Supplemental Books for the Social Studies Classroom
 
Want to get your students to build their background knowledge and read more? Let your students choose a supplemental novel about an interesting time in history to read for your class or to read in class when they have finished their other work! Build a culture of reading in your classroom by making books available and by encouraging students to read.

Ancient Times
 
McClaren, Clemence.  (1999).  Inside the Walls of Troy.  New York, NY: BT Bound.
McClaren, Clemence.  (2000).    Waiting for Odysseus.  New York, NY: Atheneum.
D’Aulaires, Ingri, and Edgar E’Aulaires.  (1962).  D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths. New York, NY: Doubleday.
Napoli, Donna Jo. (2000).   Sirena.  New York, NY: Scholastic.
Cushman, K.  (1996).  The Midwife’s Apprentice.  New York, NY: Harper Trophy.
Cushman, K.  (1994).  Catherine Called Birdy.  New York, NY: Harper Trophy.
Cushman, K.  (1997).  Ella Enchanted.  New York, NY: Harper Trophy.
 
Colonial Times
 
Anderson, Laurie Halse.  (2000).  Fever, 1793.  New York, NY: Scholastic.
Avi.  (1990).  The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle.  New York, NY: Avon
            • Girl sent alone to the Colonies records impressions from the journey.
Haddix, Margaret Peterson.   (1997).  Running Out of Time. New York, NY:  Aladdin.
    •  Running Out of Time is a clever play on the idea of Williamsburg or any other community where actors bring history to life. Except in Clifton, Indiana, some of             the people aren't acting. The children, who have lived in Clifton all their lives, really believe it is 1840.
Rees, Celia.  (2002).  Witch Child.  New York, NY:  Candlewick Press.
    •  Her grandmother executed for being a witch, the main character flees England and ends up doubting her safety among the Puritans.
Speare, Elizabeth George.  (1978).  The Witch of Blackbird Pond.  New York, NY: Laurel Leaf.
           
 
Revolutionary War
 
Collier, J. L. (1989).  My Brother Sam is Dead.  New York, NY: Scholastic Paperbacks.
Rinaldi, Ann.  (1995).  The Secret of Sarah Revere (Great Episodes).  New York, NY:  Gulliver Books.
    •  focuses on The Boston Tea Party and Paul Revere's daughter, Sarah, and how she tells of the night her father became one of history's most remembered men.
    • Rinaldi (and Kathryn Lasky) has written many historical, young adult novels—so search at Amazon.com for more titles/historical time periods
Myers, Anna.  (1999).  The Keeping Room.  New York, NY:  Puffin.
    •Depicts how copes with being defeated by the British.  The novel illustrates how citizens had to  change everything from living conditions to the type of money         used.
 
Civil War
Cooper, J.California. (). Family.
Crane, Stephen.  The Red Badge of Courage  Scholastic Library Edition. New York, NY:  Scholastic.
Lyons, Mary E. and Muriel M. Branch. (2000).  Dear Ellen Bee:  A Civil War Scrapbook of Two Union Spies.  New York, NY: Scholastic.
Pinkey, Andrea Davis.  (1999).  Silent Thunder  A Civil War Story. New York, NY: Scholastic.
Rinaldi, Ann.  (2002).  Numbering All the Bones.  New York, NY:  Scholastic.
 
Westward Expansion
 
Cushman, K.  (1996).  The Ballad of Lucy Whipple.  New York, NY: Harper Trophy.

1930s/Dust Bowl/Depression

Hesse, K.  (1999).  Out of the Dust.  New York, NY: Scholastic Paperbacks.
Steinbeck, John.  (2002). The Grapes of Wrath: John Steinbeck Centennial Edition 1902-2002). New York, NY:  Penguin.
 
Immigration
Cisneros, Sandra.  (1984). The House on Mango Street.  NY, NY: Vintage. 0679734775
Buss, Fran Leeper. (1991).   Journey of the Sparrows. 
Bode, Janet, ed. (1989).  New Kids in Town: Oral Histories of Immigrant Teens.  NewYork, NY: Scholastic.
Hesse, Karen.  (1993).  Letters from Rifka.
 
