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Transcription

Royal Fireworks Press
Instructional
Materials
ABOUT THE COVERS
One of the seven wonders of the ancient world was the Mausoleum at Halikarnassos on the western coast of what
is now Turkey. It was built as a tomb for Mausollos, who ruled (as a satrap of the Persians and then autonomously)
from 377 to 353 B.C.. According to Pliny the Elder, the tomb was 140 feet high with a stepped pyramid roof topped
by a quadriga (a four-horsed chariot), which was the ultimate in chariots in the ancient Greek world. The horse
pictured here was the far left horse. The term mausoleum derives from Mausollos’s name and indicates the fame that
this structure attained in the ancient world. Little more than twenty years after the death of Mausollos, Alexander
the Great ended Persian rule of the Ionian Greek cities like Halikarnassos.
The back cover is a view of the Temple of Hephiastos taken from the Agora in Athens. The temple was one of
several built in the extraordinary fifth century B.C. rebuilding of Athens after the Persians sacked the city in 480 B.C..
The variety and richness of that program is ample evidence of Athens’ prosperity and hegemony during the period.
This was a great century in Athenian sculpture, architecture, theater, pottery making, philosophy, and democracy.
Although the Parthenon and the Erechtheion on the Acropolis are better known, the Temple of Hephiastos is now
the most complete Doric temple standing in Greece. It is a structure of exquisite serenity of proportion and beauty
of line. It is a testament to the skill and devotion, the piety and determination of a civilization now long gone but
certainly not lost to us.
Photos by Dr. Thomas Milton Kemnitz
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MICHAEL CLAY THOMPSON
LANGUAGE ARTS
CURRICULUM
STRUCTURE ● SEQUENCE ● RIGOR
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A COMPREHENSIVE GROUNDING IN THE BASICS
WITH A HIGHLY CREATIVE FORMAT
VOC ABUL ARY
LITERATURE
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GRA MMAR
POETICS
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WRITING
THE TEXTS ARE DEMANDING; THE DESIGN IS INSPIRING.
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THE PROGRAMS COMPEL CLASSROOM DISCIPLINE
THROUGH MEANINGFUL INTELLECTUAL CONTENT.
ichael Clay Thompson, through his teaching, books, and presentations, has not only
enabled thousands of students to achieve extraordinary success in tests, but also has
inspired them and their teachers with a new and enduring love of language and literature.
He is the author of more than eighty books and more than 200 articles about language arts. A former
classroom teacher, middle school head, and academic, he is now a full-time author and presenter. He
is a past member of the Board of Directors of the National Association for Gifted Children and is a
past president of the Indiana Association for the Gifted. In 2010 he won the Richard W. Riley Award
from the South Carolina Consortium for Gifted Education. His rigorous texts have been adopted by
school districts throughout the country, and he is in great demand as a speaker at workshops and
conferences.
Take advantage of special prices for all books published by Royal Fireworks,
either by using the order form or by purchasing online from our website.
Connect with us on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter,
Pinterest, Instagram and be sure to join our
support group: rfwpsupport.com
PO Box 399
41 First Avenue
Unionville, NY 10988-0399
(845) 726-4444
fax: (845) 726-3824
email: [email protected]
website: rfwp.com
Sample pages of books, free downloads, and
video clips are available on our website.
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AN OVERVIEW OF THE LANGUAGE ARTS CURRICULUM
Exciting, demanding, and phenomenally successful, each book serves as a stand-alone text, but ideally as a
component in a progressive and comprehensive language arts curriculum. There are student books, teacher
manuals, and class sets for each program. Special prices for examination packages: see pages 25 and 26.
Grade
Grammar
Practice
Vocabulary
Poetics
Writing
Literature
3 & up
Grammar Island
Practice
Island
Building
Language
The Music of
the Hemispheres
Sentence Island
Mud
Trilogy
4 & up
Grammar
Town
Practice
Town
Caesar’s
English I
Building Poems
Paragraph Town
Alice, Peter,
& Mole Trilogy
5 & up
Grammar
Voyage
Practice
Voyage
Caesar’s
English II
A World of Poetry
6 & up
Magic Lens I
4Practice I
The Word Within
the Word I
Poetry and
Humanity
Essay Voyage
Search
Opus 40
Trilogy
Advanced
Academic
Writing I
Trilogy
Time
Opus 40
7 & up
8 & up
Magic Lens II
Magic Lens III
4Practice II
4Practice III
The Word Within
the Word II
The Word Within
the Word III
Poetry, Plato, and
the Problem of
Beauty
Poetry, Plato, and
the Problem of
Truth
Advanced
Academic
Writing II
Dickens
Trilogy
Opus 40
Advanced
Academic
Writing III
Opus 40
Shadow/
Autobiography
Trilogy
Support: Elaborate teacher manuals in each program give full recommendations for implementation and are
supplemented by support at the rfwp.com website. Visit our online support group: rfwpsupport.com.
Many of our titles are now available as iBooks. Look for the iBook symbol in the catalog and
on our website. For all of our available titles, search “Royal Fireworks Publishing” in Apple’s
iBook store.
THE SELF-E VIDENT TRUTH SERIES
Combines grammar, vocabulary, poetics, writing, and historical
knowledge to probe the central statements of equality in American
history. For grades 5 and up, these fully illustrated books are
interdisciplinary. See page 22.
CLASSROOM POSTERS
For the classroom wall, these bright and colorful posters help
students visualize the simplicity and beauty of important language
arts concepts. See pages 20 and 21.
OTHER WORKS
Michael’s studies and essays are of fundamental importance to educators.
They include Classics in the Classroom, The Heart of the Mind, Thinkers,
Classic Words, and The Conceptual Dialectic. See pages 23 and 24.
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ROYAL FIREWORKS PRESS AND IBOOKS
Most of our new books are released as an iBook at the same time that they are published in printed form.
Curriculum materials are being developed in this electronic format as we see the advantage to and the requests
from teachers. This is an exciting development, and we are improving and progressing our program of digital
education.
The iBooks we offer hold the same artistic value and implement the curriculum as economically and imaginatively
as Michael Clay Thompson has intended with the physical books. A student can now have the entire curriculum
all on one device, and move through the lessons with ease. Each book is filled with stunning color photographs,
and contains interactive diagrams and reviews. Many of the new editions feature audio, allowing the student to
listen as Michael Clay Thompson recites poems, narrates stories, and explains concepts. Our literature iBooks
feature a glossary of vocabulary that is common to all books in the trilogy. When using one of our iBooks,
students can highlight text, take notes, and search for content.
Although we appreciate and agree that there is no comparison with having a physical book in one’s hands, iBooks
have certain advantages for those who prefer them or who may wish to own both:
• Portability: Use them and read them with your students, any time, any place that you have your iPad.
• Own the latest edition FREE: If a book you purchased is republished with new or additional content, you
can download the updated version free. It automatically replaces the older copy on your bookshelf.
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• NO shipping costs: This is especially useful for our overseas customers.
• iBooks are immediately available on your bookshelf; no waiting for delivery.
• Interactivity: Students can work directly on the iBook.
• Photos and graphics are in stunning color.
• Video and audio additions are included with many of our titles.
HIGHLIGHTING AND NOTE-TAKING
Use a finger as a highlighter when reading any textbook in iBooks. Just swipe over any text, and it’s highlighted.
Tap a highlighted section, and a palette appears. Change colors, switch to underlining, or add a note instantly.
Then switch to the Notes view to see all of your notes and highlights organized in one place, making it a cinch to
search or go back to the highlighted sections of the book.
The iBook symbol appears in the catalog and on our website beside the books that are available in this format.
To see all our available iBook titles, go to the iBooks store and search “Royal Fireworks Publishing.” We also
have a list of our iBooks on our website.
rfwp.com
PO Box 399, Unionville, NY 10988
tel: (845) 726-4444 fax: (845) 726-3824
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ELEMENTARY VOC ABULARY
The primary pedagogic purpose of this series for young students is to teach vocabulary—the academic vocabulary
they will need to succeed in education and beyond in professional life. Building Language and Caesar’s English
are the precursors of The Word Within the Word program, which gives an immense advantage in the SATs.
THESE TEXTS:
• teach the most prevalent Latin stems, showing that big words can be easy and fun
• show that even young children can learn and understand big words
• sow the seed of intellectuality by introducing the drama and romance of ancient Rome,
the names of its thinkers, and some knowledge of its history
• show the Latin-English-Spanish connection
• develop a sense of anticipation about reading classic literature by referring to authors the
students will later read, including Sir Walter Scott, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Kenneth Grahame,
Robert Louis Stevenson, the Brontës, Jane Austen, and Daniel Defoe
BUILDING LANGUAGE
Building Language uses the analogy of the Roman arch to explain the construction of
words and explores the Latin roots of English and Spanish, followed by ten lessons.
5841 BUILDING LANGUAGE STUDENT BOOK $25.00 Special Price: $15.00
585X BUILDING LANGUAGE TEACHER MANUAL $30.00 Special Price: $20.00
CAESAR’S ENGLISH I
Co-authored with Myriam Borges Thompson
Caesar’s English I contains twenty lessons, each introducing five new stems or Latin-based
vocabulary words. Student quizzes for each lesson are in the teacher manual.
5707 CAESAR’S ENGLISH I STUDENT BOOK $25.00 Special Price: $15.00
5714 CAESAR’S ENGLISH I TEACHER MANUAL $30.00 Special Price: $20.00
CAESAR’S ENGLISH II
Co-authored with Myriam Borges Thompson
Caesar’s English II has a heavier emphasis on the English-Spanish connection. Each of
the twenty lessons has five new stems or five Latin-based vocabulary words, as well as five
Latin stems brought forward from Volume I.
5921 CAESAR’S ENGLISH II STUDENT BOOK $25.00 Special Price: $15.00
5938 CAESAR’S ENGLISH II TEACHER MANUAL $30.00 Special Price: $20.00
SPECIAL PRICE ON
CLASS SETS
“Caesar’s English is one of the best books I’ve ever
used. My kids love it, and I can’t imagine teaching
without it. What a great vocabulary builder!”
— Nancy Heaton, gifted consultant,
Pekin, Illinois
Student book class sets of 25 or
more: $14.00 each; includes one
free teacher manual for every 25
student books ordered
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CL ASSIC AL EDUC ATION EDITIONS OF C AESAR’S ENGLISH
CAESAR’S ENGLISH I
AND
II: CLASSICAL EDUCATION EDITIONS (in Two Parts)
Co-authored with Myriam Borges Thompson and Dr. Thomas Milton Kemnitz
We are proud of these Classical Education Editions. Our 200,000-image photo
gallery of the ancient world—which we have built recently—has engendered in us
a new level of creativity. A principal aim of these new editions is to give children
wide-ranging insight into the ancient world and its contributions to our lives.
We were so enthusiastic about the new editions of Caesar’s English that we created
books that are too large to be handled easily by children. We ultimately decided to
publish the student books in two parts.
Michael Clay Thompson has redesigned the volumes to reinforce the entire
language arts curriculum; every strand of the curriculum is revisited in each of the
twenty lessons.
The vocabulary component is based on the Latin stems and lists of nonfiction words made from the
stems, as well as lists of advanced words and classic words. There are Caesar’s Analogies, Caesar’s Synonyms, and
Caesar’s Antonyms. And there is Caesar’s Word Search. Vocabulary is loaded into all of the activities, and there are new
vocabulary terms added to the stem lessons—five new words in each lesson.
The writing component is ever-present in each lesson, with numerous examples of how the great writers have used the
vocabulary words. Specific writing activities include Caesar’s Paragraph, in which the exercises parallel Paragraph Town,
the writing book at this level, as well as Caesar’s Rewrites, in which the students rewrite the sentences of great authors.
Also included are sections titled Who Is That Writer?, in which there is a short introduction to a major
author whose work has been used in the examples.
The lessons have been divided into quarters to reflect the four levels of grammar analysis. Through
every set of five lessons, a different level of grammar analysis is emphasized,
so the first five are devoted to the parts of speech, the next five to the parts of
sentence, Lessons XI to XV to phrases, and Lessons XVI to XX to clauses.
The poetics are enhanced by a poem written by Michael in every lesson. Using
the vocabulary words of the lesson, his poems offer the students a perspective on
the Roman world through the eyes of one of its denizens.
You can read more about the background to these books and how they fit into
classical education in the News section of our website.
In Caesar’s English II: Classical Education there is a substantial emphasis on
the geography of the Roman world. There are additional essays on the Iberian
Peninsula by Myriam Borges Thompson and on Roman history and Roman items
by Thomas Milton Kemnitz, who shot the more than 100 photographs reproduced in the volumes.
A color edition for both Caesar’s English I and II Classical Education are now available on special paper to
bring out the beauty and detail of the Roman world.
4649 CAESAR’S ENGLISH I: CLASSICAL EDUCATION, STUDENT $40.00 Special Price: $25.00
4656 CAESAR’S ENGLISH I: CLASSICAL EDUCATION, IMPLEMENTATION $45.00 Special Price: $35.00
6193 CAESAR’S ENGLISH I: CLASSICAL EDUCATION, STUDENT Color Edition $50.00
4977 CAESAR’S ENGLISH II: CLASSICAL EDUCATION, STUDENT $40.00 Special Price: $25.00
4984 CAESAR’S ENGLISH II: CLASSICAL EDUCATION, IMPLEMENTATION $45.00 Special Price: $35.00
4953 CAESAR’S ENGLISH II: CLASSICAL EDUCATION, STUDENT Color Edition $50.00
5608 CAESAR’S ENGLISH I: TEST BOOKLET Price: $30.00
5615 CAESAR’S ENGLISH II: TEST BOOKLET Price: $30.00
SPECIAL PRICE ON CLASS SETS
Student book class sets of 25 copies: $23 each; includes one free teacher manual for every 25 student books ordered
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ELEMENTARY GRAMMAR
A wonderful series founded on the conviction that grammar is fun and useful and on high expectations of children’s
ability to learn.
GRA MM AR ISLAND
Grammar Island is a lavishly illustrated book aimed at students in grades three
and up. It introduces, in a simple, graphic way, the four-level grammar of parts
of speech, parts of sentence, phrases, and clauses. Using full color to reinforce
the knowledge, Grammar Island offers grammar in child-friendly ways to make
sophisticated academics alive and fun. Each page focuses on a single concept.
The teaching approach is reading together and talking about the concepts, asking
questions, referring back, and responding.
8388 GRAMMAR ISLAND STUDENT BOOK $40.00 Special Price: $30.00
7992 GRAMMAR ISLAND TEACHER MANUAL $45.00 Special Price: $35.00
Student book class set of 25 copies of Grammar Island:
$25 each copy, with one free teacher manual for every 25 student books ordered
GRA MM AR TOWN
Grammar Town, aimed at students in grade four, builds on the foundation of Grammar
Island and offers increasingly sophisticated grammar concepts. The teacher manual
includes tips for the student pages, pre- and post-tests, activities for specific topics, and
original readings to keep the energy level charged with fun learning.
The Teacher Manual contains a CD with extra practice sentences for each of the four levels.
5907 GRAMMAR TOWN STUDENT BOOK $40.00 Special Price: $30.00
5914 GRAMMAR TOWN TEACHER MANUAL $50.00 Special Price: $40.00
Student book class set of 25 copies of Grammar Town:
GRA MM AR VOYAGE
This stunning new edition is designed to build on the foundations established in Grammar
Island and Grammar Town, both visually and in terms of the four-level analysis. It
reinforces the vocabulary of Caesar’s English II and the poetics of A World of Poetry, as
well as the spirit and intellectual demands of Essay Voyage.
The ship paintings offer a beautiful counterpoint to Michael Clay Thompson’s lovely
color illustrations of grammar concepts.
The Teacher Manual contains a CD which includes the author reading the story that runs
through the book and extra sentences for practice, for each of the four levels.
3833 GRAMMAR VOYAGE STUDENT BOOK $40.00 Special Price: $30.00
3857 GRAMMAR VOYAGE TEACHER MANUAL $50.00 Special Price: $40.00
Student book class set of 25 copies of Grammar Voyage:
“I praise Michael Thompson’s books at every opportunity for their availability to teachers and for Royal Fireworks’s level
of quality learning materials, for content to be enjoyed by both teachers and students is a far-flung luxury today. Hurrah!”
— Anne Kreutzer, teacher of twenty-two years, Peru, Indiana
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ELEMENTARY WRITING
Formal essay writing is the summative skill of language arts; the student must use all of the knowledge accumulated
from the study of grammar, vocabulary, and poetics to produce a well-written essay.
In the first three books, Thompson prepares the student for successful formal academic writing—the sort of
writing demanded in university courses and in all advanced academic work. Using a highly creative format, the
books focus first on the sentence and then on the paragraph. The third volume, Essay Voyage, is an extremely
comprehensive introduction to the topic, far more thorough and rigorous than most students get in high school.
SENTENCE ISLAND
Aimed at students in third grade and up, Sentence Island features an array of quirky
animals, birds, insects, a talking tree, and an amazing fish whose name is Mud.
From each character, Mud learns a different aspect of sentence structure. These
rules and concepts are the essential foundation for formal writing assignments.
6683 SENTENCE ISLAND STUDENT BOOK $35.00 Special Price: $25.00
6690 SENTENCE ISLAND TEACHER MANUAL $40.00 Special Price: $30.00
Student book class set of 25 copies of Sentence Island:
PARAGRAPH TOWN
Paragraph Town is at the same level as Grammar Town, Caesar’s English I, and Building
Poems. In Paragraph Town, two engaging ducks, Fishmeal and Queequack, discover how
to organize sentences into orderly paragraphs, learn about the different kinds of paragraphs
(dialogue, description, exposition, comparison), and study punctuation as well as grammar.
The elaborate teacher manual contains in-depth assignments for each chapter, providing
the teacher with writing assignments for every week.
6706 PARAGRAPH TOWN STUDENT BOOK $35.00 Special Price: $25.00
6713 PARAGRAPH TOWN TEACHER MANUAL $40.00 Special Price: $30.00
Student book class set of 25 copies of Paragraph Town:
ESSAY VOYAGE
Essay Voyage offers ten lessons in formal essay writing. It is a straight-forward, comprehensive, high-level introduction to essay writing.
6720 ESSAY VOYAGE STUDENT BOOK $35.00 Special Price: $25.00
6737 ESSAY VOYAGE TEACHER MANUAL $40.00 Special Price: $30.00
Student book class set of 25 copies of Essay Voyage:
“Thompson’s materials reflect his knowledge and passion to provide outstanding resources for teachers and students alike.”
— Laurie Mitchell, District TAG Specialist, Beaverton School District, Oregon
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ELEMENTARY POETICS
Michael Clay Thompson’s poetics curriculum is unrivaled in its ability to impart the fundamentals. Thompson
understands poetics as a core component of language arts instruction, and he has set out to teach students the
basics that have been neglected for two generations in American schools.
This extraordinary series enables students to understand poetry on a higher plane than has been previously
possible. Each book can be used as a stand-alone introduction to poetry, or it can set the stage for the more
advanced texts that follow. The books are beautiful, creative, engaging, and unusual.
Students are taught the elements of poems, including sound, patterns of rhythm, meter, stanza, figures
of speech, poetic techniques, and meaning. Michael Clay Thompson shows how meticulously poets plan and
craft poems, from haiku to ballads. Students gain an appreciation of both the rigorous intellectual discipline and
the complex creativity that a poet must combine to write a poem.
As the series progresses, longer and more challenging poems and extracts are used as examples, and each volume
covers poetic techniques in increasing complexity. The Music of the Hemispheres is an introduction for students
in grades three and up; Building Poems is for those in grades four and up, and A World of Poetry is for children
in grades five or higher.
THE MUSIC OF THE HEMISPHERES
6562 THE MUSIC OF THE HEMISPHERES STUDENT BOOK $30.00
Special Price: $20.00
6570 THE MUSIC OF THE HEMISPHERES TEACHER MANUAL $35.00
Class sets of 25 or more student books: $18.00 each,
with one free teacher manual for every 25 student books ordered
BUILDING POEMS
6589 BUILDING POEMS STUDENT BOOK $30.00
6597 BUILDING POEMS TEACHER MANUAL $35.00
A WORLD OF POETRY
6600 A WORLD OF POETRY STUDENT BOOK $30.00
6619 A WORLD OF POETRY TEACHER MANUAL $35.00
ORDER ONLINE @ RFWP.COM
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COMPANION POETRY ANTHOLOGIES
Royal Fireworks Press is pleased to offer two companion poetry anthologies to help you make the most of the
Poetics series. These include, in their entirety, all of the poems studied in the textbooks and are to be used as
instructors’ reference books.
Their publication is a result of requests from teachers, parents, and students who have asked for a convenient
collection of complete poems in cases where the Poetics textbooks contain only a stanza or a line.
These two books contain more than 200 of the most memorable poems in the English language, chosen personally
by Michael Clay Thompson to illustrate not only the techniques of poetry but also the beauty of the language. In
his introduction he gives insights into why he chose some of the poems, as well as some of the themes he explores
in his insightful and inspiring Poetics series.
Level 1 covers the poems in the elementary textbooks: The Music of the Hemispheres, Building Poems, A World
of Poetry. Level 2 includes the poems in the upper, secondary level: Poetry and Humanity; Poetry, Plato, and the
Problem of Beauty; Poetry, Plato, and the Problem of Truth.
7879 COMPANION ANTHOLOGY: ELEMENTARY $12.50
7886 COMPANION ANTHOLOGY: SECONDARY $17.50
“Now I can focus with passion as well as reason on why we should study poetics.
It is a wonderful program.”
— Leslie Lawner, Roswell, New Mexico
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PRACTICE BOOKS
WORKBOOK SUPPLEMENTS FOR GRAMMAR, VOC ABULARY, AND WRITING
Each of the practice books provides 100 sentences with blank lines for students to fill in the parts of speech, the
parts of the sentence, the phrases, and the clauses. They also challenge students to understand and comment upon
the vocabulary, poetics, and writing of each sentence. They are coordinated at each level with the appropriate
grammar, vocabulary, poetics, and writing books.
Michael Clay Thompson’s practice books offer a practical ladder for students. Any student who can get through
all six volumes will have the grounding he or she needs to excel in all aspects of English language arts. These
workbooks pick up all of the material from Thompson’s curriculum and measure the student’s total understanding
of the language arts at a high level.
In particular, the 4Practice volumes offer a tremendous instructional opportunity—beyond anything all but the
luckiest students will ever experience. In conjunction with studying vocabulary in The Word Within the Word;
grammar in The Magic Lens; poetics in Poetry and Humanity; Poetry, Plato, and the Problem of Beauty; and
Poetry, Plato, and the Problem of Truth; and writing in Advanced Academic Writing, they offer a language arts
curriculum without equal. A number of scholars and teachers have commented that the depth of insight, clarity
of instruction, and rigor expected in these books surpasses anything they received throughout their undergraduate
and graduate education!
The practice books for the upper grades make a breathtaking addition to the language arts curriculum by Michael
Clay Thompson. The huge innovation is the extension of the method of four-level analysis beyond grammar to
vocabulary, poetics, and writing. For this reason the advanced-level volumes have been titled 4Practice. The
intellectual demands are of course rigorous, but what makes them so pedagogically compelling is their breadth of
reference. It cannot be stated emphatically enough what a huge advantage these books confer upon every learner
who gets the full sweep of the curriculum.
PRACTICE ISLAND
Practice Island is the first of the practice book series at the elementary
level. It is primarily a workbook supplement to Grammar Island and Sentence
Island; students work through the sentences using Thompson’s four-level analysis
and thereby reinforce their grammar and writing skills.
6805 PRACTICE ISLAND STUDENT $15.00 Special Price: $10.00
6812 PRACTICE ISLAND TEACHER $15.00 Special Price: $10.00
PRACTICE TOWN
Practice Town is the second in the practice series. This is a workbook supplement to Grammar
Town and Paragraph Town and uses vocabulary from Caesar’s English I and poetics from
Building Poems. Students work through the sentences using Thompson’s four-level analysis
and thereby reinforce their grammar and writing skills.
6829 PRACTICE TOWN STUDENT $15.00 Special Price: $10.00
6836 PRACTICE TOWN TEACHER $15.00 Special Price: $10.00
PRACTICE VOYAGE
Practice Voyage is a workbook supplement to Grammar Voyage and Essay Voyage. It uses
vocabulary from Caesar’s English II and poetics from A World of Poetry. Students work
through the sentences using Thompson’s four-level analysis and thereby reinforce their
grammar and writing skills.
