Book: Farewell to Shady Glade by Bill Peet

http://www.amazon.com/Farewell-Shady-Glade-Bill-Peet/dp/0395311284/ref=pd_sim_b_5

Overview: A very sweet story with a subtle tale about the dangers of over-development.

• Reading level: Ages 5 and up
• Pub. Date: April 27, 1981
• Paperback: 48 pages
• Publisher: Sandpiper
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0395311284
• ISBN-13: 978-0395311288

Book: The Wump World by Bill Peet

http://www.amazon.com/Wump-World-Bill-Peet/dp/0395311292/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1320772378&sr=1-1

Overview:

Wump World is a small world that is only grasslands and rivers. Wumps live there and it is perfect for them. They had no worries and no enemies. Suddenly, from outer space came a huge steel monster. The monster puffed fire and spit smoke. Metal legs came from the sides of the monster and strange busy creatures came out of it. The creatures were called the Pollutians and they were from planet Pollutus. The wumps were frightened and dived into a cave. The Pollutians knocked down trees and built 100 story sky scrapers. The wump world was now busy and loud. The air began to get polluted and the wumps had to eat moss from rocks and mushrooms to survive. Soon, no one could breathe the air or drink the water. The Pollutians packed upp and left wump world within 24 hours. Finally, the wumps came out of the cave and find that their world had been changed. There still is a section of the world that is green and the wumps munched on the grass. There is still hope for the wumps.

Teachers can use this book to talk with their students about pollution and how to keep the air clean. The class could also talk about recycling and how to save the world that we live in.- From here.

• Reading level: Ages 5 and up
• Pub. Date: April 27, 1981
• Paperback: 48 pages
• Publisher: Sandpiper
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0395311292
• ISBN-13: 978-0395311295

Book: Thinking in Pictures by Temple Grandin

http://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Pictures-Other-Reports-Autism/dp/0679772898/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1320763451&sr=1-2

Book: Motel of the Mysteries by David MacCaulay

http://www.amazon.com/Motel-Mysteries-David-Macaulay/dp/0395284252/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1320753435&sr=1-1

Overview: It is the year 4022; all of the ancient country of Usa has been buried under many feet of detritus from a catastrophe that occurred back in 1985. Imagine, then, the excitement that Howard Carson, an amateur archeologist at best, experienced when in crossing the perimeter of an abandoned excavation site he felt the ground give way beneath him and found himself at the bottom of a shaft, which, judging from the DO NOT DISTURB sign hanging from an archaic doorknob, was clearly the entrance to a still-sealed burial chamber. Carson's incredible discoveries, including the remains of two bodies, one of then on a ceremonial bed facing an altar that appeared to be a means of communicating with the Gods and the other lying in a porcelain sarcophagus in the Inner Chamber, permitted him to piece together the whole fabric of that extraordinary civilization.

• Reading level: Ages 12 and up
• Pub. Date: October 11, 1979
• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: Graphia
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0395284252
• ISBN-13: 978-0395284254

Book: The Kid's Guide to Social Action: How to Solve the Social Problems You Choose-And Turn Creative Thinking into Positive Action by Barbara A. Lewis

http://www.amazon.com/Kids-Guide-Social-Action-Choose-/dp/1575420384/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1320753031&sr=1-1

Overview: Newly revised, expanded, and updated, this award-winning guide includes everything kids need to make a difference in the world, from inspiring true stories to fill-out forms and up-to-date resources. The book includes step-by-step instructions for writing letters, doing interviews, making speeches, taking surveys, and more. B&W photos and illustrations.

