Haley Jackson

Title: Islandborn Genre: Historical Fiction Author: Junot Diaz Major Awards: Pura Belpre Award Age Group: 7 - 10 Year olds Summary: Islandborn is about a young girl named Camillo who is from a place she calls, “the Island” (a small island in the Domincan republic.  One day at school Camillas teacher asks the cass to go home and draw a picture of where they are from. This upsets camilla because she moved away from the Island when she was just a baby so she doesn't remember it. She goes around and asks her family about the Island, its history, and asks them to help her get a mental picture of the place. As she goes from person to person they all have great things to say besides one, Mr.Mir. Mir.mir tells camilla about a scary monster that once came and tried to take over the town. Then, he tells her that the heros, who know one knows, saved the town and got rid of the mean monster. Once she goes home she starts on her drawing of her hometown. It starts as a page, then goes ...

Title: Henry’s Freedom Box Genre: Historical Fiction Author: Ellen Levine Major Awards: Caldecott Honor Age Group: 7 - 11 Year olds Summary: Henry's Freedom Box is about a young boy and his life as a slave. Little Henry only knows life as a slave as his mom and father are both slaves for wealthy individuals. One day Henry's fathers master explains to him that times are tough and his wife and kids will be sold at the slave market. The mans wife and kids, including Henrey are sold and sent to Slavery. One day Henry gets the bright idea to ship himself to Pennsylvania where he has family and friends. Some kind men help ship Henry and send him on his way. After a lot of traveling and hardship Henry finally makes it to his destination once and for all. Finally Henry is free and begins to learn about himself, he is finally a free man who is ready to begin his new life. I would love to use this book in my classroom especially when discussing slavery. It has a great, easy ...

Title: Journey to a New Land Genre: Historical Fiction Author: Kimberly Weinberger Major Awards: None Age Group: 9 - 12 year olds Summary: This book, “Journey to a New Island” is a story about a young girl and her big family that lives in northern Italy. The girls' parents were not very wealthy and struggled to feed their large family of ten each week. After years of struggling the girls father gets a job offer but it is in san Francisco all the way in the US. Her father and brother leave and go to San Francisco while they stayed back in Italy until there was enough money saved to send them all over to the US. After four years and lots of struggle they had finally saved enough money to send the rest of the family over. The rest of the young girls family traveled on a boat called the, Caserta all the way to Ellis Island in the us where her father and brother were. The ride took 18 brutal days and the family and the young girl suffered many hardships. Once they finally ar...

Title: I Am Freedom’s Child Genre: Historical Fiction Author: Bill Martin Jr. Major Awards: None Age Group: 7- 10 years old Summary: I Am Freedom's Child is about a group of children celebrating their freedom no matter what their color. They are shouting out how happy they are to be free and that they are all equal no matter what their race, color, religion, or anything.They discuss the hisorty of slavery and gaining equal righst throughout the past brutal years. At the end of the book all different children of many races join hands and shout, “hooray for freedom's child!” I would love to use this book in my classroom for all levels of elementary.I believe that it has a great message that no matter what color you are we are equal and children of God. It also has some great history behid freddom and slavery. I feel like all students should read this book and that it is a great message for all. I think that this book would be great for students in any grade but espe...

Title: Diana’s White House Garden Genre: Historical Fiction Author: Elisa Carbone Major Awards: None Age Group: 6 - 9 year olds Summary: This is a story about a young girl Diana Hopkins whose father is the chief advisor for Franklin D. Roosevelt. As the US was at war and hard times approach Roosevelt expresses to everyone that he’s going to need everyone’s help in order to win the world. Sweet Diana starts brainstorming ways that she can help such as being a spy and a city official but these were no good and only landed her in trouble with many. One day president Roosevelt express that he wants everyone in the White House to start growing their own food and this gives Diana a bright idea. She decided to be in charge of growing the food for the White House that would be sent to the troops fighting the war. President Franklin D. Roosevelt calls it the, Victory Garden and the President helps her keep it up and running. At the end the garden becomes extremely successful and even ...