6843 PRACTICE VOYAGE STUDENT $15.00 Special Price: $10.00
6850 PRACTICE VOYAGE TEACHER $15.00 Special Price: $10.00
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4PRACTICE I
In 4Practice, Volume I, Michael Thompson has produced 100 sentences about the ancient
world of the Greeks and Romans. Each sentence uses vocabulary from The Word Within the
Word I and complements the grammar learned in The Magic Lens I and the poetic devices
studied in Poetry and Humanity. Each sentence challenges students on points of grammar,
vocabulary, poetics, and writing, and the content of many sentences will propel students to
reference works to understand the context. The focus on the ancient world emphasizes the
importance of classical Greek and Latin to modern English.
6867 4PRACTICE I STUDENT $15.00 Special Price: $10.00
6874 4PRACTICE I TEACHER $15.00 Special Price: $10.00
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4PRACTICE II
The sentences in 4Practice, Volume II are taken from works of classic literature, giving
illuminating insights into how great writers achieve meaning, beauty, and depth in their
writing.
This book is a vital supplement to the grammar program The Magic Lens II. It uses vocabulary
taken directly from The Word Within the Word II and refers to poetic devices in Poetry, Plato,
and the Problem of Beauty.
The authors whose sentences are used in 4Practice II range from William Shakespeare and
John Milton to Daniel Defoe, Herman Melville, Walt Whitman, Upton Sinclair, Charlotte
and Emily Brontë, Toni Morrison, Marjorie Kennan Rawlings, Jane Austen, Stephen
Crane, Thomas Hardy, F. Scott Fitzgerald, H.G. Wells, James Joyce, Mary Shelley, Virginia Woolf, Frederick
Douglass, Charles Dickens, Alan Paton, Mark Twain, Kate Chopin, Joseph Heller, Nathaniel Hawthorne,
Bram Stoker, William Makepeace Thackeray, Henry David Thoreau, Rachel Carson, James Hilton, Maya
Angelou, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, and Eudora Welty.
6881 4PRACTICE II STUDENT $15.00 Special Price: $10.00
6898 4PRACTICE II TEACHER $15.00 Special Price: $10.00
4PRACTICE III
4Practice, Volume III supplements the grammar of The Magic Lens III. It uses vocabulary
taken directly from The Word Within the Word III and refers to poetic devices in Poetry,
Plato, and the Problem of Truth.
Volume III includes sentences from William Shakespeare, Kenneth Grahame, John Milton,
Daniel Defoe, Herman Melville, Walt Whitman, Charlotte and Emily Brontë, Jane Austen,
Stephen Crane, Thomas Hardy, F. Scott Fitzgerald, H.G. Wells, James Joyce, Mary Shelley,
Frederick Douglass, Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, Joseph Heller, Nathaniel Hawthorne,
Bram Stoker, William Makepeace Thackeray, Henry David Thoreau, James Hilton, Maya
Angelou, Jack London, Henry James, Robert Penn Warren, James Fennimore Cooper,
Christopher Marlowe, Robert Louis Stevenson, W.E.B. DuBois, Thornton Wilder, Oscar Wilde, George Eliott,
E.M. Forster, Ralph Ellison, Benjamin Franklin, Jonathan Swift, T.S. Eliot, Mary Wollstonecraft, Harriet Beecher
Stowe, John Gardner, George Orwell, John Knowles, and Kate Douglas Wiggin.
6904 4PRACTICE III STUDENT $15.00 Special Price: $10.00
6911 4PRACTICE III TEACHER $15.00 Special Price: $10.00
QUANTITY DISCOUNTS AVAILABLE FOR ALL PRACTICE BOOKS:
At least 25
At least 50
At least 100
At least 250
$9.00
$8.00
$7.00
$6.50
At least 500
At least 750
At least 1,000
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$6.00
$5.50
$5.00
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MCT LITERATURE
Michael Clay Thompson’s literature component of his curriculum includes a trilogy of novels about Mud the
Fish and other characters from the early levels of the curriculum.
Our purpose in the literature series, as Michael Clay Thompson writes in his introduction, “is to immerse
children in great books so that they experience literature as literature and not as a drudgery of tedious school
activities.” The ultimate test of the program is this: “If the child does not love reading, we have failed.” As
MCT points out, “It is by loving to read that children become literate.”
The focus of the program is on the literature itself, “avoiding all traditional worksheet activities in favor of
rich discussion and thoughtful reading. Busywork has been eliminated.”
Each part of the program consists of three works of literature (complete and unabridged), together with a
parent/teacher manual.
In each of the classics chosen, Michael Clay Thompson provides close-ups of poetic techniques, four-level
analyses of interesting grammar, and comments about writing strategies. They all focus on the author’s
writing technique while still keeping the child’s mind on the book itself.
THE MUD TRILOGY
The Mud Trilogy is the introductory point for literature study. Mud the Fish and other characters created by
Michael to enliven his grammar and writing books have been given a series of adventures in a trilogy of novels
designed to introduce younger children to the complex themes and long words of classic literature, but with what
MCT calls “a kind of academic silliness,” resulting in pure delight for adults and children.
8401 RESCUE AT FRAGMENT CRAG $10.00
8418 THE RED TIDE $10.00
8425 THE GREEN-FACE VIRUS $10.00
8456 MUD TRILOGY SET WITH TEACHER MANUAL $30.00
ALICE, PETER, AND MOLE TRILOGY
Alice, Peter, and Mole studies the great children’s classics: Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, The Wind in the
Willows by Kenneth Grahame, and Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie. This is the collection most appropriate for students
at the first or second level of the MCT curriculum.
8029 ALICE IN WONDERLAND $13.00
8012 PETER PAN $13.00
8005 THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS $13.00
8043 ALICE, PETER, AND MOLE SET WITH TEACHER MANUAL $40.00
THE SEARCH TRILOGY
The Search Trilogy consists of Treasure Island by Robert Lewis Stevenson, The Call of the Wild by Jack London,
and The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells. Michael has written a special poem, “Silver’s Song,” to go with Treasure
Island! This collection is most appropriate for students in Levels 3 and 4.
8159 TREASURE ISLAND $13.00
8166 THE CALL OF THE WILD $13.00
8173 THE INVISIBLE MAN $13.00
8197 SEARCH TRILOGY SET WITH TEACHER MANUAL $40.00
THE TIME TRILOGY
The Time Trilogy consists of The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by
Mark Twain, and A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens and is most suitable for students working at the fifth level
of the MCT curriculum. Artwork in the original edition important to the tradition of the book has been included.
8050 THE TIME MACHINE $13.00
8067 A CONNECTICUT YANKEE IN KING ARTHUR’S COURT $13.00
8074 A CHRISTMAS CAROL $13.00
8098 TIME TRILOGY SET WITH TEACHER MANUAL $40.00
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THE DICKENS TRILOGY
The Dickens Trilogy consists of A Christmas Carol, The Cricket on the Hearth, and The Chimes: A Goblin Story
all by Charles Dickens. This trilogy gives young readers an introduction to Dickens and an opportunity to enjoy
his work without having to tackle one of his long novels.
8625 A CHRISTMAS CAROL $13.00
8632 THE CRICKET ON THE HEARTH $13.00
8649 THE CHIMES: A GOBLIN STORY $13.00
8663 DICKENS TRILOGY WITH TEACHER MANUAL $40.00
THE SHADOW TRILOGY
MCT has brought together three of the great classics in these nineteenth-century works of mayhem, murder, and
detection: The Murders in the Rue Morgue by Edgar Allen Poe, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by
Robert Louis Stevenson, and The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle.
8458 THE MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE $13.00
8465 THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE $13.00
8472 THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES $13.00
8496 SHADOW TRILOGY WITH TEACHER MANUAL $40.00
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THE A MERICAN AUTOBIOGRAPHY TRILOGY
The American Autobiography Trilogy consists of three great and historically significant autobiographies that are
essential nonfiction classics of American literature: The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, The Narrative
of Frederick Douglass, and Henry David Thoreau’s Walden. These important works reveal in astonishing
immediacy the thoughts and experiences of the writers against a background and description of the times in which
they lived. These books provide fascinating insights into the past and enormous opportunities for enrichment of
children’s reading. As in the other trilogies, throughout the books, Thompson illustrates significant points of style
or grammar and gives definitions of unfamiliar words. For students of upper elementary ages and higher.
8531 THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN $13.00
8555 WALDEN, OR LIFE IN THE WOODS $13.00
8548 THE NARRATIVE OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS $13.00
8579 AUTOBIOGRAPHY TRILOGY SET WITH TEACHER MANUAL $40.00
of MCT literature novels: 10 or more: $7.00 each
MCT LITERATURE
Michael Clay Thompson’s language-illustrated classics are part of a program that encourages reflection and
discussion, growth and understanding. The teacher manual shows how these can be achieved in different settings
and includes background notes, Socratic questioning, quotation quizzes, and writing assignment suggestions.
The three books in each trilogy should be read in a particular order, with questions flowing from one book to the
next and then to all three. Students are encouraged to make comparisons across all three works and to regard the
reading experience of each in relation to the others. This provides for a far richer reading experience and aids
them in developing a broad range of insights into their reading.
We have taken a great deal of trouble with the design of the series. The type is Goudy Old Style, which we find
to be a pleasing font. The margins are wide, the type is large, and the space between lines is greater than normal.
The books are 5.25" x 7.5", an easy size for children to hold.
TO VIEW SAMPLE PAGES FOR ALL OF THE NOVELS,
GO TO OUR WEBSITE: RFWP.COM
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RFWP NEWS
a BOOK review
Jeff Danielian
LaSalle Academy PEGASUS Program
[email protected]
The Time Trilogy Literature Program
“We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of
all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and
know the place for the first time.”
I
— T.S. Eliot
have always enjoyed a good time travel story. The mere
possibility of being able to travel through time, catching
glimpses of the future and potentially altering the past,
has fascinated me from a young age. Most of my exposure to writing within this genre was offered far away from any
classroom. What a joy it was for me then, upon opening the
pages of the The Time Trilogy (Royal Fireworks Press, 2012)
by Michael Clay Thompson, to find a comprehensive literature program that I wish was available when I was a student.
Thompson’s direction and clarity, written from a practitioner’s
perspective, leaves all other reading programs in the dust, or
in this case, in the past. The author suggests early on that “this
program is a magic synergy of book, student, and teacher.” I
could not agree more.
The Time Trilogy presents a collection of three works of literature, The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, A Connecticut Yankee in the Court of King Arthur by Mark Twain, and A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, all complete and unabridged,
accompanied by a Teacher Manual.
In each of the works, Thompson annotates the text with
what he calls “Language Illustrations.” Much like visual illustrations found in texts, these “illustrations” provide a moment
to reflect upon the written word from another perspective. It
works! Thompson explores poetic techniques, analyses of
grammar, definitions of vocabulary, and information regarding writing strategies and styles, hallmarks of other Thompson
curricular materials. He notes that this series is, “not a place
to teach the principles of grammar and poetics, but rather a
place to take pleasure in them.” While I agree that these offerings are not intended to “teach” the myriad skills related
to language study, a lot of learning occurs as the illustrations
offer time to reflect on the written word.
The three novels are intended to be read in a particular
order, as direction and activities found in the Teacher Manual build upon each other. In this way, students can analyze
themes and characters, styles, and vocabulary across all
three works, uncovering the interrelationships that exist between them. I had actually never thought of A Christmas Carol
as a time travel story. Arranging the work in this way provides
for rich reading experiences for the teacher and the students.
Each title also presents author information in the context of
historical and cultural facts. Additionally, the books are also set
in great text, font, and spacing in a size that makes them
easy to handle and read.
The 110-page Teacher
Manual covers all that the educator needs to know about
and work with when using
the selected texts. Thompson
presents his premise—that students need to experience literature as literature—in a conversational and suggestive tone.
The reader has a chance to soak in the purpose, much like the
students will do with the work at hand. The bulk of the manual
offers a program strategy to be used by the teacher through
a four-level process. Each novel receives its own set of directions, suggested activities, and explanation.
During the first level, Preparing, Thompson suggests prestudy activities that include research about the author, time
period, and culture as well as a study of pertinent vocabulary.
He offers a great list of words common to all three novels.
The second level, Reading, utilizes identified quotes as
the jumping off point for discussions. There are no comprehension questions, quizzes, handouts, or worksheets. The
goal is for the reading to be natural and fluid. Thompson offers
advice for homework, pacing, and monitoring and most importantly, explanations of the language illustrations.
The third level, Creative Thinking, looks at the reading
from a divergent thinking perspective. Thompson presents a
fantastic progression through the novels of creative questioning intended to spark student thought in a meaningful way. My
favorite, found after the last novel is read, is “Scrooge, Hank,
and The Time Traveler have dinner together and discuss what
it is like to go through time. What do they say?”
The last level, Writing, suggests instructional techniques
and prompts to use when practicing and completing written
Modern Language Association (MLA) papers. Thompson provides some excellent examples too.
The past, we know. The future, we do not. The present,
experienced through reflection and projection, offers pause
for decision making and understanding. The Time Trilogy
provides a fresh and interesting look at sharing three classics
with students. For me it is as if I have explored these texts for
the first time. I wish the same for you and your students. THP
4 Teaching for High Potential | Summer 2013
14
SECONDARY GRAMMAR
“I think grammar is an intellectual pocket knife; it is small, easily purchased, and so useful that one
would not dream of being without it. Grammar is so lovely that even if it were useless, one would
irresistibly explore it, as one explores chess, or architecture, or the spiral geometries of shells. It is
a sort of magic aesthetic lens through which we can view the delicate structures of ideas.”
— Michael Clay Thompson
THE MAGIC LENS, VOLUMES I-III
The Magic Lens volumes are the upper-grades part of Michael Clay Thompson’s grammar program. They continue
his innovative four-level analysis, and each volume is coordinated with the same volume of The Word Within the
Word to share vocabulary and explore the meaning and grammatical formations of the same words. Each level
reinforces the instruction that has come before, and each level takes the student further in sophistication.
The Magic Lens, Volume I has been revised. Now in full color with improved layout, it includes enhanced
sentence diagramming and punctuation at each level of analysis. The “loops” are now on the CD with the teacher
manual.
The Magic Lens front-loads the grammar instruction, allowing all concepts to be introduced at the beginning of
the year so they can be applied all year long.
7901
7918
7925
7932
7949
7956
LENS VOL. I STUDENT BOOK $40.00
LENS VOL. I TEACHER MANUAL with CD $50.00
LENS VOL. II STUDENT BOOK $40.00
LENS VOL. II TEACHER MANUAL $40.00
LENS VOL. III STUDENT BOOK $30.00
LENS VOL. III TEACHER MANUAL $40.00
SPECIAL PRICE
ON CLASS SETS
The Magic Lens student
books: $18.00 each for
class set of 25 copies;
includes one free
teacher manual per set
“With The Word Within the Word and The Magic
Lens, many parents commend our staff for teaching
the really important things to their children. Thanks so
much for these great tools.”
—Rooney Dively, Macomb Junior-Senior HS
“The Magic Lens was my savior for
my gifted bilingual students in middle school.”
—Trudy Grisham, Waukegan,
Illinois
ORDER ONLINE @RFWP.COM
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SECONDARY VOC ABULARY
THE WORD WITHIN THE WORD, VOLUMES I-III
Widely recognized as the premier vocabulary curriculum, The Word Within the Word is a vocabulary-building
program that uses etymology, not word lists. The Latin and Greek stems are presented as a system of thinking,
a way of building, analyzing, spelling, pronouncing, and choosing words. In consequence, the students know
thousands of words that are not in the book but are expressions of the system. The student books are packed with
activities that encourage students to play with language and to see the relationships between Latin, English, and
Spanish. They also draw attention to how the great writers used the English language. The Word Within the Word
provides weekly lessons, with cumulative tests reinforcing every list. It is a wonderful challenge that combines
highly academic learning and fun.
The Word Within the Word is extensively used in grades 8-12 and is appropriate for academically motivated
students in grades 6-7. It is an excellent program for preparing students for the most difficult vocabulary questions
on SATs and SSATs.
The program is intended as a weekly effort; built on a cumulative basis from Volume I. Every test reinforces every
list. Through constant review, ever-increasing familiarity is built. This is a tremendously wonderful undertaking
that combines learning and fun for the students.
There are thirty lessons in each book: Volume I covers Lessons 1-30, Volume II Lessons 31-60, and Volume III
Lessons 61-90. In Volume I there are 500 stems, both Greek and Latin, followed by 250 words made of those
stems. (The term stems includes all word pieces: prefixes, suffixes, and roots.)
Lessons include a Stem List; a Sentence Page designed to show how example words should be used; an Analogies Page, which promotes thinking and prepares students for SSATs and SATs; Mystery Spelling and Mystery
Questions pages designed to be enjoyable activities to demonstrate and to practice that it is not just the word one
studies that one knows; a Notes Page or Stem Close-up Page that takes a closer look at the list of stems and highlights special points or adds information; an Ideas Page that expands the brain’s contact with the stems through
activities of synthesis, divergence, analysis, evaluation, intuition, emotion, and esthetics; an Inventions Page that
gives students the opportunity to create words just as scientists, writers, and others do; and Flip-Side Tests ,which
give the definition and ask for the term.
6041 WORD VOL. I STUDENT BOOK $40.00
9170 WORD VOL. I STUDENT BOOK Color Edition
$40.00
6065 WORD VOL. I TEACHER MANUAL $55.00
9149 WORD VOL. II STUDENT BOOK $40.00
4922 WORD VOL. II STUDENT BOOK Color Edition
$40.00
9156 WORD VOL. II TEACHER MANUAL $55.00
2044 WORD VOL. III STUDENT BOOK $30.00
2052 WORD VOL. III TEACHER MANUAL $40.00
SPECIAL PRICE ON
CLASS SETS
Student book class sets
of 25 copies of Word I-III:
$18 each copy, with one free
teacher manual for every 25
student books ordered
The Word Within the Word, Volume I student book is also available as an iBook.
Purchasers of class sets:
Alternative test books
are available for Vol. I.
2176 Alternative Book A $25.00
2230 Alternative Book B $25.00
16
THE NEW EDITIONS OF THE WORD WITHIN THE WORD
The new editions of The Word Within the Word, Volumes I and II are part of our planned revamping of the MCT
Secondary Vocabulary series. The series still has its main focus of teaching vocabulary, with the original lessons
containing Latin and Greek stems, word lists, activities, and tests, but each lesson now has historical discussions
and illustrations that offer students a greater understanding of the classical roots of the English language.
In the first volume we present an extensive discussion of the history of Greece in the Classical Period from 490
to 323 B.C. There are maps, timelines, and more than 100 photographs of buildings, sculptures, and artifacts.
Volume I features Darius and Xerxes, Leonidas and Themistocles, Cimon and Pericles, the Spartans and the
Athenians, the Peloponnesian and Delian Leagues, Athenian democracy and Spartan oligarchy, Alcibiades and
Socrates, and finally Philip and Alexander of Macedonia.
There is an enormous amount of historical material, including descriptions of how the Spartans lived, the strategies
of various battles, the functioning of democracy and the jury system in Athens, the practice of ostracism, the
importance of the navy in Athens, the Spartan system of education, and the building of the glorious Parthenon on
the Acropolis in Athens. Interspersed among the activity pages are vignettes of aspects of life in ancient Greece
as depicted in vases, statuettes, and artifacts so that we learn not only about helmets and shields but also about
hairstyles, musical instruments, and sports.
In Volume II the historical content is focused on the world of the Roman Republic from the establishment of
the Republic in 509 B.C. to its collapse in 44 B.C. Again, there are more than 100 photographs culled from a
collection of more than 200,000 taken to support our offerings on the Greeks and Romans. The prime intent of
this volume is to explain to students how and why Rome rose from a small mud village in the middle of the Italian
peninsula to the greatest power in the ancient world. The history of the first volume is essential background to
provide a perspective on the pragmatism and flexibility the Romans showed in their rise to preeminence.
Historian Dr. T.M. Kemnitz says: “Our intention is to give students enough of a picture of ancient Greece and
Rome so that they can understand what occurred and why. So much of history written for students is little more
than a story devoid of meaningful context. It is the context that helps to explain why people acted as they did
and which helps us to understand that history is not a story of actions but rather more a series of reactions. The
history is enrichment; the purpose of the book remains to help students learn English vocabulary, specifically the
academic English of learned discourse.”
The photographs of Greek art and architecture of 2,500 years ago in Volume I, and of the Roman Republic
in Volume II, are so beautiful that we have produced deluxe color editions on special paper.
The paraphernalia of Athenian democracy, justice, and civil
life have survived, including jury identification strips, the
blocks into which they fit, the wheels for casting verdicts, and such
items as official weights and measures and water clocks for timing
speeches. More than 100,000 vases and pieces of pottery from ancient
Greece exist, but the daily life of the democracy is absent from them.
They offer no depictions of the Assembly in session, orators in full
flight of persuasion, or visual representation of trials. But let a hoplite
blow a trumpet, and the pottery decorator was there before the last
note. The heroism of warfare was regarded as noble, the daily life of a
democracy too mundane to use for decoration.
Jury identification strip
THE ATHENIAN DEMOCRACY
Dr. Thomas Milton Kemnitz
Athenian democracy was unlike ours in that it had no government and no elected representatives
who passed laws. It was direct in that the people voted to make laws rather than electing representatives
to do so. Its central body was the Assembly, composed of all the adult male citizens who had
completed military training and were more than eighteen years old. It met at least once in each of
the ten months of the state calendar. The Assembly held public discussion of all issues; it passed
the laws, determined policy, and directed military operations. A new president of the Boule was
chosen by lottery every day. It was the role of the Boule to propose laws to the Assembly. The bills
proposed could be rejected, passed, or returned for amendments by the Assembly. Participation in
the Assembly was not mandatory, but it seems to have been remarkably widespread. People who did
not participate were called idiotes—from which our term idiots derives.
The judicial system was no less democratic than the law making. Up to 600 jurors from each
deme were chosen for trials. Athenians eligible to sit on juries had thin brass strips with their names
on them; they were inserted into a stone or wood holder, and entire rows were either accepted or
rejected. There were no prosecutors or lawyers for the defense. Every participant but the accused
was there voluntarily. Magistrates were drawn by lot from the demes. Trials were speedy; none lasted
more than a day. Private trials about such matters as debts might
take only an hour or so. By the middle of the fifth century, jurors
were paid for their service but paid very little—only an amount
significantly less than a craftsman could make in a day. Public
trials might have very large juries of up to 6,001 jurors. The
jurors cast their ballots by putting wheels with axles into a pot.
The hollow axle was a vote for the plaintiff, the solid one a vote
for the defendant or for acquittal. The jurors could hide their
vote by covering the end of the axle with a thumb and forefinger.
If the person who brought the charges did not receive at least
twenty percent of the votes, he had to pay a fine for bringing an
action that was manifestly frivolous.
The Assembly annually chose a board of ten generals
who were in fact the most important people in the Athenian
firmament. They came from the elite and were the wealthiest
and best educated of the city. They tended to dominate the
affairs of the democracy. Legislation was proposed by citizen
initiators, who were from the foremost families of the city and
were often the generals. But they did not control the Athenian
democracy. The assignment of offices, councils, magistrates,
and juries by random lots meant that important posts could be
filled by anyone, and the elites could not control the choice. The
immense size of juries meant that the outcome of trials was a reflection of the popular will rather
than the desires of the wealthy, and it made the outcome of those trials far more unpredictable than
the elites would have liked.
This is part of a large device to select jurors by accepting or rejecting randomly an entire horizontal row of
jury identification strips, which were inserted into the slots.
104
COPYRIGHT © 2014 ROYAL FIREWORKS PUBLISHING CO., INC. THIS PAGE MAY NOT BE COPIED.
THE TOGA
Milton Kemnitz
sly rich in symbol
simple yet enormou
ary garment—
ar or
an extraordin
either rectangul
The toga was
a woolen blanket,
The toga was
It was essentially
as twenty feet.
and meaning.
been as long
below the armpit,
It might have
side of the body
semi-circular.
half
against the right
then the front
placed at its center
over the left shoulder;
fashion was to
half was draped
The old Roman
and the back
the left shoulder.