• Reading level: Ages 10 and up
• Pub. Date: April 15, 1998
• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Free Spirit Publishing; Revised edition
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1575420384
• ISBN-13: 978-1575420387

Book: A Durable Fire by Virginia Bernhard

http://www.amazon.com/Durable-Fire-Virginia-Bernhard/dp/0380708736/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1320752586&sr=1-2

Overview: American history professor Bernhard has assembled a broad cast of characters for her fictional telling of the settlement of Jamestown. Temperance Yardley, whose husband has judged it prudent that they cross the Atlantic on separate ships, is widowed when a storm disrupts their convoy. Meg Worley, one of her companions, seeks her long-lost fiance who had helped found the Roanoke colony. Equally prominent are Powhatan and his warriors of the Potomac tribes, who find themselves at war with the foolish, squabbling, often violent English. Temperance survives the Starving Time and resettlement, only to be confronted with unresolved personal trials. Bernhard pens a complex tale of courage, treachery, cultural conflict, administrative bungling and desperate choices. She juggles the many stories well, and if at times the scholar overcomes the writer in matters of description, she nonetheless illuminates the vicissitudes of pioneer life in the Virginia colony.

Book: American History Simulations by Max Fischer

http://www.amazon.com/American-History-Simulations-Max-Fischer/dp/1557344809/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1320752366&sr=8-1

Overview: Students participate in activities that bring to life the Age of Discovery, the Stamp Act, the Revolutionary War, and other crucial events. Over 25 activities.

Book: Social Studies That Sticks by Laurel Schmidt

http://www.amazon.com/Social-Studies-That-Sticks-Concepts/dp/0325010595/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1320751639&sr=8-1

Overview:

The announcement that “It's social studies time” often elicits dread from students who mistakenly view the subject as a near-death experience. And who can blame them when this fascinating subject has been stripped of the heartbreak, adventure, conflict, treachery, strategic brilliance, and spectacular foibles - in short, the humanity - that it's supposed to explain? Student apathy and rock-bottom test scores scream that it's time for a change - for unforgettable, not regrettable, social studies. It's time for Social Studies That Sticks.

In Social Studies That Sticks Laurel Schmidt introduces a brain-compatible approach to integrated, standards-based instruction, using the four elements of the human learning cycle: awareness, exploration, inquiry, and action. This dynamic approach brings content and concepts to life, while sharpening skills in questioning, thinking, reading, writing, and the visual and performing arts. It promotes academic achievement, models the habits of active citizenship, tunes students' ethical antennae to social problems, and teaches tools students can use to advocate for change.

Social Studies That Sticks is a comprehensive, passionate, and user-friendly guide that:

• identifies essential social studies themes, standards, and skills
• models maximum use of primary source documents, eye-witness narratives, biographies, and historical fiction
• describes how artifacts, objects, art, photography, and architecture can be tools for inquiry and learning
• explores the community of a social studies classroom
• tackles matters of cultural perspective, point of view, bias, and propaganda
• transforms current events into historical investigations
• maps vital steps for social-justice projects
• provides guidelines for essays, presentations, oral histories, personal narratives, and original historic writing
• outlines dozens of authentic assessments
• introduces theLearning Ledger for student self-assessment
• pinpoints archival material, hundreds of books and websites, and historical resources for research and classroom use.

 Whether you use Laurel Schmidt's ideas to supplement your existing curriculum or you're ready to make your current textbook ancient history, Social Studies That Sticks will transform social studies time into lessons about history and humanity that last a lifetime.

Book: We Were There, Too!: Young People in U.S. History by Phillip Hoose

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0374382522/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&m=A106PP7OCO2QK3

Overview: From the boys who sailed with Columbus to today's young activists, this unique book brings to life the contributions of young people throughout American history. Based on primary sources and including 160 authentic images, this handsome oversized volume highlights the fascinating stories of more than 70 young people from diverse cultures. Young readers will be hooked into history as they meet individuals their own age who were caught up in our country's most dramatic moments-Olaudah Equiano, kidnapped from his village in western Africa and forced into slavery, Anyokah, who helped her father create a written Cherokee language, Johnny Clem, the nine-year-old drummer boy who became a Civil War hero, and Jessica Govea, a teenager who risked joining Cesar Chavez's fight for a better life for farmworkers. Throughout, Philip Hoose's own lively, knowledgeable voice provides a rich historical context-making this not only a great reference-but a great read. The first U.S. history book of this scope to focus on the role young people have played in the making of our country, its compelling stories combine to tell our larger national story, one that prompts Howard Zinn, author of A People's History of the United States, to comment, "This is an extraordinary book-wonderfully readable, inspiring to young and old alike, and unique."