EntertainerandtheDybbuk_Cover

This year I plan to read all the GA Book Award Nominees and provide a “one stop” resource for teachers who would like to use these books in their classrooms.  I will be posting links to author Web sites, teacher’s guides, and related Web links.  I hope to make this an unbiased resource, so I will not be providing my own review of the books–other than recommending it as a read aloud (or not).

The Entertainer and the Dybbuk
by:  Sid Fleischman

Summary: A struggling American ventriloquist in post-World War II Europe is possessed by the mischievous spirit of a young Jewish boy killed in the Holocaust. (Includes author’s note which details the murder of over one million children by the Nazis during the 1930s and 1940s.)

Author Web Site: http://sidfleischman.com

Related Resources:  Children During the Holocaust

Anne Frank Museum, Amsterdam
Online exhibits, Photos, and Information about Anne Frank and her World-Famous Diary including a 3-D Tour of Anne’s Hiding Place (The Secret Annex)

Holocaust Cybrary @ remember.org
Powerful Art by Children and Survivors as well as a Virtual Tour of Auschwitz

Teacher’s Guide to the Holocaust:  Children
Produced by the FL Center for Instructional Technology (Lots of Web Resources for Teaching About the Holocaust and Children)

United States Holocaust Museum:  Anne Frank
Informational Articles, Photos, and Web Links

United States Holocaust Museum:  Children During the Holocaust
Informational Articles, Photos, Videos, and Web Links

Related Resources:  Vaudeville

American Studies @ The University of Virginia:  Vaudeville
Information about Vaudeville Performers, Audio, and Video Footage from Actual Performances, and Web Links

Library of Congress’ American Memory:  American Variety Stage
Collection of Materials About American Variety Stage from 1870-1920 Including Theater Bills, Photos, Sound Recordings, and Video

Vaudeville:  A History
Short Articles About Vaudeville

Related Resources:  Ventriloquism

Ventriloquism During the Vaudeville Era
Historic Information and Photos of Ventriloquists  from 1900-1930

Ventriloquist Video (YouTube Version)

Description:  YouTube Video of Terry Fator Performance on Letterman
Please view this version of the video, as it is from the original source, if possible.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bPmwzhqEgw

Ventriloquist Video
(Version for Schools Who Cannot Access YouTube)

Description:  YouTube Video of Terry Fator on Letterman
This posting of the same video is for schools who cannot access YouTube due to content filtering.  Please view the video from the original source if possible.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bPmwzhqEgw

Related Resources:  War Crimes Prosecution

Famous War Trials:  Nuremberg Trials (Faculty Project of University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law)
Account of Trial, Chart of Defendants, Diagram of Courtroom, Transcripts and More in Easy to Read Format

Nuremberg Trials:  Wikipedia
Great Article with Lots of Photos and Links

United States Holocaust Museum:  War Crimes Trial
Information, Photos, Videos of Personal Narratives, Historical Film Footage and More

Read Aloud Recommendation:
Students love a good ghost story and this is no exception!  Teachers will find this to be a good read aloud to use as part of a study of the Holocaust and War Crimes Trials that followed World War II.

The Rising Star of Rusty Nail by Leslie M. M. Blume

Summary: In the small town of Rusty Nail, Minnesota, in the early 1950s, musically talented ten-year-old Franny wants to take advanced piano lessons from newcomer Olga Malenkov, a famous Russian musician suspected of being a communist spy by gossipy members of the community.

Author Web Site:  http://www.lesleymmblume.com

Related Links:  Teacher’s Resources

Booktalk @ Random House

Real Star of Rusty Nail (Basis for Main Character of Franny Hansen According to Author)

Related Links:  American Coot

American Coot, Identification by the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology

Related Links:  Cold War

McCarthyism:  A Description by PBS

The Price of Freedom:  Printable Exhibition by The Smithsonian

Related Links:  Multimedia



Description:  YouTube Video of Piano Concerto No. 2, First Movement (Moderato)
Please view this version of the video, as it is from the original source, if possible.

