My Brother Sam

I have acquired a prescribed book list from an outgoing teacher who teaches two of the three sections of eighth grade reading; I have the third group (my first year with 8th grade).  The novels are taught in order based on their setting date--the first being an American Revolution book My Brother Sam Is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier.

For me, this book gets off to a slow start, but halfway into it, I was hooked.  The overused comment about this book (which has been said for years at this school and probably all that teach it)--"Why do we have to read this?  Sam dies."  My reply, "Well, the Titanic sunk and how many of you watched the movie?"  Several giggles.

Teaching this book in the context of our faith-based school adds so much to the book's discussion.  Like many novels, I feel so blessed that I can incorporate this into our discussions.  

I found a really great website ( click HERE ) that centers on the town of Redding.  It has a Google map showing where all of the places in the novel are located.  I cannot wait to share this with the students--many of whom are history buffs.

American Revolution Nonfiction #2

A second nonfiction title I read about the American Revolution was Everybody's Revolution by Thomas D. Fleming.  Fleming's author site complete with his prolific list of books may be located by clicking HERE.

I liked how this book was organized--each chapter was dedicated to a specific group who was involved in the Revolutionary War including Native Americans, women, black slaves, and children.  Within each chapter was a brief description of specific people within each category.  The reading of this was rather choppy, but it provided some information if someone would want to do further research.

American Revolution Nonfiction

Since I am teaching an American Revolution novel, I thought I would check out some quicker reads in nonfiction.  One of two books I pulled was entitled Liberty Or Death: American Revolution 1763-1783 by Betsy and Giulio Maestro.  I appreciated this book quite a bit more than the second random book I chose.

What I liked about this book is that in its brief survey of the American Revolution, it utilized familiar phrases and placed them in the context of the history.  Examples include "Give me liberty or give me death" and "Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes."  There were also maps and illustrations in this 64 page book.

For more information on this author/illustrator dual, see their webiste:  click HERE.