B.C., that fashion
over
century
placed
first
by the
was also
tunic worn
shoulder, although
either with a
have a bare right
right shoulder
the toga over
of
by covering the
part
replaced
was
the front
or else by draping
right shoulder.
under the toga
and over the
across the back,
shoulders, it
both
shoulder,
left
over
the
longer and draped
Nonetheless,
As the toga became
cumbersome.
and even more
de rigueur for
became bulkier
Roman citizen,
garment of the
expected of
it remained the
official business,
others doing
the principal
magistrates and
Forum and in
le man in the
so little
every respectab
in togas changed
capital. Fashions
could be reused—
streets of the
200 years previously
your own,
that a statue from
replace it with
the head and
rate. Of
bargain
simply remove
a
at
statue of yourself
or two later,
and you had a
was that a century
course, the difficulty
thing to your
do the same
someone would
would be
head in marble
ists
statue, and your
archeolog
Centuries later
thrown away.
have any clue
head and not
full of
might find your
museums are
to whom it belonged; in Italian museums as
described
marble heads
LE”—male portrait.
perhaps into the
“RITRATTO MASCHI
monarchy and
and
of the Roman
girls wore togas,
During the years
women and older
the women wore
the Republic,
early years of
Under their togas
was like men’s.
In the historical
called a stola.
their outer dress
was
and
simple
their feet
which was a
a tunic that reached
called a palla,
The stola also
outerwear was
period, women’s
often very colorful.
toga, but it was
blanket like the
red.
might be embroide
Dr. Thomas
187
© 2013 ROYAL
FIREWORKS
PUBLISHING
CO., INC. THIS
Dr. Thomas Milton
PAGE MAY
© 2013 ROYAL
FIREWORKS
PUBLISHING
508/507 B.C.
490–323 B.C.
Classical Period
Silver find at
Athenian mines;
decision to build
the navy
Greek polities
meet to form
defensive
strategy
483 B.C.
481 B.C.
CO., INC. THIS
PAGE MAY
NOT BE COPIED.
COPYRIGHT
© 2014 ROYAL
FIREWORKS
96
PUBLISHING
CO., INC. THIS
PAGE MAY
Y (106–48)
Establishment
of democracy
NOT BE COPIED.
600–490 B.C.
Archaic Period
NOT BE COPIED.
in Athens
508/507 B.C.
Battle of
Marathon
490 B.C.
Silver find at
Athenian mines;
decision to build
the navy
483 B.C.
Pompey
Pompey born
Greek polities
meet to form
defensive
strategy
106 B.C.
Pompey’s father
killed when Sulla
takes Rome
COPYRIGHT ©
481 B.C.
248
COPYRIGHT ©
17
POMPE
and
Kemnitz
all cut their political
Dr. Thomas Milton
as
the Roman Republic
Magnus, known
role in the fall of
Gnaeus Pompeius
play a significant
none more so than
was nineteen.
The men who would
Sulla and Marius,
when young Pompey
the battles between
the siege of Rome
year he was
military teeth in
died in 87 B.C. in
behalf. The next
was a general who
took Sicily on Sulla’s
he suppressed
Pompey. His father
together and in 82
behalf of the Senate
got his father’s veterans
Italy, and in 78 on
to Spain to take
Four years later he
with his troops to
Senate to send him
Africa. He returned
but
Pompey asked the
victorious in North
balked at the request,
take the capital.
a consul trying to
to Marius; the Senate
victory
a rebellion by Lepidius,
a commander loyal
76 to 71 B.C., his
from
Sertorius,
Spain
In
Quintus
from
an able
did as he asked.
the province back
and so the Senate
Pompey proved himself
disband his troops,
by a mediocre deputy.
arrangements.
Pompey refused to
of the able Sertorius
than adequate governing
the assassination
behind him more
of Spartacus’s army,
was facilitated by
army and leaving
the last stragglers
provisioning his
much to
able to mop up
administrator in
down the rebellion,
in 71 B.C. and was
credit for putting
army back to Italy
He brought his
thereby take undeserved
escaped slaves, and
had defeated Spartacus.
serve in
capture some 5,000
Crassus, whose army
end of 71 B.C. to
Marcus Lucinius
with Crassus at the
the junior
the irritation of
elected consul along
served in any of
intact, Pompey was
young and had not
did not
Still with his army
because he was too
consuls apparently
two
consul
be
The
to
consul.
not eligible
so he became
his two Triumphs,
70. Pompey was
had an army, and
and he envied Pompey
honorium, but he
along with
from greed and jealousy,
posts on the cursus
had trouble getting
other. Crassus suffered
Pompey apparently
Mediterranean
like or respect each
for defeating Spartacus.
sweeping the eastern
only an Ovation
next year
gained credit for
while Crassas got
ce. In 66 Pompey
for a while. In the
shipping
pre-eminen
on
his
to stop preying
long career of the
anyone who questioned
have bribed them
finally ended the
fact, he seems to
Roman general who
Jerusalem, and
clear of pirates; in
VI and became the
subdued Judea, took
Mithridates
of
provinces,
wealthy
new Roman
he set out in pursuit
process, he got fabulously
the East into four
the Sinai. In the
Pompey divided
had done in Spain,
King of Pontus;
the Hellespont to
was having. As he
Roman control from
territory.
the Roman treasury
established complete
of the problems
to rule a conquered
and solved many
that enabled Rome
from the plunder
ive arrangements
soldiers that he would
adept at administrat
promised his retiring
the Senate
he showed himself
celebrated his Triumph,
an existing army,
to Rome in 61 B.C.,
having to deal with
would allow him
Pompey came back
army. Freed from
arrangements that
and disbanded his
Crassus wanted
as the First
settle them on farms,
settled on land;
an alliance known
wanted his veterans
59 B.C. They formed
Caesar wanted
did nothing. Pompey
to be consul in
both Crassus and
wanted
Crassus;
Caesar
and
Pompey
allies. Cicero
to make more money;
the gap between
without his new
Caesar who bridged
to get what he wanted
his Asian political
Triumvirate. It was
who had no way
confirmation of
they needed Pompey,
for his veterans,
been, and Caesar
things for which
Pompey got land
richer than he had
to join the three.
Crassus got even
of Hispania, a
refused an invitation
daughter, Julia.
the governorship
and
as a new wife, Caesar’s
Pompey was given
settlements, and
at the same time
Caesar called Crassus
command in Gaul
that
legions. By 56 B.C.,
secured proconsular
command of four
strategy. They agreed
but that gave him
to rethink their joint
Caesar’s
post he held in abstentia
Italian town of Lucca
they would extend
B.C. Once elected,
meeting in the northern
governorship
consulship in 55
Pompey to a secret
would have the lucrative
again stand for the
Crassus
would
year,
Crassus
Pompey and
Hispania in absentia.
the end of their consular
Pompey would keep
by five years. At
conquer Parthia.
command in Gaul
to use as a base to
planned
he
which
of Syria,
First
Kemnitz
Athens was the
other significan
two centuries
when the Persians t city of ancient Greece.
Unlike Sparta,
economic and
invaded, Athens
which had been
constitutional.
was in the midst
stable for
The Athenian
stretching througho
of fundamental
economy had
alterations,
been agricultu
in the sixth century,ut Attica, a situation similar
rally based, with both
to the Spartan
farms
arable land througho
Athens, an avenue population pressures forced
an increasing
that Sparta was
emphasis on trade ut Laconia. Late
merchant class
unable to take
and began to
and commerc
because of its
bring in craftsme
Already in the
e in
constitution.
sixth
n and traders
Athens develope
from other parts
in Hellas in many century, Athens was the most
da
of the
populous polis
endeavours.
pottery was eclipsing
The red clay of
and was becomin Greek world.
Athens was superb
g the
the wares of rival
for making pots, leading city
cities.
In the last years
and Athenian
Hippias was overthro of the sixth century, Athens
suffered a period
wn. (Hippias
point and arrived
fled to Persia,
of instability
there with Darius
and it was he
when its tyrant
Isagoras won
who
in
chose
490.)
Marathon as
the upper hand
Cleisthenes and
a landing
Isagoras emerged
by appealing
Cleisthenes, whom
to the
as rivals for power.
displace hundred he said was cursed. Cleisthen Spartan king Cleomenes
I to help him
s
es left Athens,
expel
Isagoras attempte of other people from their
and Isagoras
homes
used his power
d to dissolve
the Boule, a council on the basis that they also
the people, who
to
were cursed.
forced Isagoras
When
with hundred
and his supporte of aristocrats, it resisted and
s of
won support
rs
from
government that exiles, and he assumed leadershito leave Athens. Cleisthen
es was recalled,
took advantag
p of Athens.
along
e of the support
was in 508/507
He began to
of
B.C., a year or
set
established a
two after a small the demos, as the Greeks called up a system of
republic. (Every
town in Italy
the people. This
Greek city operated
called Rome overthrew
by who ruled
the polis. Putting
its king and
exceedingly difficult
the chronology on its own chronology, often
of one city together
numberi
or
impossib
ng
years
Sparta and Athens,
le. To
with that of another
fell in the summer, add to the difficulties, the
is often
new year in some
about the beginnin
Cleisthenes organized
cities, includin
g of August.)
Athens into
g
replacing the
ten “tribes” accordin
traditional family
g
clans.
in a ten-mont
h governing calendar, The demes were the basis to where they lived (their
deme),
of the governm
Athens would
which was different
ent and were mirrored
be filled by ten
from the religious
people, one from
of the Delian
calendar. Many
League, etc.
each deme, so
offices
The system by
there were ten
getting a name
which people
generals, ten treasurerin
based on one’s
were named was
father, a name
ancient Greeks
changed, so instead s
was based on
talked about
a deme. This is
an individual,
because that was
of
one reason
they usually included
the only way parentag
the information why when the
e information
Cleisthenes also
son of so and so,
could be conveyed
basis for democra established legislative bodies
.
run by individu
cy—rather than
500 members
als chosen by
by kinship or
, fifty from each
lottery—an interestin
heredity. He
tribe. The members
reorganiz
lottery from all
g
eligible males
were not elected; ed the Boule so that it had
age twenty-nine
who served and
or older; the lottery they were selected annually
who did not
serve.
year when they
by
transacted day-to-da Members from each deme meant that no one could control
devised: “To advise
served
y business. The
according to the
members of the for one month during their
laws what is best
Boule took an
oath Cleisthen
for the people.”
es
The owner of
this Corinthia
n-type helmet
thrust from an
may have sustained
opponent on
a blow from a
horseback likely
lead shot or a
javelin or a lance;
would have been
stone from a
a downward
fatal. Less lethal
sling shot. Had
been debilitatin
would have been
he been hit in
g, if not fatal.
the eye by shot
a blow from
The eyes were
many warriors’
or a stone, the
always one of
last sight was
blow would have
the most vulnerabl
a very close-up
caused their demise.
e points for the
view of the point
hoplites, and
of a missile—o
ften an arrow
or a javelin—th
at
dry.
COPYRIGHT
186
COPYRIGHT
Archaic Period
ATHENS
Milton Kemnitz
Dr. Thomas
as their fathers
wore togas much
boy’s
prosperous families
in tunics. A
Boys of more
probably dressed
children were
laid aside when
the toga to be
—the
did. Very young
toga was
as the toga praetexta—
the boyhood
toga was known
laying aside of
a man. The
was paraded through
the boy became
the young man
, after which
the company
done in a ceremony his adult toga—the toga virilis—in
toga
in
man’s
Rome
of
young
the streets
family. The
Rome
members of his
it; officials in
of older male
border around
edges.
purple
the
thin
had a
stripes around
broad purple
have been
wore togas with
white. It might
virilius was all
sulfur
The adult toga
small fire in which
placed over a
to make
bleached by being
have been used
in
or chalk might
was burned,
toga was washed
this process the
lly went to great
it whiter. After
office traditiona
their garments
water. Men seeking
their togas, and
efforts to whiten
, meaning bright
as toga candida,
that
known
striking
became
was so
phenomenon
white toga. The
day to describe
exists to this
the term candidate
for office.
people running
process. The
was a difficult
Cleaning togas
me and weighed
and cumberso
ted. This
cloth was heavy
wet to be manipula
togas
too much when
at home, and
not be done
cleaning.
process could
(laundry) for
the fullonica
and
were sent to
soap or bleach,
did not have
chemicals for
The Romans
t upon natural
they were dependen solution of choice was urine
of
cleaning
put in a vat
cleaning. The
toga would be
of
urinals. The
d the function
performe
from the public
an action that
who were
by barefoot men
urine and trampled—
machine agitators—
been a pleasant
have
not
modern washing
It could
oils
poor laborers.
down the natural
either slaves or
in the urine broke
everyday use.
job. The ammonia
that resulted from
and the stains
urine, the
worked in the
from the sheep
ly tramped and
on racks to
stretched
After being thorough
and
in clean water
togas were washed
THE TOGA
Establishment
of democracy
in Athens
600–490 B.C.
2013 ROYAL
CO.,
FIREWORKS PUBLISHING
INC. THIS PAGE
MAY NOT BE COPIED.
87 B.C.
Pompey takes
command of his
father’s troops
82 B.C.
2013 ROYAL FIREWORKS
Pompey
a consul
249
70 B.C.
PUBLISHING CO.,
Pompey fights in
the East
66-62 B.C.
INC. THIS PAGE
Triumvirate
formed
59 B.C.
MAY NOT BE COPIED.
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SECONDARY POETICS
FINALLY, AN EXPLANATION
The upper-grades volumes of Michael Clay Thompson’s poetics curriculum are extraordinary for their
sophistication, the insight they offer students into the heart of poetry, and the complexity of material they convey
so easily. All of them continue their emphasis on sound, patterns and kinds of rhythm, stanza, techniques, and
their contribution to meaning.
POETRY AND HUM ANIT Y
Poetry and Humanity, for students in grades six and up, shows how poets push language to its maximum in order
to express those things about humanity that are most true, or difficult, or subtle. Poets quoted include Hardy,
Blake, Shakespeare, Longfellow, Dickinson, and many more.
POETRY, PLATO, AND THE PROBLEM OF BEAUT Y
Poetry, Plato, and the Problem of Beauty, for students in grades seven and up, uses Plato’s Dialogues and Socratic
questioning as a source of ideas and a way of thinking about the complex concept of beauty. There are numerous
quotations from Plato and Aristotle.
POETRY, PLATO, AND THE PROBLEM OF TRUTH
Poetry, Plato, and the Problem of Truth, for students in grades eight and up, continues the use of Plato’s Dialogues
and Socratic questioning as a way of thinking about truth. Many poems deal with the concept of truth. Great
poems stand the test of time and express at their core something that is true.
6627 POETRY HUMANITY STUDENT BOOK $30.00
6635 POETRY HUMANITY TEACHER MANUAL $35.00
6643 POETRY PLATO BEAUTY STUDENT BOOK $30.00
6651 POETRY PLATO BEAUTY TEACHER MANUAL $35.00
666X POETRY PLATO TRUTH STUDENT BOOK $30.00
6678 POETRY PLATO TRUTH TEACHER MANUAL $35.00
SPECIAL
PRICE ON
CLASS SETS
Poetry student books: $18.00 each for
class sets of 25 or more copies; includes
one free teacher manual per 25
student books
TEACHING POETICS: A PRESENTATION
ROMEO AND JULIET: THE POETRY OF THE PROLOGUE
Romeo and Juliet: The Poetry of the Prologue is a special iBook of Michael Clay
Thompson’s most requested conference presentation. Thompson looks at Shakespeare’s
Prologue to Romeo and Juliet, just 14 lines, on which he based a one-hour presentation on
teaching poetics. This is an ideal introduction to MCT poetics and is truly inspirational.
It also contains audio and moving visuals.
Available from iTunes $2.99
18
SECONDARY WRITING
“When we do advanced academic writing…we must learn not only to accept but to enjoy the
relaxed pace of research, the meticulous construction of sentences, the gradual architecture of
essays. The advanced process must be accompanied by an advanced attitude because so long as
we resist enjoying advanced competence, we will be unable to achieve it.”
— Michael Clay Thompson
ADVANCED ACADEMIC WRITING
AN ILLUSTRATED PROGRAM
Gifted students need to be able to write academic English well, and they need to know
what is demanded of them. This involves knowing how to formulate papers, how to write
according to the MLA rules, how to avoid grammatical and punctuation errors, and how
to structure their essays.
The Advanced Academic Writing series is an illustrated program, with each volume
giving sample papers to highlight common errors and to show how good papers should be
written. Each assignment comes with a checklist so that students can correct their work
before submission. Thus, with practice and academic discipline, students can develop and
improve their writing skills.
Each teacher manual comes with a CD of actual research paper comments, making them unique and supremely
practical resources for English teachers.
6744
6751
6768
6775
6782
6799
ADVANCED ACADEMIC WRITING VOL. I STUDENT $35.00
ADVANCED ACADEMIC WRITING VOL. I TEACHER $50.00
ADVANCED ACADEMIC WRITING VOL. II STUDENT $35.00
ADVANCED ACADEMIC WRITING VOL. II TEACHER $50.00
ADVANCED ACADEMIC WRITING VOL. III STUDENT $35.00
ADVANCED ACADEMIC WRITING VOL. III TEACHER $50.00
Student book class set of 25 or more: $22.00
each; includes one free teacher manual for
every 25 student books ordered
OPUS 40 AND THE GRADING CD
The result of 40 years of grading student papers, this book contains Michael Clay
Thompson’s archive of comments used for grading student papers—and his comments
to teachers about those comments. It also includes the comments on a CD in several
formats so the grader can use MCT’s explanations instead of having to write them de
novo. An invaluable resource.
6973 OPUS 40 with CD $40.00 Special Price: $30.00
“Michael Clay Thompson’s work with language and literature has inspired every teacher who has encountered his
passion for the beauty and power of language.”
—Phyllis Aldrich, Coordinator for Gifted
Education, Saratoga Springs, New York
19
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L ANGUAGE ARTS POSTERS
For years participants in Michael Clay Thompson’s workshops have asked for copies of the images he uses to
explain the workings of grammar, poetry, and other aspects of language arts. Now we are proud to make them
available for classroom teachers as bright and colorful posters for the classroom wall. They are posters that will
help students visualize the simplicity and beauty of important concepts of language.
Each poster is 17.25" x 22.5," printed on light card stock, and environmentally-friendly laminated
to remain bright and fresh for many years.
THE PARTS OF SPEECH
This poster beautifully shows the eight parts of speech, with the special importance of the noun and the verb.
Students can see that the system is simple, with six minor parts supporting two major parts.
325Y THE PARTS OF SPEECH $10.00
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THE NUCLEUS OF THE CLAUSE
This poster displays the elegant essence of clauses.
3277 THE NUCLEUS OF THE CLAUSE $10.00
A PLACE FOR THE ADJECTIVE
This poster shows the presence of the parts of speech within the parts of sentence, with emphasis on the opportunity
for the adjective to be a subject complement.
3284 A PLACE FOR THE ADJECTIVE $10.00
THE COMPLE XIT Y OF THOUGHT
This poster features the parts of speech, parts of sentence, phrases, and clauses in a single sentence.
3291 THE COMPLEXITY OF THOUGHT $10.00
WRITING IS THINKING
This poster shows that writing good sentences is a form of higher-order thinking.
3307 WRITING IS THINKING $10.00
THE BEAUT Y OF THE BALLAD
The simplicity and formal clarity of the ballad is the focus of this poster.
3314 THE BEAUTY OF THE BALLAD $10.00
20
POETRY IS E VERY WHERE
This poster shows the intense use of alliteration, stanza, rhyme, assonance, consonance, and metaphor.
3321 POETRY IS EVERYWHERE $10.00
SUBJECT/VERB AGREEMENT
“They must agree, or the sentence is dead,” the poster declares, and it illustrates the point with the sentence, “The
man are here.”
3338 SUBJECT/VERB AGREEMENT $10.00
THE VERB IS THE SWITCH
This poster illustrates the potential of a verb to be either an action or linking verb, with the resulting flow to direct
objects or subject complements.
3345 THE VERB IS THE SWITCH $10.00
PRONOUN USAGE
Thompson’s Law states a subject is a subject, and an object is an object.
3352 PRONOUN USAGE $10.00
CLAUSE PUNCTUATION
This poster illustrates the logical simplicity of clause punctuation.
3369 CLAUSE PUNCTUATION $10.00
PARTS OF THE SENTENCE
This poster highlights the divide between the subject and predicate and illustrates the flow from action verbs to
direct and indirect objects and from linking verbs to subject complements.
3260 PARTS OF THE SENTENCE $10.00
LANGUAGE ARTS POSTERS: COMPLETE SET OF 12
The full set of twelve language arts posters may be purchased for $100.00
(which saves $20.00 on purchasing them individually) plus shipping.
325S LANGUAGE ARTS POSTERS SET OF 12: $100.00
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THE SELF-EVIDENT TRUTH SERIES
As companion books to the vocabulary, grammar, poetics, and writing programs of Michael Clay Thompson, the
extraordinary Self-Evident Truth series looks at the three great statements of equality and shows how language
can change the world. These books not only serve as important insights into American history and culture, but
they also show students the pay-off for the intensive study of language: how grammar is truly a “magic lens” into
thought, how word choice can be a matter of meter, how the authors use vocabulary to establish meaning and
impact, and how Jefferson, Lincoln, and King used grammatical devices for rhetorical effect.
Wonderful books that cross over into the departments of English, social studies, and history, as well as gifted
programs, they are a fascinating read in themselves. Nothing shows the true brilliance of the three authors like a
detailed analysis of their use of language.
JEFFERSON’S TRUTHS
by Michael Clay Thompson
The Declaration of Independence is a revolutionary document. Its function was to announce to
the world that the war in progress in North America was revolutionary in aim. And during the
centuries that followed, it has proven to be a statement that has changed the world and one that
men and women have tried to live up to.
In this book, Thompson shows just how revolutionary were the concepts of the Declaration by
relating them to the ideas of the Enlightenment and then focusing on the language and grammar
that Jefferson used to announce that revolution. He contrasts the extraordinary dignified tone of the Declaration
with other more inflammatory language used in the Revolutionary War, and he shows precisely how Jefferson
used grammar and vocabulary to achieve the ends he sought.
On July 4, 1776, King George III wrote in his diary, “Nothing of importance happened today.” It was not simply
by chance that he was wrong about it. A great deal of thought and effort went into making him wrong about it.
Thompson helps students understand the brilliance of Jefferson’s execution of Congress’s charge to write the
Declaration of Independence.
6546 JEFFERSON’S TRUTH STUDENT BOOK $12.99
6554 JEFFERSON’S TRUTH TEACHER MANUAL $12.99
FREE AT LAST
s
e
r
i
e
s
This examination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech looks at the poetry,
grammar, and vocabulary of the most important modern statement of America’s commitment
to the equality of its citizens.
Free at Last examines how powerful emotion is built up by repeated ideas and words, how King’s
vision of the future and great call to freedom were achieved by carefully chosen vocabulary and
word pictures conjured by metaphor, by the poetics of meter, alliteration, and assonance, and by
other carefully selected grammatical devices.
The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom took place on August 28, 1963. Its purpose was to draw
attention to the injustice of segregation and to push for jobs and economic equality. The statue of Lincoln was
chosen as the backdrop for the speeches, and Dr. King began with the words that echoed the beginning of the
Gettysburg Address: “Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed
the Emancipation Proclamation…but one hundred years later, the Negro is still not free.”
652X FREE AT LAST STUDENT BOOK $12.99
6538 FREE AT LAST TEACHER MANUAL $12.99
22
THE SELF-EVIDENT TRUTH SERIES
LINCOLN’S TEN SENTENCES
This is a classic Thompson tour de force.
Four months after the Battle of Gettysburg, on that bloody battleground, a solemn ceremony was
held to dedicate for the National Soldiers’ Cemetery the seventeen acres where Confederate and
Union soldiers had fought and lost their lives in the battle that decided the unity of the United
States. The North’s most scholarly and illustrious orator, Edward Everett, was to give the
major address, sharing the platform with Abraham Lincoln, sixteenth President of the United
States, who had been invited formally to set apart the grounds for their sacred use “by a few
appropriate remarks after the oration.”
Compared to the esteemed Everett, the press had been portraying Lincoln as a “baboon” and as having an
“untutored” mind. In fact, Lincoln’s formal education totaled only one year.
Lincoln’s address lasted somewhat over a minute. He used only ten sentences, 267 words. Although it was not
a poem, he used poetic devices to increase the power of his words. So perfect was Lincoln’s speech that Everett,
who was a past U.S. Senator, president of Harvard, and Phi Beta Kappa poet, requested a copy of it from Lincoln,
saying, “I should be glad if I could flatter myself that I came as near to the central idea of the occasion in two
hours as you did in two minutes.”
In Lincoln’s Ten Sentences, Michael Clay Thompson thoroughly explicates the noble Gettysburg Address and
introduces the reader to accomplished poet Abraham Lincoln—his use of detail, word sounds by controlled
vowels and consonants, impact of a spondee, and strategic grammar, diction, and vocabulary. Lincoln’s choice
of words, said and unsaid, repetition of key words, use of words that the common people would understand, use
of alliteration, and repetition of the pronoun we are all explored.