World War II
 
Mazer, Harry.  (1979).  The Last Mission.  New York, NY:  Bantam Doubleday.
Mazer, Harry.  (2001).  A Boy At War:  A Novel of Pearl Harbor.  New York, NY: Scholastic.
Elliot, Laura.  (2001).  Under a War Torn Sky. New York, NY:  Hyperion.
Schlosser, Eric. (). Fast Food National:  The Dark Side of the All-American Meal.
Siegelman, Art. (). Maus: A Survivor's Tale.
Taylor, Theodore.  (1969). The Cay.  New York, NY:  Avon.
    • set in 1942 as German submarines arrive off the coast of Venezuela, Phillip, a Dutch colonist is sent to safety or is he? A touching story of survival and growth         during troubled times.
 
I Had Seen Castles.

Postcards From the Edge.

Holocaust

Lowry, L.  (1989).  Number the Stars.  New York, NY: Bantam Doubleday.
Yolen, Jane.  (1990).  The Devil’s Arithmetic.  New York, NY:  Puffin.
Warren, Andrea.  (2002).  Surviving Hitler.  New York, NY:  Harper Trophy.
Nieuwsma, Milton J., ed.(1998).  Kinderlager: An Oral History of Young Holocaust
Survivors.  New York, NY:  Holiday House.
Boas, Jacob.  (1996).We Are Witnesses: Five Diaries of Teenagers Who Died in the Holocaust.  New York, NY:  Scholastic.
Hesse, Karen. (2001).  Witness. New York, NY:  Scholastic.
Sender, Ruth and Jim Coon.   (1997).  The Cage.  New York, NY: Pocket Books.
Yolen, Jane.  (1993).  Briar Rose. New York, NY:  Tor Books.
Frank, Anne.  (1993).  Anne Frank:  The Diary of a Young Girl.  New York, NY: Prentice Hall.
Anne Frank House.  Anne Frank in the World.  New York, NY:  Scholastic. 
    • Nonfiction—pictures and text
 
Soldier X.
 
Vietnam War
 
O’Brien, Tim.  The Things They Carried.
Antle, Nancy.  (1998).  Lost in the War.  New York, NY:  Puffin.
 
 
Modern Warfare
 
O’Grady, Scott, and Michael French.  (1998).  Basher Five-Two: The True Story of F-16
Fighter Pilot Captain Scott O'Grady.  New York, NY:  Yearling Books.
•  Shot down while on a U.N. Peace Keeping Mission surives six days in hostile Bosnian Serbs’ territory.
 
Prejudice/Civil Rights
 
Weinberg, Larry. (2000).  The Ghost Hotel.  New York, NY:  Troll.
Grove, Vicki.  (2000).  The Starplace. New York, NY: Puffin.
Curtis, C. P. (1997).  The Watsons Go to Birmingham.  New York, NY: Bantam Books.
Fox, P.  (1973).  The Slave Dancer.  New York, NY:  Bantam.
 
 
About the Mid-East

Ellis, Deborah.  (2000).  The Breadwinner: An Afghan Child in a War Torn Land. New York, NY:  Scholastic.
Hosseini, Khaled . (2004). The Kite Runner. New York, NY: Penguin Group. 1594480001
Staples, S.  (1989). Shabanu: Daughter of the Wind. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. 0440238560
    • a young girl  must decide whether to follow the tradition of the arranged marriage established by her family

Miscellaneous
 
Benson, Ann.  (1997)  The Plague Tales.  New York, NY:  Dell.
        • two stories, one novel.  Odd chapters are set in the 14^th century; even chapters set in 2005.  The book deals with the
        Bubonic Plague.  Good for secondary.
Bloom, Stephen. Postville: Culture Clash in the Heartland.    
Ehrenreich, Barbara. (). Nickel and Dimed: On Not Getting By in America.
Hesse, Karen.  (1998).  Phoenix Rising.  New York, NY:  Puffin.
    •  survival after a nuclear accident
Jones, LeAlan and Lloyd Newman. (). Our America: Life and Death on the South Side of Chicago.
Virtual War.





© Lee Ann Spillane
Last Update: 3/27/05