Teacher and Author
What a delightful book! Sarah Jane Marsh shows that big events in history can be simplified for younger readers without dumbing them down. She establishes on the first two pages that Paine is a dreamer, enamored with words. On the … Continued
Charles Dickens and the Street Children of London is a biography of Charles Dickens and a brief history of a reform movement. The industrial revolution created great wealth for a few and new opportunities for a growing middle class. It … Continued
“Sometimes it’s hard to tell fact from fiction.” So begins Candace Fleming’s Amelia Lost, in her foreword called “Navigating History.” Fleming wants her reader to know–up front, right from the start–that there was much she unearthed in her research that … Continued
It’s not just that both are right in this case. Both are right in every case. Even as “hard” a science as physics tells us light is both a particle and a wave. Quantum mechanics tells us electrons can be … Continued
Outgrowing schoolbook understandings is a lifelong endeavor. We were all taught the injustice of the Trail of Tears, but there is more to the story. How many of us grow up to examine its complexities? With the arrival of John … Continued
The first edition of The Chicago Defender, a run of three hundred papers, went on sale May 5, 1905. For two cents, readers received six columns of text on four full pages. It was a humble beginning for one … Continued
I grew up convinced I would die in the jungles of Vietnam. I needn’t have worried. My birth had come almost a full decade too late. My worries weren’t constant, in any case. Most of the time I was too … Continued
Woody Guthrie lost his older sister when he was not yet seven years old. Clara should have been at school taking final exams, but her mother insisted she stay home to do the ironing. Mid-morning, Clara burst out of the … Continued
Nonfiction has become hot–or, at least, very warm. For now, publishers are eager for nonfiction, especially of the narrative variety. They understand that young readers (like more mature ones) are engaged by a story. Science, history, sports, art: they all … Continued