6503 LINCOLN’S TEN SENTENCES STUDENT BOOK $12.99
6511 LINCOLN’S TEN SENTENCES TEACHER MANUAL $12.99
AN ISSUE THIS NATION CANNOT IGNORE:
BARACK OBA M A’S SPEECH ON RACE
by Thomas Milton Kemnitz
Barack Obama’s speech on race, on the March 18, 2008 in Philadelphia, was not just a campaign
speech; its theme was an issue the nation cannot ignore and it is the contention of this book
that the speech is in the tradition of the great American statements of equality that began with
the Declaration of Independence and include Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address and Martin Luther
King’s I have a Dream speech.
Thomas Milton Kemnitz places the speech in its political and historical context, sees it as part
of a new national conversation about race, analyzes the six parts of the speech, and breaks down how Obama
conveys his meaning by analyzing his vocabulary, grammar, poetic devices and structure.
Obama describes the issue of anger and bitterness that has led to the present situation. He describes the common
goals and aspirations of white and black communities and the path along which Americans must travel to achieve
unity and a better future for all.
This edition is for use in schools and is particularly useful in gifted education. It provides insight not only to
Obama as a speechmaker but also to Obama’s approach to questions of race, to social and political conditions and
problems and the way forward for the nation. The speech is distinguished by its adult and nuanced approach to
the topics he discussed and by its respect for the intelligence of the voting public.
The speech was received mostly in silence by its original audience, as befitted its seriousness and complexity.
Since then the debate on this issue has been fast and furious on the Internet and in chat rooms. Dr. Kemnitz
believes the speech will resonate and be remembered for many years to come.
6483 AN ISSUE THIS
23 NATION CANNOT IGNORE STUDENT BOOK $12.99
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SCHOOL EXAMINATION PACKAGES
Teachers and administrators can evaluate the full Michael Clay Thompson Language Arts Curriculum by ordering
sets of ten books at each grade level.
The packages consist of books that complement each other and, when studied together, make a complete English
language arts curriculum for students: grammar, vocabulary, poetics, and writing, together with practice books.
Purchasing the packages gives significant savings on buying the books separately.
MCT THIRD-GRADE SCHOOL E XA MINATION PACKAGE
Student books and teacher manuals: Grammar Island, Building Language, The Music of the Hemispheres,
Sentence Island, Practice Island
TO3C $220.00 Special Price: $190.00
MCT FOURTH-GRADE SCHOOL E XA MINATION PACKAGE
Student books and teacher manuals: Grammar Town, Caesar’s English I, Building Poems, Paragraph Town,
Practice Town
MCT FOURTH-GRADE CLASSICAL SCHOOL E XA MINATION PACKAGE
Student books and teacher manuals: Grammar Town, Caesar’s English I Classical Education Edition, Building
Poems, Paragraph Town, Practice Town
TO4E $260.00 Special Price: $205.00
MCT FOURTH-GRADE CLASSICAL SCHOOL E XA MINATION COLOR PACKAGE
Student books and teacher manuals: Grammar Town, Caesar’s English I CEE Color Edition, Building Poems,
Paragraph Town, Practice Town
TO4D $285.00 Special Price: $230.00
MCT FIFTH-GRADE SCHOOL E XA MINATION PACKAGE
Student books and teacher manuals: Grammar Voyage, Caesar’s English II, A World of Poetry, Essay Voyage,
Practice Voyage
MCT FIFTH-GRADE CLASSICAL SCHOOL E XA MINATION PACKAGE
Student books and teacher manuals: Grammar Voyage, Caesar’s English II Classical Education Edition, A
World of Poetry, Essay Voyage, Practice Voyage
TO5E $260.00 Special Price: $205.00
MCT FIFTH-GRADE CLASSICAL SCHOOL E XA MINATION COLOR PACKAGE
Student books and teacher manuals: Grammar Voyage, Caesar’s English II CEE Color Edition, A World of
Poetry, Essay Voyage, Practice Voyage
MCT SIXTH-GRADE SCHOOL E XA MINATION PACKAGE
Student books and teacher manuals: The Magic Lens I, The Word Within the Word I, Poetry and Humanity,
Advanced Academic Writing I, 4Practice I
MCT SIXTH-GRADE SCHOOL E XA MINATION COLOR PACKAGE
Student books and teacher manuals: The Magic Lens I, The Word Within the Word I Color Edition, Poetry and
Humanity, Advanced Academic Writing I, 4Practice I
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SCHOOL EXAMINATION PACKAGES
MCT SE VENTH-GRADE SCHOOL E XA MINATION PACKAGE
Student books and teacher manuals: The Magic Lens II; The Word Within the Word II; Poetry, Plato, and the
Problem of Beauty; Advanced Academic Writing II; 4Practice II
MCT SE VENTH-GRADE SCHOOL E XA MINATION COLOR PACKAGE
Student books and teacher manuals: The Magic Lens II; The Word Within the Word II Color Edition; Poetry,
Plato, and the Problem of Beauty; Advanced Academic Writing II; 4Practice II
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Student books and teacher manuals: The Magic Lens III; The Word Within the Word III; Poetry, Plato, and the
Problem of Truth; Advanced Academic Writing III; 4Practice III
Our students return year after year and invariably tell us the same thing: that Word I proved
to be the most important thing we did with them in the sixth grade, and they reaped the
benefits of it throughout their academic careers.
—Sheri Sauve, Supervisor of Enhanced Education, Davis School District Utah
“I worked with sixth- to eighth-grade students using
The Word Within the Word during the spring semester.
Every one of them scored 100% on the vocabulary
section of the ISAT.”
— Jan Howard, gifted resource teacher, Illinois
“The Word Within the Word has been a playful,
joyful program for my students. Their success has
astounded me.”
— Jeanette Smith, teacher, Pleasanton, California
MICHAEL CLAY THOMPSON’S
PRESENTATIONS AND STAFF DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOPS
Michael Clay Thompson is an empowering practitioner and presenter, a font of practical ideas and
inspiration. Conference organizers, school administrators, and teachers are advised to contact Royal
Fireworks Press as early as possible to book him for:
•
•
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CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS
LANGUAGE ARTS STAFF DEVELOPMENT
GRAMMAR INSTITUTES FOR TEACHERS
TEXTBOOK ADOPTION WORKSHOPS FOR DETAILED INSTRUCTION
IN HOW TO USE THESE MATERIALS
CONTACT:
Dr. T.M. Kemnitz
Royal Fireworks Press, (845) 726-4444
email: [email protected]
ORDER ONLINE @RFWP.COM
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OTHER WORKS BY MCT
CLASSICS IN THE CLASSROOM
Here is a mother lode of material for teachers who want their students to benefit from the
education of classics and original source material. Thompson believes that classics are part of
the heritage our civilization offers; they are part of being civilized. Classics help us to equip
our children with preferences for subtlety, complexity, curiosity, equality, honesty, harmony,
and humanity and can help to inoculate them against stupidity and cruelty and inspire them
with the love of thought. Once they are comfortable with ordinary educated language, children
love classics and prefer them to forgettable books. A classic may not be a best seller for a
winter; it may sell well for 30 or 300 or 3,000 winters!
Children who read classics delight in good ideas, characterization, depth, complexity, word
play, originality, cleverness, and imagination as much as adults do. Even the very young love to be read to.
Classics in the Classroom features a list of 1,300 classics for readers in kindergarten through graduate school.
Arranged alphabetically by author, it includes comedy, tragedy, adventure, drama, children’s stories, poetry,
philosophy, and history. It is cross-referenced to other distinguished reading lists and indicates books that are
prize-winners.
2206 CLASSICS IN THE CLASSROOM $14.99 Special Price: $12.99
CLASSIC WORDS
An extraordinary book! Michael Clay Thompson spent more than a decade recording the words
used in the great classics and the instances of their use. In this book he explores the language of
the great classics of English literature. There are separate chapters for many of the most important
words: countenance, profound, manifest, serene, sublime, prodigious, acute, clamor, exquisite,
languor, grotesque, condescend, allude, odious, placid, incredulous, tremulous, visage, singular,
venerate. The book ends with a list of the 100 most frequently used words in the classics.
2192 CLASSIC WORDS $9.99 Special Price: $8.99
THINKERS
Thinkers is a guided tour through a vast array of great works and the minds behind them. It
provides the inspiration and enthusiasm that will encourage student readers as well as adult
readers to learn to think about thinking and the way the mind works. In each chapter, Thompson
discusses an author’s work along with the author, providing quotes from the work and valuable
insight into the mind behind the creation.
THE CONTENTS INCLUDE 21 ESSAYS:
1. Charles Van Doren’s A History of
Knowledge
2. Sir Kenneth Clarke’s Civilisation
3. Richard Preston’s The Hot Zone
4. Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History
of Time
5. George Eliot’s Middlemarch
6. Daniel J. Boorstin’s The Creators
7. Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels
8. Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and
Punishment
9. Vasari’s The Lives of the Artists
10. James Burke’s The Day the Universe
Changed
11. A. C. Bradley’s Shakespearean
Tragedy
12. Ellen Foster’s Kaye Gibbons
13. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet
Letter
14. Mark Twain’s The Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn
15. Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass
16. Kate Chopin’s The Awakening
17. Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s
Journey into Night
18. Carl Sagan’s The Demon-Haunted
World
19. Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar
20. Bill Gates’s The Road Ahead
21. The Narrative of Frederick Douglass
2184 THINKERS $14.99 SPECIAL PRICE: $12.99
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OTHER WORKS BY MCT
THE HEART OF THE MIND
Essays on educators and education, giftedness and gifted education, thinkers and thinking, artists and
creativity, writers and literature, philosophers and thought. In the more than forty essays in this book,
Thompson covers a wide array of topics, many of them of fundamental importance to educators of
gifted children.
Topics include: Multiple Intelligences, Depth, Fourth Graders and Trilobites, Rembrandt, Gifted and
Learning Disabled, The Problem of Problem Solving, Grouping, Gifted Hispanic Children, Is Gifted
Education Elitist?, Choice, Leadership, Respect for Intuition, Is It Legitimate to Specialize in Gifted
Education?, Grammar for Gifted Kids, Special Populations, Gifted Kids: A Misunderstood Minority,
and much more.
2419 THE HEART OF THE MIND $14.99 Special Price: $12.99
THE SESQUIPEDALIAN NEOLOGIST ’S LE XICON
A funny compendium of words made up from Greek and Latin stems. A wonderful book for
those who love vocabulary, and an excellent way to get students into The Word Within the
Word program.
1749 THE SESQUIPEDALIAN NEOLOGIST’S LEXICON $7.99 Special Price: $5.00
RELATIVIT Y, QUANTA, AND CONSCIOUSNESS
This discussion is an extended reflection on the foundational findings of modern physics in terms
of the implications they may have for a quite different phenomenon: human consciousness.
It is an interdisciplinary and personal probe into possible synthetic connections that may be
discernible between the nature of science and the nature of awareness.
If Einstein was right about space-time, and Planck was right about the quantum of
action, what do these theories imply about what human consciousness is? If we set aside
supernatural explanations during the discussion and accept the terms of theoretical physics
as valid, we must ask, What is consciousness made of? How does it come about? In what
sense are these very questions examples of space-time and quantum mechanics in action? The
conclusion is profoundly Socratic.
8052 RELATIVITY, QUANTA, AND CONSCIOUSNESS $14.99 Special Price: $9.99
THE CONCEPTUAL DIALECTIC
Michael Clay Thompson’s contribution to the debate in gifted education is about content
versus process, about the importance of facts and the need for concepts in the development of
gifted children. In it, he offers a much-needed discussion of the development of concepts in
the education of the gifted and how and when to introduce them.
2427 THE CONCEPTUAL DIALECTIC $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
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PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING CURRICULUM
BY DR. SHELAGH A. GALLAGHER
Dr. Shelagh A. Gallagher is a nationally recognized expert in gifted education and problem-based
learning (PBL). She has conducted research, made presentations, and published articles on such topics
as the personality attributes associated with giftedness, gender differences in mathematics performance,
questioning for higher-order thinking, the developmental needs of gifted adolescents, and appropriate
instruction for gifted and twice-exceptional students.
Gallagher has received the National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC) Curriculum Division Award
for her PBL units four times. She served two terms on the NAGC Board of Directors and continues to
serve in leadership roles for NAGC. She is also a Senior Fellow at Yunasa, a summer program for highly
gifted youth offered through the Institute for Educational Advancement. She is the recipient of both the
Distinguished Service Award and the James J. Gallagher Award for Advocacy from the North Carolina
Association for Gifted and Talented, the Provost’s Award for Teaching Excellence from UNCCharlotte, and the Article of the Year Award from NAGC. Her problem-based learning series is
an innovative program that fosters interdisciplinary study through data analysis and connections
to literature. The curriculum is closely allied to the Common Core and National Standards.
HISTORY UNITS
PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING
IN YOUR CLASSROOM
This is a practical guide to implementing
problem-based learning. It is a useful
background guide to the PBL units.
8616 PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING IN YOUR CLASSROOM $20.00
E XCLUDED!: CHINESE IMMIGRATION
TO THE UNITED STATES
NAGC CURRICULUM AWARD-WINNER
Students investigate how and why the Chinese Exclusion Laws
came into being from the vantage point of Congresspeople from
California. They consider what reasonable limits can or should
be placed on immigration in a country that urged, “Give me your
tired, your poor, your huddled masses….” They draw parallels
to contemporary immigration issues and find out why Chinese
immigrants first came to America, the rate of Chinese immigration,
changing attitudes toward Chinese immigrants, the initial Chinese
Exclusion Laws, and Supreme Court decisions.
4557 EXCLUDED PROBLEM LOG $5.00
4571 EXCLUDED RESOURCE BOOK $15.00
4564 EXCLUDED TEACHER MANUAL $25.00
4564S UNIT SET PACKAGE $45.00
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HISTORY UNITS
ALL WORK AND NO PLAY:
CHILD LABOR IN THE PROGRESSIVE ERA
Students take on the role of members of the National Child Labor
Committee. Presented with photographs from Lewis Hine, they
launch into questions about the extent and nature of child labor,
its differences in industry and agriculture, the background of the
children, existing regulations, and more. The unit culminates as the
students present their recommendations at a Congressional Hearing.
4595 ALL WORK PROBLEM LOG $5.00
4618 ALL WORK RESOURCE BOOK $15.00
4601 ALL WORK TEACHER MANUAL $25.00
BLACK DEATH
The plague comes to Europe. Students put themselves in the role
of fourteenth-century Italians in a small town, knowing that the
plague is coming and trying to decide what to do about it. As
they work through the problem, they complete lessons that help
them assess the level of risk they face, determine when the plague
might arrive in their town, and consider what might happen if it
does. They receive advice from a medieval doctor and a priest,
who only provide them with the information that was available
during that time period.
The students study laws that were enacted in other cities and
towns to determine if they are worthwhile. The unit culminates
with a presentation by the students to the town’s Council of the
People of a plan to keep them as safe
as possible.
In the end, the bubonic plague killed so many Europeans
that it brought about the collapse of the feudal system.
See also: Problem Studies for One.
7206 BLACK DEATH PROBLEM LOG $5.00
7213 BLACK DEATH/PLAGUE! RESOURCE BOOK $15.00
7195 BLACK DEATH TEACHER MANUAL $25.00
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SCIENCE UNIT
FERRET IT OUT:
A PROBLEM ABOUT ENDANGERED SPECIES AND ANIM AL ECOSYSTEMS
The first science unit in the PBL series!
The black-footed ferret is the most endangered mammal in the U.S. Students are placed on a recovery team
whose job is to assess whether Fort Collins, Colorado, is an appropriate site to reintroduce ferrets that were bred
in captivity. In the process, they learn about biomes, habitats, human-animal interaction, and many other science
concepts.
Ferret It Out was pilot tested in several sixth-grade classrooms throughout Fairfax County, Virginia. The unit is
aligned to national and regional middle school science objectives.
An appendix details the alignment of Ferret It Out to National Science 5-8 Content Standards, Common Core
Standards for Literacy in Science and Technical Subjects for Grades 6-8, Common Core Writing Standards, and
Speaking and Listening Standards in Language Arts.
See also: Problem Studies for One.
4779 FERRET IT OUT PROBLEM LOG $5.00
4755 FERRET IT OUT TEACHER MANUAL $35.00
RFWP.COM
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HULL HOUSE: LIVING DEMOCRACY
IN THE PROGRESSIVE ERA
This unit immerses students in the study of the Progressive Era through a
specific problem faced by the Board of Directors of Hull House in Chicago,
the landmark settlement house. Jane Addams, Hull House co-founder,
has lobbied for labor reform, and as a result, a prominent Chicagoan has
threatened to withdraw financial support. Hull House had been planning to
start programs to improve health, advocate for better working conditions,
provide educational programs, support better juvenile justice, and improve
housing. Now there is funding available for only one of these projects.
Students, as the Board of Directors, must decide which project to fund. As
they consider their options, they learn about the living and working conditions
of America’s immigrant poor through the study of primary resources, letters,
cartoons, and newspaper articles (many provided in the Resource Book).
Using guided discussions and graphic organizers in the Teacher Manual, they synthesize this information as
they compare the consequences of a variety of social ills. In doing so, they will uncover underlying issues and
prejudices and discover the inequities of the time.
Hull House was pilot-tested in several sixth-grade classrooms throughout Fairfax County, Virginia. The unit
is aligned to U.S. History Content Standards for Grades 5-12, National Council for Social Studies Teaching
Standards, Common Core Reading Standards for Literacy/Social Studies, Common Core Writing Standards, and
the National Center for History in the Schools Standards.
4700 HULL HOUSE PROBLEM LOG $5.00
4724 HULL HOUSE RESOURCE BOOK $15.00
4717 HULL HOUSE TEACHER MANUAL $25.00
4717S HULL HOUSE UNIT SET PACKAGE $45.00
A FINAL APPEAL:
THE FIRST A MENDMENT AND TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD
A teacher has been fired for using To Kill a Mockingbird in her class.
She sued the district and lost. Now she is appealing to a district court,
and the students, as members of the court of appeals, must decide the
case. Based on an actual court case, A Final Appeal instructs students
in the nuances of the First Amendment. Framed around the concept of
continuity, students learn how court decisions are made as they address
the same questions facing real judges: What speech is protected, and
what is not? What are the rights of employers and employees? What is
the role of stare decicis, the rule that compels judges to follow precedent
cases? Students also learn about the structure of the U.S. court system—
and they read To Kill a Mockingbird, too! A perfect unit for middle
or high school government courses, language arts, or interdisciplinary
instruction.
This unit aligns with the curriculum standards in Fairfax County,
Virginia, the district for which it was written. Other frequently banned
novels could be substituted.
7312 FINAL APPEAL PROBLEM LOG $5.00
7329 FINAL APPEAL RESOURCE BOOK $15.00
7305 FINAL APPEAL TEACHER MANUAL $25.00
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Fabulae Caeciliae
Fabula I
by Frances R. Spielhagen
Now a Latin curriculum you can implement for your students even if you do not have any knowledge
of Latin yourself.
A beautifully illustrated introduction for young learners utilizing photographs of the Roman world.
Dr. Frances R. Spielhagen’s Latin curriculum is the pinnacle of the natural inductive approach. Rather
than being forced into translating, students are challenged to absorb Latin, making meaning from the
illustrations that go with the words, and developing vocabulary and grammar gradually in the natural
thread of language acquisition. The illustrations of young Caecilia and her family are drawn by artist
Lorel Barr, and images of their domestic and public life are from our own library of photographs taken at
archaeological sites by Dr. Thomas Kemnitz; his expertise has informed the depiction of every detail in the
illustrations, and his explanations in the Teacher Manual provide background and additional information
about the illustrations.
Teachers who have studied Latin will find the language familiar but the materials new and engagingly
beautiful. Those who have not studied Latin will be able to comprehend the language and imbue the
students and themselves in the Roman world and its Latin. The Teacher Manual provides the grammar
and forms and includes a CD of Dr. Spielhagen enunciating the Latin in each chapter so that teachers and
students can hear the correct pronunciation.
Dr. Frances R. Spielhagen taught Latin for thirty years before becoming an academic. She is currently
Professor of Education, co-founder and co-director of the Center for Adolescent Research and Development
at Mount Saint Mary College, New York.
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Dr. Spielhagen says: “I follow a gradual release of forms and vocabulary, with explanations given on a
need to know basis. I build on students’ prior knowledge, presumed, assumed, and elicited, in an effort to
scaffold their learning of the new Latin forms.”
The Teacher Manual, which contains translations, grammar rules, and commentary on the illustrations,
contains a CD of the author enunciating the Latin that is on every page of the Student Book.
The teacher does not need to have a knowledge of Latin to implement this curriculum.
9200 FABULAE CAECILIAE FABULA I STUDENT BOOK $12.50
ISBN: 978-0-89824-920-0
9217 FABULAE CAECILIAE FABULA I TEACHER BOOK W/ CD & STUDENT BOOK $35.00
ISBN: 978-0-89824-921-7
This curriculum
is available
as an iBook
Vinum et aquam etiam bibimus.
Tunc ego et Verus in horto ludimus.
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Mater clamat, “Noli currere!”,
sed Verus eam non audit.
Mox in piscinam cadit!
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ARTS CURRICULUM
ARTISTIC WAYS OF KNOWING
HOW TO THINK LIKE AN ARTIST
by Joanne Haroutounian
Dr. Haroutounian has spent a lifetime working in the arts with gifted students in
performance, and in helping teachers to identify and develop talent. Artistic Ways of
Knowing: How to Think Like an Artist is the result of her insights and experience,
examining the perceptual and cognitive processes inherent in learning and interpretation.
Understanding these processes allows teachers to develop creativity in the classroom,
nurture talented students, and encourage everyone to think “like an artist.”
This book begins with perspectives of artistic and aesthetic knowing from artists and
scholars across the fields of education. Then, readers explore each element of artistic
knowing, including “Sparkler Experiences” that provide hands-on workshops that can be
used to realize how to think and perceive in each art form—visual arts, movement/dance,
music, and drama/theater.
Artistic Ways of Knowing is suitable as a text for gifted and arts college coursework as well as a resource for professional
development. The goal of this book is to provide readers with a more thorough understanding of how artists think and
perform, and how this way of knowing expands in depth and breadth beyond cognitive/academic parameters.
The ultimate goal is to encourage teachers and students to experience artistic “knowing” in every classroom.
As befits a book about the arts, it contains classic works of art in full color that can be studied in the classroom, and
unique photographs that illustrate aspects of the creative process.
Using this book with Arts Talent ID provides a powerful guide for using the arts in your classroom.
5738 ARTISTIC WAYS OF KNOWING $30.00
ARTS TALENT ID
A FR A ME WORK FOR THE IDENTIFICATION OF TALENTED STUDENTS IN THE ARTS
by Joanne Haroutounian
Arts Talent ID is a much-needed book that offers specialists in the fields of gifted
education and the arts an effective way to identify students who display potential talent in
music, visual art, movement/dance, and theater. Forms used in the identification process
are on the accompanying CD and are constructed across similar categories and formatted
for ease of use by classroom teachers, gifted/arts specialists, and outside adjudicators.
The Arts Talent ID framework provides a comprehensive arts identification procedure
that can be implemented in any school—from general classroom observations through to
specialized audition/portfolio assessments.
Dr. Haroutounian says: “the Arts ID framework I believe is sorely needed as there is
nothing currently available that provides a solid identification structure, reflecting specific
arts talent criteria. I have received lots of interest in the framework and am pleased that now with this publication it will
be widely available to those in the gifted and arts fields.”
4861 ARTS TALENT ID $20.00
4861D ARTS TALENT ID WITH CD $50.00
About the Author
Joanne Haroutounian, Ph.D., has a distinguished career in music, arts education, piano pedagogy, educational
psychology, and gifted education. She currently serves on the music faculty of George Mason University where she
teaches piano, pedagogy, doctoral seminars in talent identification and development in music and the arts.
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ART CURRICULUM
“I have seen many books on drawing and painting over the 45 years I have been teaching, and How to Draw a Straight Line is one of the best of its kind.”
—Jerrold Schoenblum, Professor of Art, City University of New York
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THE FIRST BRUSHSTROKE
by Donald Skier
Learn all about the materials and equipment you need to know before starting your first paintings: brushes and pencils, watercolors and palettes, frames and easels, light sources and the
usefulness of a camera. A helpful guide for starting out as an artist.
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8380 THE FIRST BRUSHSTROKE $35.00 Special Price: $25.00
HOW TO DRAW A STRAIGHT LINE
by Donald Skier
Donald Skier shows how to draw objects more accurately by reducing them to simple shapes
such as rectangles, cones, circles, and ovals. Learn to draw and paint with the techniques professionals use, with tips that will immediately improve the drawing and painting of anyone,
child or adult.