Description:  YouTube Video of Piano Concerto No. 2, First Movement (Moderato) Saved for Schools with Content Filters
This posting of the same video is for schools who cannot access YouTube due to content filtering.  Please view the video from the original source if possible.

Related Links:  Sergei Rachmaninoff (Composer, Pianist, and Conductor)

Classics for Kids:  Biography of Rachmaninoff

Detailed Biography at Classical Net

Related Links:  Young Musicians

Kids, Keyboards and Classics (Article and Recorded NPR Show about Pianists 12-16 at the International Institute for Young Musicians in Lawrence, Kansas)

Read Aloud Recommendation: A good read aloud to pick for discussions about goals and hard work.  This book would also help students to better understand the 1950s, the Anti Communist Movement (and propaganda), and the McCarty hearings (hearings conducted by the House Committee on Un-American Activities).

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This year I plan to read all the GA Book Award Nominees and provide a “one stop” resource for teachers who would like to use these books in their classrooms.  I will be posting links to author Web sites, teacher’s guides, and related Web links.  I hope to make this an unbiased resource, so I will not be providing my own review of the books–other than recommending it as a read aloud (or not).

The Puzzling World of Winston Breen by:  Eric Berlin

Summary: Winston Breen loves solving puzzles; and when his sister uncovers a twenty-five-year-old scavenger hunt (which leads to a ring worth thousands of dollars), he and his family jump at the opportunity to solve it.

Author/Publisher Web Site:  http://www.winstonbreen.com
Download and print a copy of all the puzzles so your kids won’t write in the book.  They’ll want to solve them all!

Teacher’s Guide:  Not Currently Available

Teacher Resources:

Best Kids Mystery Books from Suite101.com (Good choices in my opinion!!)

Interview with Author (text)

What is a Mystery?  (Lesson Plans Include Mystery Vocabulary, Elements of a Mystery, Writing Mysteries, etc.)

Related Links:  Multimedia

Book Trailer Created by Educators in the Liberty County School System

Related Links:  Mysteries

A. Pintura:  Art Detective (Online Art Mystery/Simulation)

Mini-Mysteries for Kids at kids.mysterynet.com

Related Links:  Puzzle Sites for Kids

Anagram Server from Wordsmith.org (Find anagrams for any word!)

Guess the Anagram & See the Answer Immediately  (Over 600 Anagrams from Everyday Things)

Online Jigsaw Puzzles, Include Tesselation Cuts (Can Login as Guest to Play)

Puzzle Choice for Kids:  Interactive Puzzles to Complete Online

Puzzle Choice for Kids:  Printable Puzzles

Read Aloud Recommendation: Unquestionably!! This is a good mystery adventure full of puzzles that you could give your students to try and solve before revealing the answer.  Kids will enjoy exploring the different types of puzzles found in this book.

Feathers by Jacqueline Woodson

Summary: When a new, white student nicknamed “The Jesus Boy” joins her sixth grade class in the winter of 1971, Frannie’s growing friendship with him makes her start to see some things in a new light.

Author Web Site:  http://www.jacquelinewoodson.com

Teaching Resources:

Teacher’s Guide:  Not Currently Available

Lesson Plan from National Council of Teachers of English on Similar Books (Does Not Include Feathers, But Could Be Used As Building Block/Includes The Other Side, a Picture Book by Woodson )

Reading Guide of Discussion Questions by Penguin Publishing

Review Suitable for Booktalk from Kidsread.com

Related Links:  Civil Rights

Brown v. Board of Education:  National Archive Documents and Lesson Plans

Learn NC:  Race Relations (Includes Multimedia Resources)

Research Starters from Scholastic:  Civil Rights

Related Links:  Emily Dickinson

Biography of Emily Dickinson from the Academy of American Poets Web Site

Dickinson Electronic Archives

Teaching with Emily Dickinson:  The Classroom Electric (Emily Dickinson Resources)

Text and Slideshow of Entire Poem (TextFlow) from the Academy of American Poets Web Site

Excerpt:

