Historically Speaking

It doesn't matter if you are writing nonfiction or fiction -- research is crucial in making your writing come alive. You might have to venture to some pretty obsure libraries to find just what you are looking for to obtain the details you need. Don't limit yourself to what you can find online. Those links can fill some needs, but look beyond for articles and books that might not be online. More on this to come!

I adore historical fiction and verse novels. A SEED IN THE SUN, a beautiful novel by Aida Salazar combines both. With rich characters, readers enter the world of the 1965 farmworkers' strike led by Dolores Huerta. Here are two nonfiction books that pair well with A SEED IN THE SUN. Add them to your classroom discussions! Nancy Castaldo is the author of books about food and farming, including THE STORY OF SEEDS, THE FARM THAT FEEDS US, and her latest, THE WORLD THAT FEEDS US. For more about these titles visit her website

 So many books, so little time is the phrase I think about most at this time of year. Thankfully, another year is fresh on the forefront with new reads. Here are some of my fave historical books from 2022. In all of these books, authors have brought to life places and periods across the globe - from Italian immigrants in turn-of-the-century New York to 1930s Berlin to Africa to the fateful day of September 11, 2001. While they range in place and period, they also range in form. They are told in prose, verse, and graphic novel.  Check them out!  Turn-of-the-century NYC told in prose by Donna Jo Napoli .  A wonderful novel in verse set in Africa from Kwame Alexander Kip Wilson brings 1930s Berlin to life in this young adult novel-in-verse.  All of Don Brown 's graphic novels are chock full of facts and story. 

From the Writer's Almanac:   It was on this day in 1933 that   the  Nazi Party won 44 percent of the vote  in German parliamentary elections , enabling it to join with the Nationalists to gain a slight majority in the Reichstag. Within three weeks, the Nazi-dominated Reichstag passed the Enabling Act, which gave Hitler dictatorial powers and ended the Weimar Republic in Germany. Let's honor the women who worked in the Resistance at that time and during WWII, my family included.  Here are a few books that tell the story of some of those people:

Who can imagine what life must have been like for a kid living twenty thousand years ago? Lois Huey can! Travel back in time with author and archeologist, Lois Miner Huey , with her latest book, Children of the Past:Archeology and the Lives of Kids . Thanks, Lois, for talking with us today about this fascinating book. What inspired you to write about kids who lived thousands of years ago? Based on archaeological evidence, I was wondering what it was really like to be a kid years ago. My latest book Children of the Past Archaeology and the Lives of Kids (Lerner 2017) begins thousands of years ago with cave kids and goes through time to the 1790s. Finding evidence of children from various times in soil layers is exciting for archaeologists. I wanted to share that excitement and what that evidence of their lives meant in different time periods. In previous books like Forgotten Bones Uncovering a Slave Cemetery and Ick! Yuck! Eew! Our Gross American History, I've included ki...

I spent some time this weekend in lower Manhattan. My hotel was directly across the street from St. Paul's Chapel so I had to stop over to see this 250-year old Episcopal church that survived 9/11 and holds so much history. The cemetery is populated by Revolutionary War veterans and New World residents who lived in New York before we were a free nation. It is remarkable to see this tiny chapel among NY skyscrapers and to imagine an earlier New York. St. Paul's was built by Trinity Church to serve the neighborhood. St. Paul's  Just a few blocks away is Trinity Church, where Angelica Schuyler her sister, Eliza and Alexander Hamilton are buried. The original Trinity Church burned down. While awaiting the new building, George Washington and the gang attended St. Paul's. Trinity Church  He was a good guy, but.....   John Lawrence!  Eliza's plot This is a great place to fill out your Hamilton knowledge. These two loc...

I fell in love with Stacy Innerst's beautiful illustrations at the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators conference in Los Angeles this month. Stacy is the recipient of the 2017 Golden Kite Award for Picture Book Art for The Music In George's Head , a wonderful book about George Gershwin by Suzanne Slade. Seeing Stacy's books collected together made me appreciate their amazing illustrations all the more. Stacy has a wonderful way of bringing these historical biographies to life. I was amazed to learn that the Levi Strauss illustrations were actually created on denim!  Take a look at them for yourself!   Find out more about Stacy's work and August picture book release about Ruth Bader Ginsburg.