8250 HOW TO DRAW A STRAIGHT LINE $35.00 Special Price: $25.00
ART WORK PADS
by Donald Skier
These fourteen workbook supplements are low-cost ($3.00) companion practice pads. Because of their size and
packing requirements, there is a minimum order of five copies, in any combination of titles.
The workbooks are 11" x 17" and have basic instructions, as well as five pre-printed practice sheets and five blank
pages on which to paint or draw. They are without hard backing and are stapled along the 17" side. Go to our
website for details and ordering: rfwp.com.
8281 ART WORK PAD: LANDSCAPES 1 Price:
8267 ART WORK PAD: STILL LIFE Price:
8274 ART WORK PAD: BUTTERFLIES AND FLOWERS Price:
8311 ART WORK PAD: BUILDINGS Price:
8328 ART WORK PAD: BARNS AND OTHER BUILDINGS Price:
8335 ART WORK PAD: BARNS 2 Price:
8342 ART WORK PAD: CARS AND TRUCKS Price:
8359 ART WORK PAD: BOATS AND SHORELINE BUILDINGS Price:
8366 ART WORK PAD: SAILBOATS Price:
8373 ART WORK PAD: LIGHTHOUSES Price:
8397 ART WORK PAD: PAINTING SUMI Price:
8403 ART WORK PAD: DRAWING SPACE Price:
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MATHEMATICS
PROBLEMOIDS: M ATH CHALLENGE PROGRA M
by Bill McCandliss and Dr. Albert Watson
The Problemoids program was created for students who are advanced in math. It is based on the scope and sequence of
state math curriculum guides. The program requires higher levels of thinking than the typical curriculum. It is designed
for children in grades 4, 5, and 6.
Problemoids focuses on learning and using problem-solving strategies, not on memorization or operations. The hints and
solution sheets are designed to introduce, teach, and reinforce nineteen problem-solving strategies. It is grounded on the
problem-solving work of George Polya.
The Problemoids program provides students with a means of self-checking the most difficult part of their work.
Problemoids has three components: student workbooks called Challenge, which include fifty problems and several levels of
strategy-based hints for each problem; a separate solution sheet for each problem, with strategies for solving the problems
illustrated in detail so the students can check their work; and a teacher manual called Mentor, which explains the program
and which contains the answers to the problems. The manuals and solution sheets are designed to minimize the instructor’s
preparation time.
Problemoids is for students who excel in math and can work at their own pace. When the student completes a problem, the
instructor merely checks the answer and gives the student the solution sheet. The student can compare his or her method
of solving the problem with those presented by the authors. Both the hints and the solution sheets emphasize strategies for
solving problems.
Problems utilize sets, number and numeration, operations, geometry, measurement, algebra, and probability and statistics.
The mentor book for each level contains a grid that shows which problems within the level deal with each concept and
whether that concept receives primary or secondary focus in the problem’s solution.
Problemoids Grade 4
188X TEACHER MANUAL & SOLUTION BOOK $20.00
1898 STUDENT BOOK $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
Problemoids Grade 5
0441 TEACHER MANUAL & SOLUTION BOOK $20.00
Problemoids Grade 6
0395 INSTRUCTOR MANUAL & SOLUTION BOOK $20.00
CHI SQUARE, PIE CHARTS AND ME
by Dr. Susan Baum, Dr. Robert K Gable, and Dr. Karen List
This book is for teachers who are anxious to take their students beyond report writing and
reference skills into the real world of research and statistical methodologies. It will help you
guide your students toward changing their negative attitude about research, help them understand
“real world” research and report writing, clarify and elaborate on the different kinds of research
and the specific steps necessary to conduct a research project, instruct them in simple statistics
and data analysis, provide ideas and formats for conducting research, provide presentation
strategies, and present resources. It is so simple and clear that you can present the material to
children as early as the fourth grade.
1715 CHI SQUARE, PIE CHARTS AND ME $19.99 Special Price: $14.99
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MATHEMATICS
INTRODUCTORY GEOMETRIES
by Dr. Larry Wiley
A fresh approach to geometry for the gifted! This book offers a complete treatment of Euclidean
geometry using an axiomatic approach based on transformations of the plane. Students begin
with symmetry to develop an understanding of the basic transformations needed for the axiomatic
treatment of geometry. Initial chapters provide a comprehensive, elementary introduction to
those concepts of mathematical structure and structure-preserving transformations, which are
crucial in any modern approach to mathematics. It then offers an ample overview of the content
and importance of the plane geometries of Riemann and Lobachevsky and includes a brief
treatment of the basic ideas of area and volume. Final chapters provide an introduction to all of the essential
ideas of plane trigonometry. This year-long introduction is full of activities designed to help students enhance
their higher-order thinking skills.
“This book is a true departure from the traditional geometry text. Teachers who should consider this text are those who think an honors geometry course
should be more than the standard course made more rigorous. Only by examining this book can you appreciate its uniqueness.” —mathematics teacher
0654 INTRODUCTORY GEOMETRIES STUDENT BOOK $15.00
9989 INTRODUCTORY GEOMETRIES TEACHER MANUAL $15.00
M ATH LIBS
by Amy Maid Burke
Math Libs For Upper Elementary/Middle School contains 33 scenarios to complement and span
the school year. The fill-in spaces on these math problem-solving scenarios are for personalizing
them with things and attributes of the students who are solving the problems. Great fun. Students
love these enrichment/review lessons.
2231 MATH LIBS $9.99
NIGHT OF THE PARANORM AL PATTERNS and
NIGHT OF THE FRIGHTENING FRACTIONS
by Robert Black
“Highly recommended, especially for public and school library YA collections.”
—Children’s Bookwatch
In these two novels of Mathematical Fiction, Robert Black mixes his narrative with a series of
pre-algebra level math puzzles. He uses storytelling as a way of communicating math concepts.
He says: “Math can be a very collaborative experience. There are many different ways to look
at a problem, and it helps if , like my characters in the stories, you can talk with someone and
trade ideas to see which way is best. There’s a lot of trial and error involved. It’s okay to try an
approach and discover that it doesn’t work. Lennie and her friends go through all of that. They
make mistakes. They go down blind alleys and have to try again. And the reader gets to share in
that experience.”
4823 NIGHT OF THE PARANORMAL PATTERNS $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
4823 NIGHT OF THE FRIGHTENING FRACTIONS $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
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30 WAYS TO BRING PHILOSOPHY INTO E VERY CLASSROOM
by Dr. Jerry Chris
The simple activities described in this book give classroom teachers a potent antidote for
today’s lethargic students who 1) no longer practice clarity of thought, but rather emulate
the emotional drivel of “celebrities,” 2) no longer seek multiple solutions and weigh the
consequences of each, but rather seek easy answers, 3) no longer see ethics as a foundation
in decision-making, but rather rely on “act now and see what happens” non-thinking.
The first section of the book includes:
• Truth—Theory of Knowledge
• Man in Society—Political Theory
• Nature of Mankind
• Ethics
• Logic
• Power
• Beauty
• Philosophy of Life
The second section is comprised of two appendices. Appendix A is a short reference to the basic fallacies of correct
reasoning. This is needed for some of the activities involving logic. Appendix B contains summaries of the thinking of
thirty-nine philosophers.
The philosophers studied are Aquinas, Aristotle, Augustine, Bacon, Bergson, Berkeley, Confucius, Croce, Descartes,
Dewey, Epictitus, Epicurus, Han Fei Tzu, Hegel, Hobbes, Hsun Tzu, Hume, James, Jaspers, Kant, Kierkegaard, Locke,
Machiavelli, Marx, Mencius, Mill, Montaigne, Montesquieu, Nietzsche, Plato, Reid, Ross, Rosseau, Santayana, Sartre,
Schopenhauer, Spencer, Spinoza, Lau Tzu, Chung Tzu, and Mo Tzu.
“As our students venture out into the 21st-century information superhighway, we must never allow them to forget the
difference between knowledge and wisdom. ...as educators seek bridges within an increasingly diverse society, the
international language of philosophy seems ever more significant. ...amid the innovations of student teaching programs
and the rhythmic swings of the pendulum, only one universal methodology remains intact which
crosses all disciplines—philosophical inquiry.” —Dr. Jerry Chris
Jerry Chris is an NBC Crystal Apple winner and has been chosen as both Orange County Creative Teacher of the Year and
California Teacher of the Year for Gifted Students.
4500 30 WAYS TO BRING PHILOSOPHY INTO EVERY CLASSROOM $20.00 Special Price: $15.00
CLASSICAL ETHICS IN THE MODERN CLASSROOM
by Dr. Jerry Chris
This up-to-date new book by award-winning teacher Dr. Jerry Chris explores the thoughts
of classical philosophers, applies them to modern scenarios, engages in Socratic Dialogue and
illustrates each debate with examples from novels and Shakespeare.
The chapters cover the big issues that have occupied the minds of the greatest philosophers since
antiquity and which still resonate with those who care about ethics and right behavior today:
• Motive vs. Consequence
• Absolutism vs. Relativism
• Egoism vs. Common Good
• Moderation vs. Extremism
• Acceptance of Fate vs. Changing Fate
Dr. Chris, in the light of classical philosophy, discusses guideposts that teenagers can use in modern situations. The reallife Socratic Seminar examples are intended to promote critical thinking, and the references to classical literature provide
the basis for interdisciplinary connections between philosophy and literature to help deep-thinking students toward further
reading of the classics.
“The acceptance of one major premise is necessary for complete enjoyment of this book. It is not
a new premise. In fact, it was made famous by Plato, although the ancient Chinese, such as Confucius,
had long been promoting it. The premise is fairly simple: good citizens and correct behavior are the
direct result of knowledge and understanding.” —Dr. Jerry Chris
3956 CLASSICAL ETHICS IN THE MODERN CLASSROOM $30.00 Special Price: $15.00
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PHILOSOPHY
PHILOSOPHY FOR YOUNG THINKERS
by Dr. Jerry Chris
A K-12 Curriculum to enable you to teach philosophy and ethics and the foundation
volume for the whole Philosophy For Young Thinkers program. It is thought provoking,
meaningful, controversial and exciting. It overviews the major philosophical schools of
thought and explanations of the conceptual schemes utilized in ethical and rational problem
solving. It presents more than 20 intensive Philosophical Problem Sheets to involve the
student in current issues of critical, moral and ethical concern: the ethics of science and
medicine; religion, world hunger, technology and automation, urban planning, the military,
our environment. Students must utilize critical, analytic and creative thinking skills, and
divergent approaches to philosophy.
This volume may be used alone or as a superb background for any grade level or levels
within the program series. It is not intended as a replacement for any of the grade-specific instructor’s manuals.
Definition of Terms and Bibliography included. This is the Second and Revised Edition of a classic teaching
resource.
0751 PHILOSOPHY FOR YOUNG THINKERS $19.99 Special Price: $15.00
FINDING HER WAY
“A novel that will illuminate Thoreau, Walden Pond, Margaret Fuller, and the Transcendentalists for secondary students.”
— KLIATT Magazine By Anne Faigen
by Anne Faigen
Concord, Massachusetts, 1845. Fifteen-year-old Rachel is neglecting her farm chores in
order to sketch and draw. To make money for her art supplies, she will raise hens for their
eggs. But, a drought forces her father to ask for that money for the farm. Understanding his
need, but miserable when he calls her life’s ambition to draw a “little hobby,” Rachel runs to
Walden Pond to recover. There, she is befriended by Henry David Thoreau, who is living “an
experiment” in Walden Woods.
During a subsequent visit to Thoreau, she meets Margaret Fuller, author, editor of The
Transcendentalist Journal, reporter and America’s first female foreign correspondent. Fuller
takes samples of Rachel’s art with her to New York for an opinion about a teacher. Gino
Riccardi agrees to instruct Rachel by mail, until she can come to New York.
Rachel’s family visits her brother in Boston, and, not allowed into the factory, she contents herself with sketching
a young boy warming himself by the fire in the courtyard. She is shocked by the number of children working here.
Rachel’s talent reaches new highs with the sketch of the young Simon, and Sr. Riccardi notifies her that she must
now come to New York for instruction. Rachel wants Thoreau to intercede with Riccardi to keep her lessons
coming by mail, but Thoreau instead tells her about his friends, the Emersons, in New York, who have room for
her (William is Ralph Waldo’s brother). Their conversation is interrupted by shouts of Ben falling into frozen
Walden Pond while ice fishing. Thoreau rushes out to save him.
With the family now in debt to Thoreau for their son’s life, he accepts their thanks in terms of Rachel’s being
allowed to study art in New York, and the portrait of Simon for his walls.
In the spring, Rachel says good-bye to Thoreau and her beloved woods; he too prepares to leave Walden.
Throughout the novel, the author is careful to contrast for the reader the difference between commonly accepted
attitudes and expectations and those of the Transcendentalists, who judge people in defiance of conventional
expectations.
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4055 FINDING HER WAY $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
4055S Class sets of 10 or more: $7.00 each
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AESOP’S FABLES:MY BOOK ABOUT READING, WRITING,
AND THINKING VOLUMES I-IV
by Dr. Kathryn T. Hegeman
The series emphasizes reading, writing, thinking, speaking, values, decision making, parts of speech, grammar, visual
interpretation, creative expression, and life skills. Designed for early reading, writing, and thinking, the Aesop’s Fables
program provides a year’s worth of enrichment. Each of the volumes contains eleven different fables. The reading level
increases from 2.1 in Volume I to 4.3 in Volume IV. Each fable covers four pages: one for illustration, one for the text of the
fable, and two for language arts activities. Every fable includes sentence writing, new vocabulary, and an opportunity to
color. The laminated books measure 8.5" x 11" and are bound on the short side so they are easy for young readers to use.
AESOP’S FABLES: MY BOOK ABOUT READING, WRITING, AND THINKING VOLUME I
The Goose with the Golden Eggs The Two Frogs The Bald Man & the Fly The Boy & the Filberts The Old Man & His Sons The Dog & the Shadow The Boy Who Went Swimming The Frog & the Ox The Travelers & the Bear The Lion, the Fox, & the Beasts The Miser & His Gold Nouns
Verbs
Nouns & Verbs, Drawing
Design, Labels, Capitals
Concern for Others, Synonyms
Opposites, Prediction, Drawing
Signs, Safety Rules
Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives
Visualization, Adjectives
Paragraph, Story
Alphabetizing, Dictionary Usage
0514 AESOP’S FABLES, VOL. I $9.99 Special Price: $5.99 (Class sets: 10 or more: $5.00 each. Order code: 0514S)
AESOP’S FABLES: MY BOOK ABOUT READING, WRITING, AND THINKING VOLUME II
The Ass in the Lion’s Skin Sentence Structure, Story Visualization
The Fox & the Lion Questioning
The Gardener & His Dog Evaluation, Lists
The Ant & the Dove Problem Solving, Letter Writing
The Wolf & the Goat Play Writing, Story Visualization
The Town Mouse & the Country Mouse Letter Writing
The Fox & the Cat Prepositions
The Man & the Wood Categorizing, Story Writing, Visualization
The Shepherd Boy & the Wolf Sequencing, Punctuation
The Frogs that Desired a King Description, Alphabetizing, Encyclopedia Usage
The Fox & the Grapes Creative Problem Solving, Story Writing, Days of the Week
0522 AESOP’S FABLES, VOL. II $9.99 Special Price: $5.99 (Class sets: 10 or more: $5.00 each. Order code: 0522S)
AESOP’S FABLES: MY BOOK ABOUT READING, WRITING, AND THINKING VOLUME III
Hercules & the Wagoner The Lion & the Mouse The Tortoise & the Hare The Mice in Council The Woodsman & the Serpent The Peacock & Juno The Crow & the Pitcher The Fox, the Rooster, & the Dog The Fox & the Crow The Tree & the Reed Androcles & the Lion Directions, Possessive Apostrophes
Rewriting Sentences, Identifying Nouns, Verbs, Questions
Compound Words
Adjectives, Rhymes, Poetry
Storytelling with Moral, Titles
Description, Story Writing
Writing Names, Initials
Puppet Show, Announcement Writing
Evaluation
Listening & Talking
Questions & Answers
0530 AESOP’S FABLES, VOL. III $9.99 Special Price: $5.99 (Class sets: 10 or more: $5.00 each. Order code: 0530S)
AESOP’S FABLES: MY BOOK ABOUT READING, WRITING, AND THINKING VOLUME IV
The Two Crabs The Rooster & the Pearl Mercury & the Woodman Mercury & the Sculptor The Lioness Jupiter, Neptune, Minerva, & Momus The Ant & the Grasshopper The Farmer & the Nightingale The Milkmaid & Her Pail The Hares & the Frogs The Porcupine & the Snakes Visual Imagery, Homonyms
Evaluation, Adverbs
Pronouns, Classification
Characterization, Writing Advertisements
Written Invitation, Spelling
Series with Commas
Contractions, Apostrophes, Visualizing a Setting
Classification, Sensory Perceptions
List Making, Story Writing
Calendars, Alphabetizing, Reference Works
Creative Problem Solving, Directions
0549 AESOP’S FABLES, VOL. IV $9.99 Special Price: $5.99 (Class sets: 10 or more: $5.00 each. Order code: 0549S)
0503 AESOP’S FABLES, SET OF FOUR VOLUMES $20.00
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SUPPOSE THE WOLF WERE AN OCTOPUS:
A GUIDE TO CREATIVE QUESTIONING FOR ELEMENTARY & SECONDARY LITERATURE
by Myrna Kemnitz
REVISED AND EXPANDED TO COVER GRADES
K–8 IN FOUR VOLUMES:
• Volume 1: Grades K to 2
• Volume 3: Grades 5 to 6
Revised and expanded to four volumes, this series has become an
essential guide and resource for teachers of literature Grades K-7
One of the great contributions to the discipline of gifted education
and to the education of all children.
Designed to develop critical and creative thinking through elementary-grade literature.
Based on Bloom’s Taxonomy with multiple questions for each level.
A long-time favorite in gifted education and used widely in the regular classroom. Covers fiction and non-fiction, around 50 stories in
each volume, with a brief synopsis before the questions.
Each book explores the rationale for creative questioning in the teaching of literature and overviews Bloom’s Taxonomy. Based on the
Taxonomy’s six levels: Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis, and Evaluation, there are multiple questions for
each level.
SUPPOSE THE WOLF WERE AN OCTOPUS K to 2 (ORDER # 6339 $14.99 SPECIAL PRICE $12.99)
The Five Chinese Brothers
The Three Billy Goats Gruff
Stone Soup
Cinderella
The Three Wishes
The Story of Babar the Little Elephant
Helga’s Dowry: A Troll Love Story
Red Riding Hood
Puss in Boots
Six Foolish Fishermen
Goldilocks and the Three Bears
The Three Little Pigs
Jack and the Beanstalk
Henny Penny
Rumpelstiltskin
The Sleeping Beauty
Hansel and Gretel
The Emperor’s New Clothes
A Birthday for Frances
The Pied Piper of Hamelin
The Story of Ferdinand
The Fisherman and His Wife
Frog and Toad Together
Arrow to the Sun
The Tooth Fairy Is Broke!
Amelia Bedelia
Town Mouse, Country Mouse
The Blind Men and the Elephant
Curious GeorgeStar Boy
Sylvester and the Magic Pebble
What Mary Jo Shared
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible,
No Good,Very Bad Day
Ramona the Brave
“B” Is for Betsy
Busybody Nora
Junie B. Jones Is a Beauty Shop Guy
Section Two: Children’s Literature
Questions
Marvin Redpost #4: Alone in His
Teacher’s House
Freckle Juice
It’s So Nice to Have a Wolf Around
the House
The Cobble Street Cousins #4: Some
Good News
Mary Marony and the Chocolate
Surprise
Magic Tree House #20: Dingoes at
Dinnertime
Martha Ann and the Mother Store
Pee Wee Scouts #34: Planet Pee Wee
Get the Picture, Jenny Archer?
The Loudest Noise in the World
The Island of the Skog
Dooly and the Snortsnoot
The Adventures of the Bailey School
Kids #24:Dragons Don’t Cook Pizza
Bunnicula Strikes Again!
Eli
Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s
Ears
SUPPOSE THE WOLF WERE AN OCTOPUS 3 to 4 (ORDER # 6355 $14.99 SPECIAL PRICE $12.99)
Mr. Popper’s Penguins
Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing
Superfudge
Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great
The Computer Nut
The Eerie Canal
The Pinballs
The TV Kid
The Mystery of Misty
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
George’s Marvelous Medicine
James and the Giant Peach
Help! I’m a Prisoner in the Library
Shining Star
Where a White Dog Smiles
McBroom Tells the Truth
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
My Country: My Lee Comes to
America
Max and Me and the Time Machine
See You Around, Sam!
The Purple Coat
Aldo Ice Cream
Class Clown
Just So Stories: The Elephant’s Child
Just So Stories: How the Camel Got
His Hump
My Friend in Africa
Pippi Longstocking
Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle’s Magic
Sarah, Plain and Tall
Amelia Bedelia Helps Out
Monday
The Cricket in Times Square
Blue Ribbons for Juliet
Secesh
Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of
the Midnight Visitor
Breaker at Dawn
All-of-a-Kind Family
Amelia’s Notebook
Charlotte’s Web
Stuart Little
The Velveteen Rabbit
Amber Brown Sees Red
Ben and Me: An Astonishing Life
of Benjamin Franklin by His Good
Mouse Amos
Island of the Blue Dolphins
White Fang
Sounder
Redwall
Freaky Friday
Blubber
Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret
The Kipton Chronicles #1: Kipton and
Gruff
Dragon Charmer
The Incredible Journey: A Tale of
Three Animals
The Summer of the Swans
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Harly Weaver and the Race Across
America
Danny, the Champion of the World
For the Love of Gold
There’s a Bat in Bunk Five
Jake’s the Name—Sixth Grade’s the
Game
The Black Stallion
Love, From the Fifth-Grade Celebrity
The Death of Old Man Hanson
A Girl Called Al
Make Me Disappear
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil
E. Frankweile
Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William
McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth
A Wrinkle in Time
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
Taking Control
Saratoga Captive
Trapped!
The Call of the Wild
Anastasia, Ask Your Analyst
Bridge to Terabithia
The Great Gilly Hopkins
Belly Up
The Westing Game
How to Eat Fried Worms
Count the Stars Through the Cracks
The Little Prince
Black Beauty
The Sign of the Beaver
The Pearl
The Cay
If I Touched an Eagle
The Inexperienced Ghost
Bottles of Eight and Pieces of Rum
Most Beautiful
The Ghost from the Schenectady
Massacre: A Haunting from the
Dutch Settlers
Hold On Tight
The Witch of Blackbird Pond
Then Again, Maybe I Won’t
River Rats
The Weaver’s Scar
Death Be Not Proud
The Diary of Anne Frank
The Outsiders
Lyddie
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s
Court
A Day No Pigs Would Die
The Scarlet Letter
The Slave Dancer
Ivanhoe
The Old Man and the Sea
Where the Red Fern Grows
Billy Budd
Rebecca
Legend of the North
The Count of Monte Cristo
Abe and the Wild River
Troubling a Star
The Tale of a Hero and the Song of
Her Sword
The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
The Key to Honor
Nadia of the Night Witches
Beyond the Yellow Star to America
We Have to Escape
Cassie’s War
Treasure Island
Going Solo
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of
Azkaban
The Journal of Jenny September
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
41
Charissa of the Overland
The Shot Not Heard Around the
World
Surviving Erebus: An Antarctic
Adventure
Unswept Graves
Strangers in Black
In Sherman’s Path
The Price of Command
Through Goya’s Eyes
The Lady or the Tiger
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SCIENCE
DR. DAVE’S TEACHING M ANUALS (WITH CDS)
HOW TO TEACH, INVOLVE, AND E XCITE CHILDREN IN SCIENCE
“Based on his years of experience as a classroom science teacher and now as a mentor and instructor to budding science teachers, Dr. Purvis has written
one of the most comprehensive, creative and useful manuals for teaching science it has been my pleasure to read. His devotion to constructivist
pedagogies and love of science as a way of knowing and understanding the world is evinced on every page. All science teachers, whether just beginning
their careers or seasoned educators, will derive great benefit from Dr. Purvis’s meticulous and innovative approach to a wide range of topics.”
—Marc A. Meyer, Ph.D., Associate Head of School, Brown School, Schenectady, New York
“Teaching science to a classroom of children can be the most wonderful and exciting experience. But knowledge is not enough for
success; what a teacher really needs to know is how to engage students in hands-on, inquiry-based science.”
