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Showing posts with the label amber waves of grain

Lincoln in His Own Words by Milton Meltzer - ADVISABLE

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Lincoln in His Own Words by Milton Meltzer, illustrated by Stephen Alcorn, 221 pages.  Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1993 (reprint 2018).  $13.  Content: Language: G; Mature Content: G; Violence: G.   BUYING ADVISORY: MS, HS – ADVISABLE   AUDIENCE APPEAL: LOW   This is a biography of Abraham Lincoln told with a mixture of the author’s explanations and Lincoln’s own words.  From the time Lincoln was little, he was interested in understanding the world around him.  He was a humanitarian and lawyer and he loved his country.  During his presidency, Lincoln tried to keep the country together during the Civil War and fought for slaves’ freedom.  In these moving speeches Lincoln’s goodness and passion for what is right becomes evident.   This is a slow read with lots of interesting facts and great quotes.  I think this book would work well in a classroom where the teacher can concentrate on specific quotes (not necessarily the whole book at one time) and have the students study history from Lin

More Deadly than War by Kenneth C. Davis - ESSENTIAL

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More Deadly than War by Kenneth C. Davis, 291 pages.  NON-FICTION  Henry Holt and Company, 2018.  $20.   Content: Language: G; Mature Content: G; Violence: PG-13.   BUYING ADVISORY: MS, HS – ESSENTIAL   AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE    This book takes a look at how the Spanish Flu affected the outcome of World War I.  The Spanish Flu was called many different names as it affected people throughout the world, but the death toll was the highest since the Black Plague.  As soldiers were going off to war, they infected each other in training camp and as people came to celebrate in parades.  Within the cities in the United States, people didn’t know how they were spreading the disease, so it continued to grow.  The flu came in three different waves and the world since has learned many ways to help prevent the spread of epidemics.   I couldn’t put this book down.  It has fantastic illustrations and reads quickly.  The author explains not only what happens here in the United States, but in other

Fly Girls by P. O'Connell Pearson - OPTIONAL

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Fly Girls: The Daring American Women Pilots Who Helped WinWWII by P. O’Connell Pearson , 191 pages.  NON-FICTION Simon and Schuster, 2018.  $17.   Content: Language: G (1 swear); Mature Content: G; Violence: PG.   BUYING ADVISORY: MS, HS – OPTIONAL   AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE    When America joined World War II, the military had to boost the production of aircraft to help them win the war.  At the time, there were many women who were capable of piloting planes, but the government wouldn’t let them go to war.  The women pilots were still determined to help the war effort and helped in many ways to transport the planes, fly planes as target practice, and help test the planes after they had maintenance work done on them.  The fly girls faced discrimination, sexual harassment and weren’t officially recognized for their efforts, but their patriotism was fierce as they sacrificed, sometimes their lives, for the war effort.   This book was actually frustrating to read-not because of the way it