History

Abe Lincoln Crosses a Creek

Book cover: Abe Lincoln Crosses a Creek
Author(s): 
Deborah Hopkinson
John Hendrix

Another fun book we found at our library on Abe Lincoln! A good way to help celebrate President's Day!

Little is known about Lincoln's playmate and the event told in this darling book. I liked the perspective the author and illustrator take to retell the tall, thin tale...!

Addition by Suchi, Feb 2024: Lincoln's friend, Austin Gollaher, told the tale of the 1816 event as follows.

Famous Figures of Ancient Times

Author(s): 
Cathy Diez-Luckie
This is a fun and colorful book of cut-out paper dolls that you assemble with small brads or brass fasteners (available from an office supply store), allowing the arms and legs to be moved and posed. The book is printed on heavy cardstock (with perforated pages for easy removal) and there are two copies of each paper doll – one in full color and one ready to be colored. There are 20 historical figures included, making a total of 40 paper dolls.

Herodotus and the Road to History

Author(s): 
Jeanne Bendick
This is a brief, engaging and heavily illustrated biography of the world's first historian. Herodotus lived in the Greek city of Halicarnassus in the Persian empire during the 5th century BC. His situation and personality put him an ideal place to tell the fascinating stories of the Persian Wars (think Marathon, Thermopylae and Salamis) and to travel extensively and collect stories from all over. His original writings are a fascinating read for upper high school or college. This is unique in that it shares the basic history of his own life, told in first person narrative.

The Sally Series

Author(s): 
Elizabeth Coatsworth
Illustrator(s): 
Helen Sewell
The Sally Books by Elizabeth Coatsworth Away Goes Sally (pgs 117), Five Bushel Farm (pgs 142), The Fair American (pgs 134), The White Horse (pgs 168), The Wonderful Day (pgs 139) In our house, we always have at least two read-alouds going: one that I read to the kids during the day and the other in the evening that Dad reads to the kids before bed. We do this year-round, so even in the summer-time we’re doing our read-alouds.

Signs and Mysteries

Author(s): 
Mike Aquilina
Illustrator(s): 
Lea Marie Ravotti
Mike Aquilina's newest book, Signs and Mysteries: Revealing Ancient Christian Symbols is a great read and a great reference book in one. It's also an exquisite piece of art, thanks to the illustrations by Lea Marie Ravotti. (Do yourself a favor and click through to her site. Her work is gorgeous.) It's so easy to take illustrators for granted, isn't it? But one cannot do so with this book. The illustrations are integral; the book is, after all, about looking more closely at symbols, visual representations of the life of faith.

Otto of the Silver Hand

Author(s): 
Howard Pyle
Otto of the Silver Hand relates the story of a young boy caught between the malice of vengeful barons. After the untimely death of Otto’s mother, Otto was placed in the care of his uncle, the abbot of St. Michael’s monastery. Otto grew up in the monastery, happy and content until his tenth birthday. On his tenth birthday, Baron Conrad, his father, reclaimed his son and brought him back to his birthplace, the castle of Trutz-Drachen.

Foyle's War

This is a war series, set in England during WWII. The series centers around an aging detective, with a dry English wit, and an unassuming manner. Each episode (there are five sets in the Foyle’s War series and each set has four episodes in it) involves a murder mystery. There is an assortment of likable characters that appear throughout the series. Some of the British dialect is at times difficult to decipher. The movies would also have appeal for history students. There is much gentle humour in the series, not a little war-time pathos.

Mother to the Poor

Author(s): 
Jung-wook Ko
Translator(s): 
Mary W. Chung
Illustrator(s): 
Seung-bum Park
Once in a while I am fortunate to review a book that is outstanding, and this is one of them! Mother to the Poor tells the story of the great modern saint of our time in a marvelous way: the beautiful illustrations, the quality of the paper, the language--loving, biographical, translated from Korean. It reads like a picture book, but a meaty picture book! Everyone knows about Mother Teresa, but can most people tell where she was born? How was her family life? How did she begin the Missionaries of Charity? This book tells her whole story and readers of all ages will be delighted.

Behind Enemy Lines

Author(s): 
H. R. DeMallie
This is a fascinating personal account of a U.S. Air Force pilot who was shot down over Holland and spent the rest of World War II in a POW camp in Germany. He wrote it specifically to honor the Dutch who took care of him at great peril to their own lives. It was a particularly interesting read after being acquainted with Hilda Van Stockum's The Winged Watchman as locations and situations are very similar. The narrative is simple and understated (and very REAL), but you can imagine the voice of a grandfather sharing his adventures and impressions with the young people of today.

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