—Dr. David Purvis
THE CELL
•
THE DIGESTIVE SYSTEM
CHEMISTRY
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ELECTRICIT Y
OUR SOLAR SYSTEM
PHASES OF M ATTER
THE OCEANS
by David Purvis, Ph.D.
Dr. Dave’s full-color, practical teaching manuals give teachers of grades 2-6:
• visual and eye-catching activities to impart simple scientific concepts
• safety, clean-up, and how-to-save money tips
• verbal jokes that appeal to children and help them remember
• experiments, projects, and artwork that enable children to discover and construct knowledge for themselves
• classroom-based advice on how to deal with potential disruptions and diversions
Dr. David Purvis is a university academic and a practicing classroom teacher.
7818
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The Cell
The Digestive System
Chemistry
Electricity
Our Solar System
Phases of Matter
The Oceans
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INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES
A BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO THE SOCRATIC SEMINAR
by Dr. Jerry Chris
Ideally, the dialogue that happens in a Socratic Seminar provides an equal
opportunity for all: the at-risk adolescent, an English Language Learner, or a
gifted prodigy—all have equal voice in the Seminar—a free-flowing interchange
where everyone’s contribution has value.
It is also, by active involvement towards understanding, the means to long-term
memorization of what has been learned. This enthusiastic and highly practical
book for teachers explains how the Socratic Seminar works and how to manage
one.
Chapters include: explanations of the difference between dialog and debate; the
rules of the Socratic Seminar; the basics of getting started and how to adapt
to different size classes; the seating arrangements; the art of asking questions;
evaluation sheets; follow-up writing and prospective topics.
This Guide is for all grade levels.
The author writes: “After thirty-seven years in the trenches, teaching the most gifted and the most reluctant
learners, I promise you that the Socratic Seminar works. I guarantee it will bring you personal satisfaction and
put smiles on the faces of your students. They will soon be begging for Seminar time. The Socratic Seminar
represents the future of education.”
4540 BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO THE SOCRATIC SEMINAR $14.99 Special Price 12.99
CONCEPT DE VELOPMENT
by Shelagh A. Gallagher
Dr. Gallagher provides a practical guide to implement the powerful concept
development techniques pioneered by Hilda Taba which she describes as
“paradigm-shifting.” It is a system that uses thoughtfully planned question
sequences and nuanced instruction to develop higher-order thinking.
The author writes in her introduction: “To my mind, Taba’s Instructional
materials should be integral to pre-service instruction, peer coaching groups,
and professional development. They are of enormous value to anyone interested
in refining their classroom practice.”
8609 CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT $30.00 Special Price: $25.00
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SPANISH ACTIVITY BOOKS
by Cari Skier
This collection of brightly colored books, some with music CDs, will help young children learn Spanish. Songs,
activities, counting, games, and recipes are included in each book. In keeping with the philosophy that all
children can learn a second language, the activities allow opportunities for success while providing practice and
reinforcement of skills.
Cari Skier is a teacher, writer, and illustrator who brings a joyful, fresh, and yet rigorous approach to early
language learning.
E XPLORING SPANISH THROUGH CULTURE
A collection of folk art projects, games, and simple recipes that offers a taste of Spanish and Latin
American traditions. Children respond with enthusiasm and excitement as they begin learning about
the culture.
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Make colorful figures like the whimsical traditional toys of Mexico, or an Aztec picture calendar, or
a dancing skeleton. A Guatemalan Worry Doll is fun to make, as is a poncho to wear. Gazpacho,
guacamole, tortillas, and fruit punch are easy recipes. The games range from simple spiral hopscotch
to the Mexican Hat Dance. Great fun.
Through research as well as extensive travel in Spain and Latin America, the author has gathered the
materials distilled here to make them accessible to children.
8137 EXPLORING SPANISH THROUGH CULTURE $15.00 Special Price: $10.00
¡FIESTA! A SPANISH COUNTING BOOK
A colorful and joyful counting book for fiesta time written and illustrated by the author, with an
accompanying CD of music performed by Miguel Lascarez and Francisco Hernandez Rojas.
8151 FIESTA! A SPANISH COUNTING BOOK $15.00 Special Price: $12.00
SILLY SONGS IN SPANISH
This is a delightful book and CD—a collection of twenty-four songs and sayings that introduce basic
Spanish vocabulary with the help of music, rhythm, and of course, silliness.
Children respond with excitement and laughter as they learn. By means of tunes, which are recognizable
and easily learned, children naturally embrace the language with ease and enjoyment. The illustrations
provide visual cues to the meaning of the songs. Fundamental understanding is enhanced with the
addition of movement, masks, and puppets.
Some of the songs are adaptations of familiar folk tunes, and others are original material.
8113 SILLY SONGS IN SPANISH $20.00 Special Price: $15.00
INTERACTIVE SPANISH: LESSONS FOR EARLY LANGUAGE LEARNING
This activity book (of 135 pages) is designed to enhance and supplement any Spanish language program.
Based on the knowledge that comprehensible input is essential to second-language acquisition, the
activities use visuals, manipulatives, games, and songs for hands-on learning. Such a variety of
approaches also responds to the need to appeal to all learning styles in a standards-based curriculum.
The book is organized thematically, with a number of activities in many areas most commonly found in
curricula for early language learners. What makes the book unique is that you are provided with several
reproducible pages that feature valuable visuals and labels to introduce reading. With the help of these
pages, your students will be able to create manipulatives that can be used to support communicative
activities.
Student directions are given in Spanish to allow you to use the language as the project is introduced and modeled.
8120 INTERACTIVE SPANISH: LESSONS FOR EARLY LANGUAGE LEARNING $25.00 Special Price: $15.00
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AFRIC AN-AMERIC AN HISTORY
AFRICAN-A MERICAN HISTORY
by Richard Beck
This is a vast yet concise history of the economic, political, social and military contributions of
African-Americans. From African roots to Civil Rights, Black Power and current movements, Mr.
Beck reclaims the experience that is seldom mentioned in mainstream history texts.
28 lessons and numerous illustrations: bill posters, advertisements, photographs, cartoons and maps.
Depending on the motivation and sophistication of the students, this history can be used at any grade
in middle or secondary school.
Contents:
Lesson 1: Slavery in the Old World
Lesson 2: The African Heritage
Lesson 3: West Africa: Background and Ghana
Lesson 4: West Africa: Mali and Songhay
Lesson 5: West African Culture
Lesson 6: From Africa to the Americas
Lesson 7: The Latin-American Experience
Lesson 8: The English Colonies
Lesson 9: Slavery and a New Nation Lesson 10:
Blacks in the West: 1800-1860
Lesson 11: King Cotton and Slavery: The South 1800-1860
Lesson 12: Slavery Defended and Opposed: The South 1800-1860
Lesson 13: Controlling Slaves and Free Blacks:
The South 1800-1860
Lesson 14: Blacks in the North: 1800-1860
Lesson 15: Fighting for Freedom and Equality:
The North 1800-1860
Lesson 16: Slavery Leads to War: 1820-1860
Lesson 17: The Civil War: 1861-1865
Lesson 18: Blacks During Reconstruction: 1865-1876
Lesson 19: The Western Frontier: 1865-1900
Lesson 20: Fight For Progress: Blacks After Reconstruction
Lesson 21: The Growth of Segregation: The South, 1876-1900
Lesson 22: Blacks Between Wars: 1898-1919
Lesson 23: The 1920’s: Reaction and Renaissance
Lesson 24: The New Deal: 1932-1940
Lesson 25: Blacks in War and Peace: 1941-1953
Lesson 26: The Civil Rights Revolution
Lesson 27: The Black Power Movement
Lesson 28: Black America Today - Into The Future
1528 AFRICAN-AMERICAN HISTORY STUDENT BOOK $15.00
1528S CLASS SETS: 10 OR MORE STUDENT BOOKS: $10.00 EACH
1536 AFRICAN-AMERICAN HISTORY STUDENT BOOK $10.00
AN ISSUE THIS NATION CANNOT IGNORE:
BARACK OBA M A’S SPEECH ON RACE
by Thomas Milton Kemnitz
Barack Obama’s speech on race, on the March 18, 2008 in Philadelphia, was not just a campaign
speech; its theme was an issue the nation cannot ignore and it is the contention of this book that the
speech is in the tradition of the great American statements of equality that began with the Declaration
of Independence and include Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address and Martin Luther King’s I have a Dream
speech.
Thomas Milton Kemnitz places the speech in its political and historical context, sees it as part of a
new national conversation about race, analyzes the six parts of the speech, and breaks down how
Obama conveys his meaning by analyzing his vocabulary, grammar, poetic devices and structure.
Obama describes the issue of anger and bitterness that has led to the present situation. He describes the common goals and
aspirations of white and black communities and the path along which Americans must travel to achieve unity and a better
future for all.
This edition is for use in schools and is particularly useful in gifted education. It provides insight not only to Obama as a
speechmaker but also to Obama’s approach to questions of race, to social and political conditions and problems and the way
forward for the nation. The speech is distinguished by its adult and nuanced approach to the topics he discussed and by its
respect for the intelligence of the voting public.
The speech was received mostly in silence by its original audience, as befitted its seriousness and complexity. Since then
the debate on this issue has been fast and furious on the Internet and in chat rooms. Dr. Kemnitz believes the speech will
resonate and be remembered for many years to come.
6483 AN ISSUE THIS NATION CANNOT IGNORE STUDENT BOOK $12.99
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GIFTEDNESS
OFF THE CHARTS: ASYNCHRONY AND THE GIFTED CHILD
by Christine S. Neville, Michael M. Piechowski, and Stephanie Tolan
The editors have brought together nineteen essays by renowned gifted education specialists (see
below for the full list) to produce this important new publication.
Off the Charts is an exploration of the effects of asynchronous development on gifted children
and adults. It contains sections on asynchrony and the individual, asynchrony and the family, and
asynchrony and learning, and chapters describe the nature of asynchrony, methods of dealing with
the challenges of asynchrony, and recommendations for adapting education in a variety of settings.
A bibliography on asynchronous development provides extensive further reading.
The contributors’ contention is that gifted education should be from a child-centered perspective,
rather than from a “product perspective” in which the emphasis is on achievement, competition,
and outer recognition. The child-centered approach concentrates on self-development and personal
growth and fosters interrelatedness and wholeness. It is an important resource for parents, teachers, counselors, and others
concerned with the optimal development of gifted to highly gifted individuals.
The book is dedicated to Annemarie Roeper (1918-2012), who before she died contributed a chapter. From the introduction:
“Unusual intelligence, when understood, accepted, supported, allowed, and even celebrated, can lead, as it did for Annemarie,
to a life experience of passion, accomplishment, service to the world, and deep personal meaning.”
CONTRIBUTORS:
Ellen D. Fiedler
Michele Kane
Christine S. Neville
Stephanie S. Tolan
Shelagh A. Gallagher
Kathi Kearney
Michael M. Piechowski
John D. Wasserman
Patricia Gatto-Walden
Deirdre V. Lovecky
Annemarie Roeper
Barbara Mitchell Hutton
Elizabeth A. Meckstroth
Linda Kreger Silverman
H3802 OFF THE CHARTS $30.00
“MELLOW OUT,” THE Y SAY. IF I ONLY COULD
INTENSITIES AND SENSITIVITIES OF THE YOUNG AND BRIGHT
by Michael M. Piechowski
Second, Revised Edition: This highly successful and valued book is for parents and teachers of
intense and sensitive young people and to serve the young people as a friendly mirror in which they
can recognize themselves for who they are.
About the First Edition: “Reading these pages is like a heart-to-heart conversation with gifted
youth. By letting them speak in their own voices, Michael Piechowski has afforded us the most honest
glimpse into the Heart and Soul of giftedness.”
—Annemarie Roeper, Founder of the Roeper School, author of
Educating Children for Life and My Life Experiences with Children
“It is like being introduced to my son for the first time.” —Parent of a gifted boy
“Your book is like striking gold for us! On the way to a movie, I was listening to you being interviewed on the radio. My two girls (ages 5 and 10)
were in the back chatting away. Suddenly, my ten-year-old screamed, ‘Mom! He’s talking about me! How does he know me?!’ I explained you
don’t know her. She then said, ‘That’s how I feel. That’s what goes on in my head too!’” —Kathy Bero, Watertown, Wisconsin
“For years, I have waited for Michael Piechowski to put together the full picture of what it means to be gifted. In this volume...he does just that. A
book of magnificent proportions—it is erudite, down-to-earth, and written with sensitivity that will cause readers to recognize in themselves
the inner qualities of giftedness.” —James R. Delisle, Ph.D., author of Gifted Children Speak Out, Guiding the Social and
Emotional Development of Gifted Youth, and Gifted Kids’ Survival Guide
“This book is Michael Piechowski’s long-awaited magnum opus on emotional intelligence. It resonates with the real voices of gifted adolescents who speak
with insight and passion about the realities of their emotional lives.” —Jane Piirto, Ph.D., author of Understanding Creativity,
“My Teeming Brain:” Understanding Creative Writers, and Talented Children and Adults
4915 “MELLOW OUT,” THEY SAY. IF I ONLY COULD $30.00
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Special Price $25.00
GIFTEDNESS
RECLAIMING THE LIVES OF GIFTED GIRLS AND WOMEN
by Dr. Joan Franklin Smutny
Dr. Smutny writes about the special challenges and needs of gifted females, drawing both
on academic research and on the life experiences of individuals. This is an inspiring
and practical guide, with activities and strategies to strengthen the inner life of girls,
“enabling them the freedom to be themselves.”
First Dr. Smutny examines the challenges, and then she explores how teachers and parents
can better prepare girls for future growth and development. Both gender bias and societal
expectations mean that so often, women give up on their road to fulfillment to serve the
needs of others. She writes, “I have noticed repeatedly the struggle of gifted girls and
young women teetering between different and often conflicting influences.” The book
emphasizes the importance of self-knowledge, self-understanding, and self-acceptance
as pillars for building a strong foundation for gifted girls and women to lead progressive
and fulfilling lives.
Dr. Smutny is founder and director of the Center for Gifted, a partner of National-Louis University, Evanston,
Illinois, and she is a winner of the NAGC Distinguished Service Award for outstanding contribution to the field
of education. She directs programs for gifted children every year.
3604 RECLAIMING THE LIVES OF GIFTED GIRLS AND WOMEN $19.99 Special Price: $12.99
MANIFESTO OF THE GIFTED GIRL
by Dr. Joan Franklin Smutny
“This book touched my heart.” —Gabrielle, age 9
“A small gem...an instant classic in the field.” —Professor Stephen T. Schroth
“I highly recommend this book for use in the gifted classroom.” —Dr. Maurice D. Fisher
Manifesto of the Gifted Girl reaches out to girls and women in all walks of life and
in every kind of circumstance. It strengthens, inspires, and counsels those who are
struggling to find their place in school and society, as well as those who are launching
out on their own for the first time. Framed with the voices of girls themselves, the book
is conversational in style and written so that both girls and young women, together with
their advocates (parents, older friends, mentors), can gain strength and hope from the
messages contained within it. It is an important book for understanding and supporting
gifted girls, and it is heavily illustrated with images of women and girls in art and history.
3642 MANIFESTO OF THE GIFTED GIRL $10.00 Special Price: $6.00
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GIFTEDNESS
GEMINI: GIFTED EDUCATION M ANUAL FOR
INDIVIDUALIZING NETWORKS OF INSTRUCTION
by Dr. Christine L. Lewis, Sheila M. Buckley, and Cathy Sarvat
This is a wonderful resource for teaching exceptional children. Gemini relates thinking to behavior,
and it enables teachers to understand both good and bad behaviors, providing a framework in which to
understand student’s strengths and weaknesses to the thinking skills that lie behind them.
Gemini provides a structure for understanding a student’s thinking in terms of four cognitive and two
affective structures. The cognitive areas are Independent Study, Critical Thinking, Creativity, and
Communication; the affective areas are Personal Growth and Motivational Development. These areas
are divided into 23 networks, which are the framework for 449 behaviors.
The authors have organized gifted education into networks of instruction that provide a useful tool. In the cognitive domain,
the Independent Study section has three areas: Research, Problem-Solving, and Organization. The Critical Thinking
area includes Analysis, Synthesis, and Evaluation. The Creativity section includes Fluency, Flexibility, Originality, and
Elaboration. The Communication section is divided into Verbal, Non-Verbal, Interpretive, Interpersonal, and Listening.
The affective domain includes Personal Growth, with Coping with Failure, Decision-Making, Self-Concept, and Critical
Acceptance. Motivational Development includes Curiosity, Imagination, Risk Taking, and Complexity.
In each of these 15 cognitive areas and eight affective areas, the authors have provided behaviors that students will show
to demonstrate their comfort and their abilities. These 449 behaviors provide objectives that every educator should be
attempting to develop.
Individualization: The structure provided by Gemini enables teachers and administrators to assess the particular characteristics
of a student. On that basis, individual needs can be identified, and programs can be developed to meet them.
Gemini is used by coordinators, curriculum directors, teachers, and authors for the development of curriculum for gifted
students. It is a wonderful tool for assessing the thinking abilities and progress of each and every gifted child.
0158 GEMINI $15.00
Buy Gemini with Pegasus at a combined price of $25.00 (code: 0220).
PEGASUS: PROVIDING ENRICHMENT FOR THE GIFTED:
ADAPTING SELECTED UNITS OF STUDY
by Dr. Christine L. Lewis, Sheila M. Buckley, and Marjorie A. Cantor
P egasus is the practical companion book to Gemini: Gifted Education Manual for
Individualizing Networks of Instruction. It provides six lesson units with strategies to develop
the behavioral objectives listed in Gemini:
1. Independent study skills are developed by a 41-lesson unit on oceans.
2. Critical thinking skills are taught in a 37-lesson unit on revolution.
3. Creativity is fostered in a 38-lesson unit on clothing and dress.
4. Communication skills are developed in a 56-lesson unit on humor.
5. Personal growth skills are enhanced in a 38-lesson unit on origins.
6. Motivational development is fostered by a 52-lesson unit on the future.
Pegasus provides an excellent example for teachers in how to design instruction to develop the behaviors and
skills you want in your students.
0174 PEGASUS $15.00
Buy Pegasus with Gemini at a combined price of $25.00 (code: 0220).
48
GIFTEDNESS
NORM ALIZING DATA FOR IDENTIFICATION OF GIFTED STUDENTS
by Sharon Ryan
This is a new, significant, and practical contribution to gifted education: whether you’re
evaluating an existing gifted education program, initiating a new gifted program, or
simply learning about the identification process.
The book outlines problems inherent in gifted identification procedures, then gives easyto-understand, step-by-step instructions for implementing an alternative identification
matrix. Included is a CD-ROM into which gifted coordinators can enter student test
scores and begin using the method immediately.
Normalizing Data for Identification of Gifted Students simplifies the identification
process and supports educators who are faced with the difficulty of including multiple
test cycles and a variety of assessment instruments in their gifted identification procedures. It is also useful for
school districts interested in disaggregating their student data, which is helpful when identifying under-served
gifted populations. This is a valuable new resource that is being welcomed by teachers and administrators.
A native of Chicago, Sharon Ryan graduated from DePaul University with a B.S. in Elementary Education and
an M.B.A. She also holds a M.A. from Northeastern Illinois University in Gifted Education. Her teaching
experience ranges from the primary grades to the college level in both public and private schools. Currently the
gifted coordinator in a Chicago suburban school district, she is a regular participant in the parent speaker series
at Northwestern University’s Center for Talent Development, and has also been a speaker at both the Illinois and
national gifted conferences.
7862 NORMALIZING DATA FOR IDENTIFICATION OF GIFTED STUDENTS $40.00 Special Price $30.00
EDUC ATING CHILDREN FOR LIFE
by Annemarie Roeper
This was Annemarie Roeper’s first book in which she set out her philosophy of education
and the principles behind the Roeper School for Gifted Students which she and her husband
founded.
Roeper died in 2012 and this new edition has an introductory tribute from The Columbus
Group.
This is a beautiful and compelling statement of the philosophy of education she spent her
lifetime achieving.
For Annemarie Roeper, the child’s Self is paramount. She proposes a Self-Actualization
Interdependence Model to structure the education of children. She argues that what is wrong
with traditional education is that the weight of the entire system is brought to bear on making the child conform
to the system whereas what works is an organization which helps the child’s Self develop. Such an organization
must be total, she says, and must include the ways in which all the people in the educational institution relate
to one another. She calls for a cooperative, interdependent structure where consultation and discussion are key.
Cooperation between the children is fostered by the administration and the teachers in her ideal educational
setting. The children are taught to respect the Self of each child. She sketches the role of the administrator, the
relationships between administration and teachers, and the role of the teacher in the SAI model. She discusses
curriculum and rules and behavioral attitudes. She includes a discussion of the Roeper City and Country School
experience.
This is an exquisite statement of what education could and should be.
1987 EDUCATING CHILDREN FOR LIFE $14.99 Special Price $12.99
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HISTORIC AL NOVELS
TAKING CONTROL
By Ann Love
Julian, a schoolboy on a trip to a museum, meets Mr. Callisthenes, who offers to teach
him about Alexander the Great—a hero who is nothing more than a name to most
modern children. They are to go back in time to visit Alexander at various points in
his life.
Novel Type
History,
Action, Adventure
Primary Audience
Boys/Girls
In the first episode, Alexander shows his father, King Philip, that he understands horses
better than his elders. In the second vignette, Philip is assassinated, and Alexander
becomes ruler. Julian witnesses Alexander going to Troy, honoring Achilles, and
making his claim as Achilles’s successor. Julian is at the Battle of Issus when
Alexander defeats Darius, King of the Persians, and begins to subdue the Persian
Empire. Julian comments on the taking of Tyre and the slaughter. He sees Alexander
going to consult the Oracle of Ammon in Siwa, and he and his sister Melanie are
present when Darius is killed, when Alexander decides to return to Macedonia, and
when he dies.
This is vivid history!
9988 TAKING CONTROL (157 pp.) $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
Interest Level
8-12 yrs
TINYACHA’S QUEST
By Thomas O. Jones
This is a retelling of ancient American folklore of the native Wallas Indians, long
before the Spanish came to Peru. They inhabited western Peru centuries before even
the Inca culture rose to preeminence.
A fantastic adventure, it is the tale of Tinyacha, a drummer boy in his early teens,
and it is set at the time of the festival honoring Wallala, the chief god. Tinyacha has
his eye on Chinita, who has been chosen queen of the spring festival. During the
ceremony, Chinita disappears, and this sets Tinyacha on a quest where few Wallas
have ever gone—into the high Andes. Tinyacha has to outwit the cunning, fierce shebear and her spoiled son to save his life and that of Chinita. A condor, frogs, and a
hummingbird are all caught up in the tense drama before he wins his sweetheart. The
story is based on the author’s scholarship, but the tale is told in an engaging way to
delight young readers.
Novel Type
Folklore, Legends
Thomas O. Jones is also the author of Lord of the Geats, a vivid retelling of the
ancient Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf.
7758 TINYACHA’S QUEST $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
Primary Audience
Boys/Girls
Interest Level
10 yrs & up
RFWP.COM
50
HISTORIC AL NOVELS
CRUSADERS
By Gary Robert Muschla
France, 1095. Raised in a monastery, sixteen-year-old Robert is not sure if he wants to
commit his life to God or to be a knight. His abbot hopes that at Clermont, where Pope
Urban II will call upon Christians to liberate the Holy Land from the Muslim Turks, Robert
will declare himself for God’s army. At the Council, Robert meets the Count of Sarvaux and
his lovely daughter Eleanor. Robert vows to liberate Jerusalem, joins with Count Edgard’s
group, and trains for war with them. Ferdinand, a hot-tempered knight, is Robert’s rival
for Eleanor, but it is Robert who saves her from a wild boar and then from the drunken
Ferdinand.
Four months later, Edgard’s party journeys to Cologne to join thousands of warriors and
pilgrims under Peter the Hermit, who will lead them to the Holy Land. Battles and killings
along the way prompt Robert and Eleanor to question their feelings about God and about
each other. After reaching Constantinople, they sail across the Bosporus to Anatolia. In the
Dracon Valley, their army is destroyed, but not before Edgard orders Robert to retreat and
save Eleanor, who is back at the Christian camp. Eleanor misinterprets Robert’s return as
meaning he left her father to die in order to save her.
Novel Type
History,
Political/Social
Relationships
Primary Audience
Boys/Girls
Interest Level
14 yrs & up
In their retreat, Robert and Eleanor come upon a merchant being attacked. His caravan
has been destroyed. Robert saves him. Thankful, and realizing that Robert’s abilities in
French and Greek are compatible with his plans to expand business into the West, Solomon insists that Robert
and Eleanor stay with him and his daughter, Ruth, in Constantinople. Wrestling with her guilt about being alive,
Eleanor now believes she has lost Robert to Ruth and vows that she will return to France alone. As soon as Robert
leaves on a business trip to Antioch, Ruth sets Eleanor straight.