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all,
-Emily Dickinson

Related Links:  Hearing Impaired

Resources from the American Society for Deaf Children

Resources from Raising Deaf Kids

Related Links: Multimedia

Slideshow and Reading of Excerpt from Feathers on the Author’s Web Site

Mini Documentary of Woodson on Writing Realistic Fiction, Video of Author Reading from Feathers, & More

Related Links:  Sign Language

First 100 Signs (with Illustrations, Descriptions, and Photos of Person Making Each Sign)

Handspeak.com (including American Sign Language Online Dictionary with Videos Showing Signing of Words)

Read Aloud Recommendation: This is a good book to open dialogue about social issues such as race relations.  It will challenge students to question social injustices such as prejudice and stereotyping.

Uprising by:  Margaret Peterson Haddix

Summary: In 1927, at the urging of twenty-one-year-old Harriet, Mrs. Livingston reluctantly recalls her experiences at the Triangle Shirtwaist factory, including miserable working conditions that led to a strike, then the fire that took the lives of her two best friends, when Harriet, the boss’s daughter, was only five years old. Includes historical notes.

Author Web Site:  http://www.haddixbooks.com

Teacher’s Guide (Indepth Lesson Plan):
http://urbandreams.ousd.k12.ca.us/lessonplans/triangle/index.html

Related Links: The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire

Triangle Factory Fire Online Exhibit by Cornell University

Related Links:  The Gilded Age

Consuelo and Alva Vanderbilt (NPR Article with Photos)

Related Links:  New York City History

Big Apple History from PBS Kids

Related Links:  Shirtwaists

Photo of Shirtwaist

Related Links:  Strikes and Labor Unions

AFL-CIO:  The Uprising of 20,000 and the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire

Related Links:  Women’s Suffrage

Alva Vanderbilt Belmont:  Suffragist

Votes for Women:  Selections from the National American Woman Suffrage Association Collection, 1848-1921 (For Teachers with Great Images from the Library of Congress)

Related Links:  Wright Brothers

Discovery Channel:  The Wright Stuff

National Geographic:  Short Video on History of Flight

Read Aloud Recommendation: This book would be a good choice when studying the Industrial Revolution, suffrage/women’s rights, immigration, the Gilded Age, or American immigration.  It’s also an engaging example of historical fiction.  Knowing that two characters perish in the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, but not knowing which character survived keeps the reader intrigued.

This year I plan to read all the GA Book Award Nominees and provide a “one stop” resource for teachers who would like to use these books in their classrooms.  I will be posting links to author Web sites, teacher’s guides, and related Web links.  I hope to make this an unbiased resource, so I will not be providing my own review of the books–other than recommending it as a read aloud (or not).

Bearwalker by:  Joseph Bruchac

Summary: Although he is the littlest student in his class, thirteen-year-old Baron Braun calls upon the strength and wisdom of his Mohawk ancestors to face both man and beast when he tries to get help for his classmates, who are being terrorized during a school field trip in the Adirondacks.

Author Web Site:  http://www.josephbruchac.com

Teacher’s Guide: Not Currently Available

Related Links:  Adirondack Mountains

Adirondacks.net:  Official Guide to the Adirondacks

Encyclopedia Brittanica:  Adirondack Mountains

Visit Adirondacks:  Official Travel Information for the Adirondack Region of New York State

Related Links: Author Interviews

Scholastic Interview with Video

Related Links:  Bears

Animal Bytes:  Bear Information by Scientists of SeaWorld and Busch Gardens

Animal Diversity Web (University of Michigan Museum of Zoology):  Ursidae (Bear Family)

Bears.org (Species, Myths, Essays, and Media)

Vital Ground (Grizzly Facts & Multimedia Gallery of Videos)

Related Links:  Camping

Camping Tips for Beginners

CDC:  Camping Health (Tips)

How Stuff Works:  Compass

Related Links:  Native American Resources

American Folklore:  Native American Myths and Legends

Facts for Kids:  Mohawk Indians

Native American Tribes of New York

Read Aloud Recommendation:
Absolutely. This book is a great thriller, full of suspense and danger!

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