Darling. 1980. Bet You Can’t: Science Impossibilities to Fool You. Lothrop. A
science experiment book that uses tricks as a medium for teaching science principles.
Freedman, Russell. 1994. Kids at Work: Lewis Hine and the Crusade Against Child Labor.
Photographs by Lewis Hine. Clarion. A photoessay filled with many of the photographs Lewis
Hine secretly took in order to expose the cruelties of child labor in the United States during the
early 20th century.
Fritz, Jean. 2001. Leonardo’s Horse. Illustrated by Hudson Talbot. Putnam. Leonardo da Vinci
sculpted in clay a horse two-and-a-half stories high with plans to cast it in bronze. He never
completed the project, but Charles Dent, a twentieth-century airline pilot who loved art, fulfilled
Leonardo’s dream almost five hundred years later.
Isaacson, Philip M. 2001 (1988). Round Buildings, Square Buildings, & Buildings That Wiggle Like a
Fish. Knopf. Explores various architectural styles around the world depicting churches,
fortresses, bridges, air terminals, mills, cliff dwellings, tombs, and lighthouses of particular
note.
Micklethwaite, Lucy. 1993. A Child’s Book of Art: Great Pictures, First Words. Famous paintings are
used to introduce basic concepts (seasons, weather, opposites, colors, counting, etc.) to young
children.
Murphy, Jim. 1990. The Boys’ War. Clarion. Documents the lives of the young boys who actually
fought in the American Civil War. Illustrated with archival photographs.
Schwartz, Alvin. 1974. Cross Your Fingers, Spit in Your Hat: Superstitions and Other Beliefs.
Lippincott. Superstitions collected into 23 categories such as love and marriage, money,
ailments, travel, weather, school, and death.
Simon, Seymour. 1997 (1980). Strange Mysteries. Morrow. Describes nine strange phenomena and
possible explanations for them, including the day it rained frogs, an atomic explosion that
occurred 40 years before the atom bomb, and an eerie crystal skull.
Stanley, Jerry. 1992. Children of the Dust Bowl: The True Story of the School at Weedpatch Camp.
Crown. Describes the plight of the migrant workers who traveled from the Dust Bowl to
California during the Depression and were forced to live in a federal labor camp and then
focuses on the marvelous school that was built for their children.
Others We Like
Allison, Linda. 1976. Blood and Guts. Little, Brown.
Ambrose, Stephen. 2001. The Good Fight: How World War II Was Won. Atheneum.
Arnosky, Jim. 1999. Crinkleroot’s Nature Almanac. Simon.
Bachrach, Susan D. 2000. The Nazi Olympics: Berlin 1936. Little, Brown.
Bartoletti, Susan Campbell. 2001. Black Potatoes: The Story of the Great Irish Famine, 1845-1850.
Houghton.
Bauer, Marion Dane. 1992. What’s Your Story? Clarion.
Blumberg, Rhoda. 1985. Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun. Lothrop.
Cohn, Amy L., compiler. 1993. From Sea to Shining Sea: A Treasury of American Folklore and Folk
Songs. Illustrated by eleven Caldecott Medal and four Caldecott Honor Book artists. Scholastic.
Cone, Molly. 1992. Come Back, Salmon. Photographs by Sidnee Wheelwright. Sierra Club.
Curlee, Lynn. 2002. Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Atheneum.