Robert knows he will now keep his vow to free Jerusalem, but he must first make sure that Eleanor has departed
for France. He finds her waiting for him in Constantinople, and they both determine to rejoin the crusade. In the
final terrible battle for Jerusalem, while Christian knights slaughter the inhabitants, Robert leads people to safety.
Robert and Eleanor realize that their love is God’s sign. They return to Constantinople to begin anew together.
4918 CRUSADERS $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
THE SWORD AND THE CROSS
By Gary Robert Muschla
At seventeen, Rodric becomes the young Count of Valenta when his parents are killed by the
vile Ervig, Lord of Aleveso.
In 975, Valenta was on the northern edge of the Muslim penetration into the Christian-held
lands in Spain. Rodric has to deal with the Moors to the south, as well as Ervig’s aggression
on his flank. Ervig wants to become the preeminent lord among the Christians.
This is an exciting novel of the tensions between Christians and Moors, as well as among the
weaker Christian lords. The author reveals the multiple layers of cooperation, competition,
benevolence, hostility, and savagery among the various factions that lived in Spain at the
end of the first millenium. The book is a complex and gripping introduction to a world that
is generally inaccessible to young people today.
4726 SWORD AND CROSS $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
Novel Type
Political/Social
Relationships
Primary Audience
Boys/Girls
Interest Level
14 yrs & up
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HISTORIC AL NOVELS
JULIETTA
by Myra Saturen
Troyes, France, 1283. Among medieval physicians, a courageous few were women. They
faced popular prejudice and furious opposition to their participation in the medical field. Yet
fourteen-year-old Julietta’s dream had always been to follow in the footsteps of her herbalist
mother and the tradition of healing.
Novel Type
Medieval History, Medicine,
Jewish History,
Women’s Rights
Primary Audience
Girls
Interest Level
12 yrs & up
Homeless after the expulsion of Jews from her village and removed to the city of Troyes for
safety, Julietta is separated from her mother to become a ward of master physician Brion.
Female and therefore banned from seeking knowledge, Julietta seeks solace in restoring Brion’s
tangled, weed-filled garden. How unlike her mother’s it is! Mother’s was filled with healing
herbs and color. With each herb Julietta plants, she consults her mother’s herbal notebook and
discovers the herb’s ability to heal. Filled with compassion for the sick and suffering, naturally
intelligent Julietta learns by patience and discovery. She works with stems, leaves, berries, and
flowers. She begins to create remedies. She yearns to be allowed into Master Brion’s blue-tiled
special study room. She yearns to learn, to apprentice.
Spirited, compassionate, and inquisitive, soon Julietta must confront the usual anti-feminist
obstacles and more—a skeptical mentor, a jealous rival, and her own self-doubt—to achieve
her dream of becoming a doctor.
The novel offers young readers a glimpse of a fascinating but obscure era in Jewish history,
the Middle Ages, with its customs, ethos, and folk beliefs. It also explores a little-known facet of medieval life—the
daring participation of women in the field of medicine. In so doing, the story highlights women’s historical journey
from herbalists to doctors’ assistants to physicians in their own right.
5388 JULIETTA $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
TROUBLE AT THE SCRIPTORIUM
by Anne E. Johnson
“A suspenseful novel of life-or-death intrigue, Trouble at the Scriptorium keeps the reader hooked until the very end!”
—Midwest Book Review, Children’s BookWatch
Harley, the jester’s son, lives in a castle in medieval England. He admires the Lady Margaret,
with whom he was raised. But now the difference in their birth and rank means she hardly
speaks to him—until they find a common purpose in deciphering a coded message in an
illustrated chant book. Then they find out the truth behind the appointment of the strange new
head of the scriptorium.
Novel Type
Music, Mystery,
Medieval England
Primary Audience
Boys/Girls
Interest Level
10 yrs & up
Jewels have been stolen. Harley is attacked. With a plot that thickens on every page, the story
takes us right into the life of the castle and the nearby monastery. It is a world of feasts and
festivals, but also of greed and misdoings and dangers that lurk outside the castle walls. A
unique aspect of this enthralling book is the thread of Gregorian chant that is at the heart of the
secret message.
Anne E. Johnson has a Master’s degree in music theory and history and taught music history for
fifteen years at Mannes College, The New School for Music in New York City. She is now a
full-time writer. She says: “I like to present music history in engaging storytelling. That’s what
I am trying to do with Trouble at the Scriptorium—to take the arcane topic of Gregorian chant
and weave it into a mystery and adventure.”
The support website for this book has background notes, a video of Psalm 50 being sung, and a copy of a thirteenthcentury Gregorian chant book similar to the one described in the novel.
3927 TROUBLE AT THE SCRIPTORIUM $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
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HISTORIC AL NOVELS
TALES FROM 1492
by Mary Ann Whittier
If you were emailed reports from around the world in 1492, this book might be their compilation.
Presented in a week-to-week diary format, a global view of this pivotal year and its politics, art,
and discoveries takes shape as the reader meets famous people and some fictional characters
in accurate surroundings. Many of the historical characters should be familiar: Michelangelo,
Isabella of Spain, Montezuma the Aztec, Ivan the Great, Lucretia Borgia, Martin Luther, and
Albrech Durer. Others are less well known: the Inca Huaya Capac, the Bantu king Mani
Kongo, the Spanish sailor Martin Pinzon, and the Ottoman Sultan Bayazid II, but all are
important to the story.
This is not an Anglo-centric view of events in 1492 but a global adventure that includes China
and Japan—where Columbus thought he was headed—the Americas he found, the diverse
Europe and Moslem worlds, Africa, and even Hawaii and Australia. It is a multi-cultural
approach to history that emphasizes art and literature. Cultural pluralism is particularly
reflected in religious holidays and cultural observances, arts, crafts, and everyday life around
the world.
This book is an exciting chronicle of 1492, the year the Old World met the New World.
Novel Type
History/Biography
Primary Audience
Boys/Girls
Interest Level
12 yrs & up
9805 TALES FROM 1492 $14.99 Special Price: $7.99
THE GHOST FROM THE SCHENECTADY M ASSACRE
by Jack Reber
It is the first day of school, and fifth grader Marsh Mayo has secretly taken his pet white
mouse to school, but it has escaped through a hole in his pocket. Fortunately, there is an early
dismissal, and Marsh is able to walk the short distance from his home back to school and, with
the permission of the janitor, get into his classroom to look for “something he left behind.”
While Marsh is in the process of catching his mouse, a sudden chill and a smoky odor fill the
room—a ghost is present! Marsh is thrilled that the rumor of Stockade Elementary School being
haunted is true. He has always been interested in ghosts, and it doesn’t take him long to figure
out the “who,” “what,” “when,” and “why” of this one. Unceremoniously, he touches a part of
the ghost’s aura and is transported by the ghost, inadvertently, into its time and dimension. The
ghost is the minister of Schenectady, Dominie Perrtus Tesschenmaeker, who cannot rest until
he finds his Liturgy and conducts the Service for the Dead for his massacred congregation. The
dominie’s body is also Mayo’s portal back to the present.
Novel Type
History,
Action, Adventure
Coincidentally, Mayo’s class is studying the Schenectady Massacre. Very quickly, Mayo is able
Primary Audience
Boys/Girls
to involve two classmates, Albert the brain and John the bully, in the quest for the Liturgy, and
Interest Level
author Jack Reber is into a double storyline that entertains and teaches an action-packed history
9-12 yrs
lesson. While the class studies the textbook version, Mayo, Albert, John, Casper the mouse, and
the reader are interactive witnesses to the activities on both sides of the realities of February 8, 1690, the day when the
French and their American Indian allies attacked the Dutch settlement. Through the typically modern boys, the reader
is involved in the historical moment, sharing in the lifestyle of the period and the horror of the massacre. The boys do
find the Liturgy, now displayed as an artifact in their church. The indentifier tag says that it is open to the Service for
the Dead. A copy machine is used to duplicate the pages, and the boys get them to the ghost.
Jack Reber is also the author of The Eerie Canal, a historical time travel novel.
5477 SCHENECTADY MASSACRE $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
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RUNAWAY WILL
by Linda C. Fisher
“…an entertaining and quick-paced read….” —Mollie Water, English instructor
From the moment sixteen-year-old Will Shakespeare runs away from home, his goal is to avoid
danger. But fate ignores Will’s plan. “You’re a handsome boy,” Volka, the old Gypsy queen,
tells him. “With the right clothes, you’ll fit in with us.” Fit in? With these fearsome Gypsies?
With their whips and knives and bears? Never! Then again, when you’re on the run, hiding from
authorities, home is where you find it.
How and why did William Shakespeare go to London from Stratford? How and where did he
first learn to write plays? When did he first fall in love? Runaway Will has some highly original
answers while transporting us to an adventure among the sometimes-violent but also romantic
Gypsies in Elizabethan England.
Novel Type
Historical Adventure,
Elizabethan England,
Shakespeare
There are free enrichment study notes on the rfwp.com website for this book.
7208 RUNAWAY WILL $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
Primary Audience
Girls
Interest Level
12 yrs & up
A WILL OF HER OWN
by Linda C. Fisher
“When well done, historical novels are great fun. A Will of Her Own is great fun.… Sword play and word play abound,
and the novel moves with the precision and suppleness of a fencing match…. The plot turns on various cases of mistaken
identity and deliciously echoes The Comedy of Errors, a device which enhances the fun….Fisher has made her firstperson narrative convincing and believable.” —Professor Peter Huggins, Auburn University
This is a fascinating story of intrigue and murder set in murky sixteenth-century London, where a
young man named Luke becomes friends with a young actor/playwright named Will Shakespeare.
But Luke really is fifteen-year-old Lady Lucinda, a young woman who has disguised herself as
a boy so she can act in a play. Only males were allowed to act in plays in Elizabethan England.
As a boy, however, Lucy finds herself fighting off assailants and even getting involved in a duel.
Together, Luke and Will have a series of adventures that lead to uncovering and foiling a plot to
assassinate Queen Elizabeth.
Novel Type
Historical Adventure,
Elizabethan England,
Shakespeare
As Lady Lucinda, Lucy is a dutiful daughter of a lord, and no one suspects her double life. As she
explains to Will Shakespeare, it is her brother who has all the fun; she leads a sheltered, dull life.
This is an exciting and unusual story with great background detail.
6416 A WILL OF HER OWN $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
Primary Audience
Girls
Interest Level
12 yrs & up
ORDER BY FAX: (845) 726-3824 OR EMAIL: [email protected]
54
HISTORIC AL NOVELS
SAIL TO CARIBEE
by Michael Hagen
Queen Anne of England has declared war on France because the grandson of King Louis XIV has
become the king of Spain. Louis XIV aims to combine the power of the Spanish and the French
against the English and the Dutch to dominate the world’s trade.
1702, New York Colony. When Jack Slate, the famous pirate, arrives at Jemmy’s father’s farm to
ask him to join the crew of his ship as mate, thirteen-year-old Jemmy is part of his father’s bargain.
The men have sailed together before, and now Slate is a commissioned privateer sailing under the
English flag to plunder French and Spanish ships. Jemmy’s father has the sea in his blood but does
not want to leave his son on the farm alone. Jemmy, about the same height as his father, looks to be
sixteen or seventeen, wants to be a sailor, speaks and writes both English and Dutch, and is excellent
with arithmetic.
Through Jemmy’s eyes, we see the larger details of the ship and unique crew, as well as the smaller
details important to young adult readers. The decks, the rigging, the maneuvering at sea, the
weaponry, the food, and all of the things that were a matter of course during a day at sea are new
to Jemmy, and important. So is the whole concept of privateering and the Articles of Contract,
including payment percentages, which are the rules of the voyage. The chase and capture of a
French ship gives him his first knowledge of the real consequences of battle.
Novel Type
History, Action, Adventure
Primary Audience
Boys
Interest Level
11-13 yrs
The action-filled novel is capped by the capture of the Butcher, a Spanish pirate who has been harassing English shipping
in the Windward Islands. And there is a surprise revelation that Captain Slate is really from a British noble family and must
now succeed his deceased father as earl.
Michael Hagen is the author of Klaus and The African Term,
4101 SAIL TO CARIBEE $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
BOTTLES OF EIGHT AND PIECES OF RUM
by Michele Torrey
When Kip fails to prepare an oral report for history and attempts to fake one on piracy at the end of
the class period, he manages to buy one night to produce a report for the next day. The only clues
he has about piracy are the stories he’s heard from his sickly old grandfather.
Now that Grandfather is nearing his end, he begs Kip to believe that he truly has lived the tales he
told. He has lived in two dimensions: one in the present, and one as an eighteenth-century pirate.
The key to returning to the past is in a chest in the attic. He beseeches Kip to make the trip to the
past and bring to the present the daughter he left behind many years ago. A family picture moves
Kip to believe the old man, and his curiosity takes over as he examines the wondrous items in the
chest in the attic. Within seconds of a bottle being in his hands, Kip is transported to a sea inhabited
by pirate ships and is swimming for his life.
Fished out of the sea by the crew of a pirate ship, Kip becomes one of them and learns the pirates’
code of behavior and business in detail. He swabs, serves, fights, and watches. But it is just after
he rescues Captain Dawes from drowning and administers CPR that he faces great jeopardy. He
discovers that Captain Dawes is a woman. She would kill to protect her secret.
Kip further discovers that Captain Dawes is his aunt, the daughter of his grandfather and the person
he went into the past to bring back. He cannot stop the punishment the crew metes out to him and
Captain Dawes, but both finally make it back to the present. And what a show on piracy he presents
to his class!
Novel Type
Primary Audience
Boys/Girls
Interest Level
9-12 yrs
3210 BOTTLES OF EIGHT AND PIECES OF RUM $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
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THE SHOT NOT HEARD AROUND THE WORLD
by Charlie Damitz
Young Jeremy has hunted rabbits and squirrels many times with his father in the woods near their
farm. He is a good marksman with his musket. On April 19, 1775, he is one of those alerted by
Paul Revere to the British march to Concord. The Redcoats are coming! Jeremy hurries to assume
his assigned place in the Minuteman plan: sniper behind a stone wall to hunt the Redcoats. He has
practiced; he is ready. All he has to do is wait. Yet when the moment comes to shoot the enemy,
who is close enough to look into his eyes, Jeremy cannot. Nor can the giant of a Redcoat shoot
Jeremy. In that moment, two unsung heroes are called into action, and bloodshed is averted. An
understanding passes between the two.
Novel Type
Primary Audience
Boys
Interest Level
10 yrs & up
Jeremy keeps his mouth shut about the incident because no Minuteman would understand. After
soul-searching about being a coward or a traitor to the cause of liberty, Jeremy finally decides to
confide his innermost thoughts to Doc Thorndike, whom he’s known all his life. The answer is
clear: Jeremy will train with Doc Thorndike to be a surgeon’s assistant, and as a team, they will
help the war effort as true patriots. Events lead a wounded Roger Poole, the Redcoat of Jeremy’s
previous encounter, to hide in the chicken coop on Jeremy’s farm. Finding him, Jeremy sneaks
him to Doc Thorndike for treatment. Roger, too, wants to be a doctor and to study with Doc
Thorndike. The good doctor invents a new identity for Roger and now has two dedicated pupils.
Their instruction is rigorous, hands-on, and graphic. Soon the team is on its way to Bunker Hill to
join the makeshift medical corps already there. At the Battle for Bunker Hill, they see the horrors
of war.
Charlie Damitz tells his story in an extended flashback as the now elderly Doctor Jeremy recalls why he became a doctor.
The Shot Not Heard Around the World is an easy read, even with its many details about anatomical, pathological, procedural
and other medical matters, because Jeremy’s youthful yet intelligent viewpoint prevails.
4403 THE SHOT NOT HEARD $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
THREE SPIES FOR GENERAL WASHINGTON
by Clavin Fisher
Adolescent readers experience the adventure and awe of a segment of the American Revolution
through the eyes and actions of three young comrades-in-arms with diverse views and personalities.
The setting is New Jersey, from the fall of Fort Lee in 1776, through the American victories at
Trenton and Princeton, and into the winter at Washington’s encampments in the Morristown area.
David Holcomb, orphaned after the death of his father at the hands of the British at Concord
Bridge, is an ardent patriot. He is determined to help free America from British rule.
John Tantaquidgeon, of Mohawk Indian ancestry and a former military drummer, sees the
Revolutionary War as a great adventure. Several times his unique skills save the boys from lifethreatening situations.
Novel Type
History,
Action, Adventure
Primary Audience
Boys/Girls
Interest Level
12 yrs & up
Peter Kennett, a former British fifer, is captured by the Americans at Fort Ticonderoga and paroled
in the custody of David’s uncle. He has difficulty adjusting to the American Army and the concepts
of democracy. At times, his soldiering experiences prove invaluable.
Drafted as spies for General Washington, their principal targets are the Tories, who infested New
Jersey throughout the war. Their harrowing adventures are spiced nicely by a developing romance
between David and the daughter of an American master spy.
Clavin Fisher is a historian who has written hundreds of magazine articles, a half-dozen short
stories, and two young adult novels. The history is precise, and the tales are full of outdoor
adventures.
4594 THREE SPIES FOR WASHINGTON $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
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SARATOGA CAPTIVE
Novel Type
American History
Primary Audience
Boys/Girls
Interest Level
9 yrs & up
by Jack Reber
In September 1777, while Ruth Anna’s father and brother are away fighting the British,
her mother is wounded defending the family farm. Ruth Anna tries to get help but
instead finds herself captured by Indians. She is ransomed as a servant to a noble German
family traveling with the Redcoats. Though she is treated kindly, the twelve-year-old
must escape to find her father and brother. As a Saratoga captive, she sees both sides of
the Revolutionary War and is a witness to a significant turning point in its history.
3819 SARATOGA CAPTIVE $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
THROUGH GOYA’S E YES
by Dr. Dorothy Ricci
From the perspective of Gaspar Jovellanos—diarist, educator, magistrate, friend of Francisco De Goya,
and galvanizing figure of the Spanish Enlightenment—we experience the Spanish Enlightenment and
gain understanding of the context and precipitating events for much of Goya’s art.
Novel Type
History, Art,
Relationships
Primary Audience
Boys/Girls
Interest Level
10 yrs & up
This biographical novel takes us into a world that is not familiar to Americans. Because
Gaspar is a central figure, the reader gets a real picture of the tragic history and human
cost of the repression of the Spanish Enlightenment.
Through Goya’s Eyes illuminates for American students not only this period of Spanish
history, but also the world and events behind the paintings, drawings, and prints of Goya.
7635 THROUGH GOYA’S EYES $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
by John Barell
SURVIVING EREBUS: AN ANTARCTIC ADVENTURE
S urviving Erebus is based on an amazingly courageous and pioneering Antarctic voyage of exploration
that began in 1839 and lasted for two years. Told through the eyes and experiences of a young stowaway,
whose chances for survival are low when he is discovered and who has to prove himself again and again
to the ship’s hostile and aggressive crew, this is a tale of a young man confronting the most adverse
conditions on the planet.
David’s adventures of exploration and discovery in Antarctica are described graphically and accurately,
and the reader can almost hear the cracking of the ice and the creaking of the ship’s timbers as winter
closes in, feel the discomfort of the cramped and basic living quarters, and share the fear of young David
as he wonders how he got himself into this most challenging environment.
That David comes through, survives to become a valued crewmember, and grows up is due not only to his
resilience, deep curiosity, and basic good nature, but also to the support of an important mentor, the ship’s
scientist, who enrolls him as his assistant.
A wonderful tale that will enthrall, involve, and engage!
Novel Type
History, Adventure
Primary Audience
Boys
Interest Level
12 yrs & up
“A rippin’ good yarn. One which makes you turn the page over and over again. But it’s more than this. It is historically faithful to the extraordinary, epic voyage
of Sir James Clark Ross. It captures the characters of the leader and those whom he led in the treacherous waters and ice of Antarctica. It brings events, which
happened over one hundred and fifty years ago, vividly to life. A compelling read. Congratulations on a considerable achievement.”
—James Ross, great-great-grandson of Admiral Sir James Clark Ross, Commander of the Voyage
of Discovery and Research in the Southern and Antarctic Regions during the years 1839–1843
7031 SURVIVING EREBUS $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
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ABE AND THE WILD RIVER
by Edith McCall
Fourteen-year-old Abe is anxious for adventure and a wider world beyond St. Louis. In 1811,
working on a keelboat going down the Mississippi River seems the way to do it. He can read and
write and do mathematics, and his common sense and good humor more than make up for what he
might still lack in height and strength. Captain Byrne sees that in him when he hires Abe as cabin
boy on board the Rosalie.
In addition to a cargo of furs and shot, the keelboat carries French passengers Antoinette and her
father. Soon Abe is not only keeping the books for the captain and learning to read the surface of the
river for sand bars, sawyers, and planters, he also is instructing the lovely Toni in English. And he
is secretly curious about the mystery of a young lady’s picture in the captain’s cabin.
Novel Type
Primary Audience
Boys
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As the keelboat moves down the Mississippi toward New Orleans, Abe learns to be a deck hand
and to use the cordelle for moving the boat against the tide. He learns as the captain meets with
the Choctaws to trade shot and gunpowder for food. A run-in with river pirates brings out Abe’s
cleverness and heroism under pressure.
But his ultimate test of courage comes when the New Madrid Earthquake strikes, and its aftershocks
rain terror on all men and beasts. Abe pitches in to help wherever he is needed, unmindful of the
danger and without complaint, as the wild and terrible circumstances dictate. He is under selfcontrol even when the raging Mississippi River runs backward!
Interest Level
10 yrs & up
In a postlude containing a long letter from Abe, finally in New Orleans, to his parents, the author gives the reader additional
details about the earthquake and its destruction from Abe’s point of view. Abe is now safe and reporting the news to them.
The letter is a dazzling finish to the adventure.
Edith McCall’s is the author of many historical novels.
439X ABE AND THE WILD RIVER $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
WHAT SO PROUDLY WE HAIL’D
by Diane Levero
Baltimore, 1812. Candace leaves finishing school and does the unthinkable—goes to work in a
newspaper office and learns the job from the grunt and grunge work level up. Soon she is caught up
in the arguments about the War of 1812, the riots, and the British invasion, and she is in love with
Zachary, a young man whom she believes to be on the wrong side of every issue. All of this is played
against a social background filled with actual people of the period, the social snobbery of the rich and
those aspiring to be like the rich, and the needs and work ethic of the working man.
Novel Type
History, Romance,
Action
Primary Audience
Girls
Interest Level
14 yrs & up
Candace, a Democratic-Republican in favor of the war with England, works at the Register. Zachary,
a Federalist actively against the war, has taken a leave of absence from his elder brother’s law firm in
Annapolis to help the publisher of the Federal Republican. They develop a three-tiered relationship
that is political, social, and personal. The pair falls in love even as they hotly debate whether the war
should have been fought.
What So Proudly We Hail’d provides an accurate picture of the production of a newspaper. And
in the re-creation of the Baltimore Riots of 1812, the author closely follows the details provided in
newspapers, court affidavits, and other contemporary records.
Like Candace and Zachary, today’s historians still debate the War of 1812. Under the terms of the
peace treaty, neither side won much of anything. Most of the issues over which the country had
gone to war faded of their own accord. But the war did achieve one thing: Britain could no longer view the United States
as a collection of break-away colonies. At last it had to recognize the United States as a truly independent nation. With that
reality established, Britain and the United States were free to become friendly nations and, eventually, strong allies.
0548 WHAT SO PROUDLY WE HAIL’D $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
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THE KE Y TO HONOR
by Ronald Wanttaja
Set during the War of 1812, The Key to Honor is filled with maritime action and images. Young
Nate Lawton’s bravery in combat aboard the USS Constitution in her famous victory over the HMS
Guerriere has earned him midshipman’s rank. But he hides a guilty secret: he deserted his post
during that same battle. Although everyone sees him save the Constitution’s captain, no one sees him
hide from the rest of the fight. Nate is determined to regain his honor, and it looks as though he will
soon have his chance. He has been assigned to the Chesapeake in Boston Harbor. A pair of British
frigates, led by the HMS Shannon, blockade the harbor, and the Chesapeake’s Captain Lawrence is
under heavy pressure to deal with the blockade and reopen Boston’s vital trade.
Nate must first discover what honor is. Does it lie in the senseless duels fought by his superior
officers? The arrogance shown by his fellow shipmen? Or in overcoming the contempt of the
experienced seamen shown toward him, their fifteen-year-old leader? One of the shortest battles of
the early U.S. Navy provides Nate’s answers and the novel’s finale.
