Some Supplemental Reads

Fifty Cents and a Dream: Young Booker T. Washington, by Jabari Asim-  technically, this is a picture book.  The pictures are beautiful and interesting.  The text and subject matter are both a bit advanced for a picture book, IMO, and there's two or three pages of back material that isnt picture booky at all (small text, no pictures other than a photograph and map).  There is an awkward use of colored people and negroes, both of which tend to offend people today.  I would use this with a child maybe grades 2-4, maybe a 5th grader would not be offended if you explain that you know it looks like a picture book, but the content is more mature than you would expect for a typical picture book reader.  I enjoyed reading it very much as an adult, but kids tend to be more sensitive about being handed a picture book. (UK Readers.  Canadian Readers)

Words Set Me Free: The Story of Young Frederick Douglass (Paula Wiseman Books), Lisa Cline-Ransome- like the above book, this is a picture book but it's more mature in theme than I would typically read to the picture book crowd.  The text talks about Douglass' father being the slave owner and his mother being a slave, about children being fed from a trough like animals, and sometimes whipped until their backs bled, about people believing they have a divine right to own other humans, about being able to read making one unfit for being a slave -- I can't see this stuff even being interesting to a child who cannot read the story for himself.  But it's a lovely book, and I love the emphasis on Douglass' hunger for knowledge, and how he worked through learning to read.  He started with some lessons from a kind slave owner who had not owned slaves before because she came from the north, but she is stopped abruptly when her southern husband finds out what she's done, so he has to learn more on his own, and he was very diligent and clever about it.  This also has a couple of pages of epilogue in the back of the book that aren't picture bookish at all.  I would use this with a child about grade 2-5, if I could convince the fifth grader it's not a babyish book, because it really isn't. Like the one above, I also enjoyed this as an adult.  (UK Readers.  Canadian Readers)

Follow the Drinking Gourd, Jeanette Winter- this is a picture book with a picture book text following a family escaping from enslavement to freedom.  It will help if you learn the song, (links below). (UK Readers.  Canadian Readers)

Whoosh!: Lonnie Johnson's Super-Soaking Stream of Inventions- Don Tate and Chris Barton-  I loved this so much.  It's picture book, a biography, a book about a scientist, about perseverance, diligence, and curiosity.  IT's funny, too.  The author says he has never enjoyed any interview he's done as much as he enjoyed interviewing Johnson and it shows in the story.  Lonnie Johnson is African American, and he grew up in a small house with five siblings.  He and his team won a science fair with a project for which he may, or may not, have asked his sister to use her walkie talkie.   I wish the author would write this story for older kids- an easy chapter book, or even a childhood of (not-so) famous of Americans.  It's that good.  More about it here (you can look at some of the pages, and click to a recording of the author telling about why he wanted to tell this story, and reading a page or two) (UK Readers.  Canadian Readers)

All Times, All Peoples, A world History of Slavery by Milton Meltzer- illustrated by Leonard Everett Fisher  This is slightly on the dry side, but it's still well worth reading, probably about grades 5-8ish.  The biggest focus in this book is on American slavery, but the book does address slavery in other cultures, pointing out that slavery is not a uniquely American practice, that there have been slaves in every human society and in every time (and there are still slaves today).  The author discusses the three large slave revolts in the Roman Republic (the Three Servile Wars)- most of us have heard of Spartacus, but I hadn't heard of the first two slave revolts in that series where Spartacus was only the last of the rebellions.  It's important information. 
(UK Readers.  Canadian Readers)

Jaden Toussaint, the Greatest Episode 2: The Ladek Invasion
by Marti Dumas
(UK Readers.  Canadian Readers)

I've also read episode 1, the Quest for Screen time
(UK Readers.  Canadian Readers)

Jaden Toussaint is a super brainy five year old African American boy.  His father likes to be called Baba, which is Swahili for father.  Does not speak Swahili.

I can't make up my mind about this series, but I'm leaning towards it's hilarious.  The reason I am not sure about them is because there are so many inside jokes (the ladek invasion is full of references and plays on words for Dr. Who fans) that I feel like will just go over the kids' heads and I'm not sure the books will be as fun for them as they are for the adults. I would use them with a reluctant reader who needed more practice and possibly more coaxing to read. Probably not with kids from about 9 to 13 or so, because they might see them as too babyish, but when they get to high school they will see them as hilarious again.

I have recommended these before, but Lensey Namioka's books about the Yang family, a family of Chinese immigrants with four children, each book about a different child, are delightful.  Probably for about grades 3-5, or grade 2 as a read aloud.  She's written other things I'd like to read, but I haven't seen them in my libraries. (UK Readers.  Canadian Readers)

Linda Sue Park also writes books about Asian characters.  I've read A Single Shard, and it was good enough to be a free read. (UK Readers.  Canadian Readers)

Follow the Drinking Gourd song here.

The story is also here.

$5.00- Education for All, vol 2- the Imagination (and more) issue!- transcript of the imagination talk from the AO Camp meeting, with additional material I had to cut to save time.  

   
 $5.00- Education for All, a new CM journal,   Feed Your Mind!  This issue contains several articles on handicrafts, outdoor play, nature study and science. See sidebar for purchasing options if you are in the Philippines.

 $3.00 Five Little Peppers and How They Grew Copywork (grades 2/3, carefully selected with an eye toward finely crafted sentences, lovely bits of writing pleasant to picture in the mind's eye, and practice in copying some of the mechanics of grammar and punctuation typically covered in these years.

  $3.00 Aesop's Fables Copywork for Year One!  Carefully selected with an eye toward well written sentences, memorable scenes, and some practice copying sentences that model the basics of capitalization and punctuation.   Suitable for use with children who have already mastered the strokes and letters for basic penmanship.

Picture Study!  Miguel Cabrera's beautiful, diverse families, painted in 18th century Mexico this package includes 9 downloadable prints along with directions for picture study and background information on the artist and his work. $5.00

Common Kitchen:  What's for lunch?  Isn't that a common problem in homeschooling families?  What to fix, what is quick, what is frugal, what is nourishing?  How can I accomplish all those things at once?  We homeschooled 7 children, and I was a homeschooling mom for 29 years on a single income.  I collected these recipes and snack ideas from all over the world.  These are real foods I used to feed my family, my godsons, and sometimes my grandkids.  Includes some cooking tips and suggestions for sides, and for a variety of substitutions.  I think every family will find something they can use here. $5.00