Capital Choice
Delano, Marfé Ferguson
Genius: A Photobiography of Albert Einstein
National Geographic
2005
3rd-6th
Summary: The story offers a photobiography of Albert Einstein including a foreword from Evelyn Einstein, Einstein's granddaughter.
Strengths: The book has many vibrant pictures along with information about Albert Einstein. Another strength of the book I believe is the explanations of his theory of relativity.
Concerns: If a child is using the book for a project in school, I think it is adequate. It may be too detailed, however, for a young child to maintain interest in it for a long period of time if it is only for enjoyment.
Classroom Use: When a teacher assigns a book report or a project, the book can be used as an example of an appropriate source to use.
Murphey, Jim
An Amercian Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic
Clarion Books
2003
5th-6th
Summary: The book tells the story of the yellow fever epidemic in the late 1790s by giving context and true cases of people sick or dying of the disease.
Strengths: The book provides a strong account of the epidemic. with the interesting text and pictures to complement. I think this book can entertain any young child until the end.
Concerns: A good deal of the story contains information and historical context. Unless a child or student needs information on this topic, boys and girls may become bored or overwhelmed with the text.
Classroom Use: A student can use the book for information if they are doing an assignment/project on this topic. It can be a good source for students.
Murphey, Jim
The Great Fire
Scholastic Inc.
1995
5th-6th
Summary: The Great Fire combines historical facts about the Chicago fire of 1871 and survivor accounts of the event.
Strengths: The personal accounts in the book keep the reader's attention throughout. When a young person wants to know information about an even, reading through boring books/articles would be unhelpful. This book would do a good job at providing information in an appropriate way.
Concerns: The book can seem to act like a textbook at times. There are pictures from the time period and numerous facts throughout that sometimes take away from the "story" with the personal accounts.
Classroom Use: As with An American Plague, this book could be very useful for a child who is doing an assignment or project to utilize this text to obtain information and facts.
MULITCULTURAL
Fisher, Leonard Everett
Gandhi
Atheneum Books for Young Readers
1995
3rd-6th
Summary: The story provides background history of the problems Indians went through and how Gandhi helped with Indian's rights.
Strengths: The illustrations are beautiful and the black and white color make them more effective. The chronology timeline and map are very helpful to a reader who is not familiar with Gandhi or who wants to know the geography of the places mentioned.
Concerns: I think the book provides a lot of good historical background, but if the story is titled Gandhi, I think there should be more about his life included.
Classroom: If a student is doing a project on Gandhi and his contributions for Indian's rights, this would be a helpful tool.
Warren, Andrea
Surviving Hitler: A boy in the Nazi Death Camps
HarperCollinsPublishers
2001
4th-6th
Summary: One boy's story before, during, and after the war.
Strengths: I like the way there might be words in the story that are difficult to pronounce and the pronunciation is right beside it. Even though the story has facts, it is a true story that an upper elementary school student might be interested in.
Concerns: Throughout the book are real images. Some are of Jack and his family and some are Hitler and prisoners at concentration camps. I think some of them are misplaced such as some pictures that don't have to do with Jack's story and some that don't correspond to what's written on the page.
Classroom Use: This story might be an interesting one to read to students while teaching about World War Two so the boys and girls can maybe get an insight to what that war might have been like.
