Historically Speaking

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.

So many great patriotic titles to read this holiday. I'm thinking the popularity of Hamilton on Broadway has a little something to do with some of these new releases. Don't you? I can't wait to read Melissa De La Cruz 's latest YA novel inspired by this famous couple. For younger readers, Don Brown has taken a stab at the famous duel.  Brown wrote and illustrated Aaron and Alexander , described as a tale of passion, patriotism, and pride. Here are a few others that shed light on our founding fathers.  Save Save

I came across a useful article pouring over some old NSTA magazines -- Using Biographical Letter s to Draw on the Nature of Science by William Medina-Jerez, Wayne Melville, and Dale Walker. "Science is a human activity with a rich, colorful, and controversial history. Teaching science from a historical perspective can influence the way students perceive, understand, and apply scientific concepts and processes." How true! The article brought to mind the story of Nikolai Vavilov in my latest book, THE STORY OF SEEDS . Vavilov's story, crucial to the history of seed science, farming, and food, shaped my ongoing research for the book and my writing. I found his story compelling and worth sharing with my readers. By the time I finished visiting Russia and writing the book  I felt as if Vavilov was a personal friend. Readers of THE STORY OF SEEDS might take the suggestion of the article's authors and write a biographical letter about Vavilov, Burbank, or Mendel. Oth...