The reader becomes one with Nate as he shares his thoughts and feelings, which are juxtaposed with
Navy protocol and shown both aboard and off ship. Everywhere the author’s extensive research is
deftly blended with his smooth writing style to enhance the novel’s superb realism—from dialogue
and full-bodied characterization and mood settings to the ships’ details, Navy rules, confrontational
scenes, and the historic final battle.
Novel Type
History,
Leadership,
Relationships,
Maritime Action,
Self-Esteem
Primary Audience
Boys
Interest Level
12 yrs & up
The Key to Honor is powerful. It has won a Pacific Northwest Writers Conference Award and high
praise from the Sea Room:
“A perfect book for young adults 12–15...it demonstrates civility and honor, teaches leadership, teaches the nautical stuff
along the way, is a bit better than reality, has a happy ending, and feels authentic.... Highly recommended....”
2702 THE KEY TO HONOR $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
THE PRICE OF COMM AND
by Ronald Wanttaja
The battle of Lake Erie took place a little more than three months after the Shannon/Chesapeake
scrape.
In this follow-up novel to The Key to Honor, midshipman Nate Lawton is sent to Lake Erie to help
man the rough frontier fleet built by Oliver Hazard Perry. Historically, the novel is set in the middle
of the Perry/Elliot controversy.
To his initial delight, Nate finds that a shortage of officers places him in a much higher position than
his limited experience would normally bring. The fortunes of war catapult him to an even higher
rank: the acting first lieutenant of a Brig of War.
But command has its price. Nate’s captain is unwilling to pay it and uses Nate as his scapegoat
for the dirty work. Now Nate is caught between the rocks of naval discipline and the shoals of his
superior officer’s unbending ambition. His captain thinks nothing of bending the truth to glorify his
own career and ruin Nate, if he speaks out.
The following review was for the first book in the series, The Key to Honor. The Price of Command
is a faithful continuation:
“...fascinating...characters as detailed and multi-faceted as are found in any novels for adults...a gripping naval story hard to
lay down, it is also a coming-of-age story, a novel of character development that far surpasses many naval stories for adults.”
—John Forester
Novel Type
History,
Leadership,
Relationships,
Maritime Action,
Self-Esteem
Primary Audience
Boys
Interest Level
12 yrs & up
2869 THE PRICE OF COMMAND $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
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GOING AROUND THE BEND
by Radiana Markow
Fifteen-year-old Henry Shreve has always loved the Ohio River, unlike his older brother, Israel,
man of the house, who believes that a Quaker’s heart belongs on the farm. Now, with the farm in
danger of foreclosure, Henry is sure that their only recourse is for him to become a wage earner, a
riverman moving cargo down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers to New Orleans on a flatboat. He will
run away from Israel’s farm, learn the river, and return with money to pay off their debt—a man in
everyone’s eyes.
Novel Type
History, Adventure,
Biography
Primary Audience
Boys
Interest Level
12-15 yrs
Henry’s problems begin on board when superstitious Pierre wants to kill him because a boy on crew
would bring bad luck. Henry has to learn to read the river and know the dangers that its beauty
hides: a sheet of glass means a sandbar, beautiful ripples mean a sunken tree, and swirling white
foam and eddies mean certain boat breakup. His hands bleed at the long oar, and he falls into the
water, ashamed. But he perseveres. He learns to hunt turkeys and deer on land to restock the food
supply. He battles Indians in hand-to-hand combat and is wounded. He has the presence of mind to
save the longboat from an eddy by swimming against its current out to another boat in calm water
with a rope to pull it free. Finally the goods are delivered, and Henry is paid.
Now begins the dangerous walk home, upriver, along the Natchez Trace. Never had Henry dreamed
of being attacked by pirates for his wages, being taken prisoner for sale to a sea-going captain, the
days of thirst following his escape, or the stinking swampland and being eaten alive by black flies.
Although he is duly welcomed home, Israel expects Henry to resume his farm chores. But Henry, now a riverman, speaks
his mind—and Israel hears.
Henry Miller Shreve later divided his time between farming and working on the river. Eventually he captained his own
keelboat and invented a double-decker steamboat and a snagboat (a boat that removes sunken trees from the riverbed). For
the first time, riverboats could steam upriver safely. Shreveport, Louisiana, is named for him.
1668 GOING AROUND THE BEND $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
COURAGEOUS JOURNE Y
by Paul A. Snyder
Fifteen-year-old Kate and eleven-year-old Will must travel from Pennsylvania to Texas in the spring
of 1837. Their father has a new homestead and has written for his family to join him. But the
youngsters’ mother and sisters and brother are dead. They all died in an epidemic. Kate determines
that she and Will will make the dangerous trip alone. She will negotiate a good price for the farm,
plot the trip, and take good care of her brother.
Kate and Will have barely begun their journey before two outlaws begin to track them, certain that
they are carrying cash. The youngsters, armed with only a slingshot and a Colt revolver, pit their
brains against the outlaws’ brawn as they continue their perilous trek. Between them and their father
lay 1,500 miles of hostile American frontier.
Novel Type
History/Adventure
Action
Primary Audience
Boys/Girls
Interest Level
12-14 yrs
Rivaling Kate and Will’s hair-raising escapes on land outrunning violent characters and wanted
criminals are their tumultuous keelboat adventures down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, where
the most important fact of life is that the right of way belongs to the biggest and meanest steamboat.
Pirates and waterfalls follow.
The youngsters do make it to Papa’s ranch, only to find a full-scale, ongoing shoot-out in progress.
It seems that a flim-flam man is claiming that the ranch is his, and hired guns are in the thick of it
against Papa. But Kate and Will get help from a savvy outlaw they befriended along the way, as
well as two surprise heroes.
Courageous Journey is an action-packed, all-American Western with flashes of comedy, a breath of a first love for Kate, and
a wonderful dog/wolf heroine called Lucy.
3601 COURAGEOUS JOURNEY $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
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HISTORIC AL NOVELS
FINDING HER WAY
“A novel that will illuminate Thoreau, Walden Pond, Margaret Fuller, and the Transcendentalists for secondary students.”
—KLIATT Magazine
by Anne Faigen
Concord, Massachusetts, 1845. Fifteen-year-old Rachel is neglecting her farm chores in order to sketch
and draw. To make money for her art supplies, she raises hens for their eggs, but a drought forces her
father to ask for that money for the farm. Understanding his need but miserable when he calls her life’s
ambition to draw a “little hobby,” Rachel runs to Walden Pond to recover. There, she is befriended by
Henry David Thoreau, who is living “an experiment” in Walden Woods.
During a subsequent visit to Thoreau, Rachel meets Margaret Fuller, author, editor of The
Transcendentalist Journal, reporter, and America’s first female foreign correspondent. Fuller takes
samples of Rachel’s art with her to New York for an opinion from a teacher. Gino Riccardi agrees to
instruct Rachel by mail until she can come to New York.
Rachel’s family visits her brother in Boston, and, not allowed into the factory, she contents herself with
sketching a young boy warming himself by the fire in the courtyard. She is shocked by the number of
children working there.
Rachel’s talent reaches new highs with the sketch of the young Simon, and Sr. Riccardi notifies her that
she must now come to New York for instruction. Rachel wants Thoreau to intercede with Riccardi to
keep her lessons coming by mail, but Thoreau instead tells her about his friends, the Emersons, in New
York who have room for her (William is Ralph Waldo’s brother). Their conversation is interrupted by
shouts of Ben falling into frozen Walden Pond while ice fishing. Thoreau rushes out to save him.
Novel Type
History,
Social/Family
Relationships
Primary Audience
Girls
Interest Level
14 yrs & up
With the family now indebted to Thoreau for their son’s life, Thoreau accepts their thanks in terms of Rachel’s being
allowed to study art in New York—and the portrait of Simon for his walls.
In the spring, Rachel says goodbye to Thoreau and her beloved woods; he, too, prepares to leave Walden.
Throughout the novel, Anne Faigen is careful to contrast for the reader the differences between commonly accepted attitudes
and expectations and those of the Transcendentalists, who judge people in defiance of conventional expectations.
4055 FINDING HER WAY $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
THE EERIE CANAL
“...a superbly researched historical/fantasy where all the background details are painstakingly accurate...will engage the attention of young readers ages 8–12.”
—The Children’s Bookwatch of the Midwest Book Review
by Jack Reber
Two ten-year-olds on a class trip to the Erie Canal find themselves transported back in time to the canal
of 1829. Dragged aboard a canal boat, the boy and girl experience adventures getting through each day
by blending into the boat’s tempo and chores while trying to find a way back to the present.
The author imparts an enormous amount of detail about the canal through the storyline, and his colorful
characterization boldly brings the story to life.
This novel is at once entertaining and exciting enough to hold a youngster’s interest and detailed enough
to be of use to teachers to teach the history of the canal or the period.
3105 THE EERIE CANAL $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
Novel Type
History, Adventure
Primary Audience
Boys/Girls
Interest Level
8-12 yrs
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SHINING STAR
“Outstanding historical novel...a welcome and enthusiastically recommended novel that totally engages the reader from first page to last.”
—The Children’s Bookwatch, Midwest Book Review
by Joyce Esely
Here is a story replete with American Indian traditions and information. Shining Star is a ten-yearold Comanche girl. By spending time with her and her family, sharing the events of their days and
their community interactions, the reader learns about ceremonies, lore, daily living, interdependence of
tribal members, and the notion of the tribe above one.
For The People to be strong, bravery is a must, and Shining Star’s goal is to overcome her dread of
lightning. Ever since she was hit by lightning five years earlier, thunderstorms have traumatized her,
and she has hidden her fear because The People are afraid of nothing. Death is a part of life; tribal
members will pass on, and animals yield food and clothing. As Grandfather tells her, “It is not death
we fear, but meeting death bravely.... Only the rocks live forever.”
Novel Type
History,
Family
Primary Audience
Girls
Interest Level
8-12 yrs
Woven into Shining Star’s story is a fabric of many pieces of information: tipi making and moving,
foods and diet, buffalo hunting, arrow making, tanning hides, courtship, horse raids, scalping, stories
of the elders, the power of the number 4, the dream walker, the contrary man, closed face, war paint,
and more.
Joyce Esely has won two Frontiers in Writing Awards and a Beaux Arts Award for Shining Star.
1455 SHINING STAR $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
WHISPERS IN THE WIND
“...packs a powerful story...does a good job of enlightening students about the time period. Recommended for junior high school students.”
—KLIATT Magazine
by Betty Headapohl
This is a superb period piece drawn against accurate historical detail that captures a time in American
history before the Civil War when slavery was practiced by American Indian tribes and white plantation
owners. It was a time when American Indians and African-Americans often were enslaved on plantations
side-by-side.
The story of Little Moon, a Tsalagi maiden, spans four years and runs full circle from the child’s being
kidnapped by slavers to her return to the Land of a Thousand Smokes as a young woman.
Novel Type
Historical/Relationships,
Action
A beautiful tribal child raised with a reverence for nature, mindful of omens, and believing in spirits,
Little Moon ponders the acceptance of white man’s ways by some tribes. When a runaway injured
black slave is sheltered by her people, she is awestruck by his size and appearance. White slavers are
on his trail and eager to do their business, which means also taking Little Moon and selling her to a
Creek tribe.
Primary Audience
Girls
During her days as a Creek slave, Little Moon contrasts the Creek way of life with that of the Tsalagi.
The reader sees the maneuverings of the beautiful but jealous Laughing Eyes, who owns Little Moon,
Interest Level
to keep her from the brave Panther Shadow. The reader also sees the relationship between American
12 yrs & up
Indian girls and their mothers. Eventually, Laughing Eyes connives to have Little Moon taken by white
slavers, who then sell her to a white plantation owner. Now the reader gets a picture of white man’s slavery through Little
Moon’s eyes.
Relationships between Little Moon and the plantation’s black slaves are explored. The black slaves befriend her and teach
her English. Jeremiah, the escaped slave whom her people had sheltered, has been recaptured and returned to this plantation.
The two become friends and execute an escape that is doomed to end them in the slaver’s hands. But out on a hunt, Panther
Shadow intercedes and vanquishes the slavers. He ushers Little Moon and Jeremiah safely back to the Land of a Thousand
Smokes, where he declares his love for the now-beautiful young woman. The story ends happily with the ritual of an
engagement offering.
2974 WHISPERS IN THE WIND $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
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PSALM FOR A WINTER TWILIGHT
by Beatrice La Force
Inspired by the American Indian version of the Twenty-Third Psalm, Psalm for a Winter Twilight
is a moving study of the contrasts and similarities between Indians and white men in the abysmal
time of American history when the Indians had already been defeated and the white men persisted
in driving them, often starving, from their homes and land. It was a time of maniacal vengeance on
both sides, when innocent children were slaughtered. It was a time of tragic cultural ignorance and a
mean-spirited sense of superiority spurred on by fear. But there was also a commonality in people, a
possibility of understanding. And the story, which opens in blood-red violence, closes in the cooler
violet glow of the possibility of brotherhood under a Greater Being. Indian and white man share the
transcending beauty of the Twenty-Third Psalm in sign and spoken English.
Psalm for a Winter Twilight addresses knee-jerk emotions and considered actions. It speaks to the
better side of people: the minister and his wife who adopt two orphaned Indian children and raise
them as their own, the once-proud chief and his little band of survivors who opt to trust, the U.S.
Army officer who is wrestling with his military oath and his religious/humane convictions. There
are the young soldiers and homesteaders driven by punishing overkill, too, but this night in a house
of God, they are held off. At the center of the story stand the two adopted children, now teenagers.
They are the interpreter and the bridge.
Novel Type
History, Relationships
Primary Audience
Boys/Girls
Interest Level
13 yrs & up
From their first encounters with Christian missionaries, the North American Plains Indians used Universal Sign Language
to communicate the Psalm among tribes that spoke different oral languages. In 1894, Isabel Crawford, a Baptist missionary
to the Kiowa Indians in Oklahoma, translated the sign version into literal English. The Indian version of the Twenty-Third
Psalm is included in this story in a very slightly edited form.
3202 PSALM FOR A WINTER TWILIGHT $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
FEATHERS IN THE WIND
by Lillian M. Fisher
Feathers in the Wind, the story of Olive Oatman, is based on fact and is true to her life.
Olive and her family appeared in the West at a time when white men and American Indians
were engaged in mortal combat. The white men were determined to tame and settle the
western wilderness, and the Indians fought to keep their homelands.
In 1851, Olive and her younger sister Mary Ann were taken captive by the Apaches. Her
family, including her parents and all but one of her brothers, was murdered. Lorenzo,
although gravely wounded, survived, and he never lost hope that his sisters were alive, too.
With Lorenzo’s help, Olive’s re-entry into white society in 1865 was made easier.
In Arizona today, a town in the Black Mountains has been named Oatman in remembrance
of Olive. Not far from this town, Olive spent four years with the Mojave Indians as a slave
and daughter.
Lillian Fisher is an author of young people’s novels, a poet, and an artist. Feathers in the
Wind vividly evokes the emotions, textures, and experiences of the Oatman girls and their
Indian masters and families.
4381 FEATHERS IN THE WIND $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
RFWP.COM
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TRAPPED!
THE TRUE STORY OF A PIONEER GIRL
KANSAS STATE READING CIRCLE CHOICE
by Eunice Boeve
This is the true story of twelve-year-old Virginia Reed, who, along with her family, faced and
survived incredible hardships during an overland journey to California.
In the spring of 1846, the Reed and Donner families leave Springfield, Illinois, traveling by oxdrawn wagon. Along the way, they join other caravans bound for Oregon and California and midway
through their journey they learn of another route—a shorter, better route, they are told. But what
they are told isn’t accurate.
Novel Type
History,
True Adventure
Primary Audience
Girls
Interest Level
9-14 yrs
After much discussion, most of the wagons keep to the old, established road. Twenty wagons,
including the Reed and Donner wagons, turn off onto the new road. Almost from the beginning,
they run into trouble. First they literally have to chop their way through a densely forested range
of mountains. Then they cross a desert where many oxen and several wagons are lost, and as they
travel, summer slips into fall. It is late October when they begin climbing the last obstacle before
them—the high Sierra Mountains. Winter sets in early in the Sierras this year, and soon deep snow
makes travel impossible.
Exhausted, frightened, and discouraged, the pioneers erect crude shelters and spend the winter in the
mountains. This story chronicles the events as they happened. Only the dialogue has been invented.
This is a true adventure story of survival against the forces of nature!
Eunice Boeve’s research led her along the trail of the Reeds and Donners from Springfield, Illinois, to the monument erected
in their memory in the Sierras, and on into California.
1609 TRAPPED! $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
CA MELS WEST
by Phyllis de la Garza
The day the Alamo fell in 1836, Santa Ana’s soldiers botched the job of killing the Mexican infant
Graciela. But the knife-cut across her throat did take away her voice forever.
Twenty years later, the United States Congress depends upon the young woman’s medical skills and
courage to help their agent in a tactical experiment using imported camels. The camels are to be
transport carriers as the agent surveys a wagon road along the 35th Parallel from Fort Defiance to
the Colorado River.
Novel Type
History, Adventure,
Action
Primary Audience
Boys/Girls
Interest Level
12 yrs & up
If all goes well, use of these camels will be the first step in a plan to study, breed, and adapt camels
at Camp Verde for both long-distance transport and for war. Camels were used successfully by
the Persian Army as artillery base carriers, and their reputation as “Gunships of the Desert” is
impressive. Camels could be as familiar as the packhorse and donkey on the American frontier and
in war! But the plan needs time, and the American Civil War and the railroad ultimately end the
experiment.
Camels West is an epic action-adventure based on a real but little-known period in America’s history.
The camels, their handlers, the Comanche danger, and the trek are all true. U.S. government agent
Jeremy McNeal is based on a real person. Graciela is fictional; she is a representation of all of the
strong women who helped open the West. The herbal medicines and skills ascribed to her character
have all been meticulously researched and are accurate.
This is the sensational story of exotic camels and the commitment of a man and a woman to their jobs—and to each other.
Phyllis de la Garza is a well-known author who writes about strong women in the American West.
4438 CAMELS WEST $9.99. Special Price: $7.99
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YOUNG HEROES OF THE CIVIL WAR
by C.A. Fiore
Before the twentieth century, many boys served in armies, particularly carrying flags or as drummers
and buglers. The musical instruments were important because they were how orders were conveyed
in battle. Battles were noisy, and the shouts of commands could not be heard above the guns and the
groans and screams of the wounded.
Many of the boys performed heroically in the battles of the Civil War, and this book celebrates their
bravery on both sides. Among them are Johnny Clem, drummer boy of Shiloh and Chickamauga;
Willie Johnston, Medal of Honor recipient; Orion Howe, drummer boy of Vicksburg; Nathaniel
Gwyne, young cavalry bugler/hero; Arthur MacArthur, teenage officer and Medal of Honor recipient;
and many others.
6393 YOUNG HEROES OF THE CIVIL WAR $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
CONFEDERATE PRAYER BOOK
OF THE ARMY AND NAVY
This is the famous Confederate Army and Navy Prayer Book as a facsimile
reproduction of the entire book. It was first published in Richmond in 1864
by the Diocesan Missionary Society for the Protestant Episcopal Church of
Virginia. It measures approximately 3.25” x 4.25” and was designed for the
pockets of soldiers.
6249 CONFEDERATE PRAYER BOOK $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
IN SHERM AN’S PATH
“In Sherman’s Path is a compelling tale of the Civil War, very much recommended reading.”
—The Midwest Book Review
“A wonderful story of how war and people’s actions can have life-changing effects on one young man’s life.”
—Teresa Gaylard, children’s librarian, Dayton Metro Library
“A must-read for any student who thinks one’s skin reveals anything about the person beneath it.”
—Becky Davis, eighth-grade language arts teacher
by J.F. Spieles
A Civil War Sesquicentennial Anniversary Novel
Twelve-year-old orphan Henry Akinson lives in Georgia. It is in the autumn of 1864, during the
time of Sherman’s March to the Sea from Atlanta to Savannah. Henry carries out some dangerous
missions for a plantation owner who has offered to protect him, but he is put directly in the path of
Sherman’s looters and foragers. Through it all, Henry develops a relationship with a slave family. His
interactions with them challenge his previously held attitudes and beliefs about slaves. He is forced
to consider what equality really means, and he learns that true honor and courage have nothing to do
with the color of one’s skin.
This is a compelling story that brings the dangers and realities of the Civil War alive for young readers,
and it is a powerful and effective way to engage them when learning about history.
Jeffrey Spieles is an elementary school teacher in Englewood, Ohio. A nominee for the 2011 Ohio
Teacher of the Year Award, drama and storytelling have been major influences on his teaching style.
Novel Type
American Civil War
Primary Audience
Boys/Girls
Interest Level
11 yrs & up
8593 IN SHERMAN’S PATH $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
8586 IN SHERMAN’S PATH TEACHER MANUAL $10.00
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COUNT THE STARS THROUGH THE CRACKS
WINNER OF AN OHIO ARTS COUNCIL AWARD FOR FICTION!
RECEIVED HIGHEST MARKS FROM VOYA MAGAZINE:
“This simple narrative is a treasure, packed with information and understanding. The writing is unadorned, but, at the same time,
beautiful and emotional. Excellent for sixth grade and up. This deserves consideration for Best Books.”
by Billie Hotaling
Here is the story of a fifteen-year-old boy and his ten-year-old sister who set out with their mother
to escape from the plantation where they were born into slavery. Their escape is occasioned by the
selling of their father to a slaveholder farther south.
During their journey, their mother dies, and Jute and his sister Susu must fend for themselves as they
transverse the Underground Railroad. Their adventure is exciting because at any moment they risk
being captured and returned to slavery. Their lives are frequently in the hands of whites who are
responsible for moving escaped slaves through a series of hiding places to final safety in Canada.
Novel Type
History,
Adventure
Primary Audience
Boys/Girls
Interest Level
12-15 yrs
During their journey, Susu breaks her leg. A doctor hides them until she can recover sufficiently
to be moved to the house of a free black family. This family is unusual. The husband is building a
mill out of a pattern book, and he employs Jute in that endeavor. The mother teaches Susu to read.
Jute is marked by a fierce pride, a desire to be free, and a desire to make his way in the world. His
pride is the driving force behind their escape and the choices he makes on the passage. The $5.00 a
month he earns building the mill is a source of considerable pride and satisfaction.
After months of waiting, Susu’s leg is healed, and she and Jute take their carefully saved money
to Xenia to buy two railroad tickets to Canada. They find the town in turmoil, and they learn that
the Civil War has started—they no longer have to run and hide, for Ohio does not support slavery.
0521 COUNT THE STARS $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
M ARCH OF GLORY
by Carla Joinson
March of Glory is a handsomely written novel for young adults and Civil War buffs. It is about
the mindset of a young Southern soldier. It is an American history experience masterfully crafted,
richly documented, and accurate in every detail. Cadet Charlie Stuart’s story is a must-read.
Born into a prosperous North Carolina family with business ties in the North, Charlie decides to
become a soldier when North Carolina secedes from the Union. Against his father’s wishes, he
enrolls in the Virginia Military Institute to become a good fighting soldier for the honor of his state
and his country. The war, he believes, was started over states’ rights but was now becoming a war
over slavery.
Novel Type
Adventure
Primary Audience
Boys/Girls
Interest Level
12 yrs & up
Through Charlie’s relationships with and observations about his Southern family, VMI cadets, and
upperclassmen, we experience the psychological, emotional, and economical toll on the Southern
family unit and social group. The external economics of the plantation system and slavery are clear,
too. Hard work, long hours of study, little food, and belittling relationships with upperclassmen, as
well as close, cherished friendships with other new cadets, are all here. Characters have pasts and
personalities. The reader is a witness in real time to real people. Even Charlie’s brief capture by
Union soldiers has unusual depth as he dramatically shares his fear and his discovery that a Union
soldier is capable of compassion. Although the South is ill-equipped for war, the pervading feeling
is that it will fight to the death to preserve its way of life. Therefore, when the VMI Corps of Cadets
supports General John C. Breckenridge’s forces in Staunton, Virginia, we see an extraordinary battle
scene.
March of Glory is a superb novel of human feelings, honor, values, and soldiering.
0823 MARCH OF GLORY $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
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WAR COMES TO M ADELINE
by Bev Martin
War is coming; it is 1861. Papa owns a tobacco plantation and slaves, but he frees them all when
Tennessee votes to withdraw from the Union and become a part of the Confederacy. He can’t go
off to fight in the war knowing that he owns other human beings. Twelve-year-old Madeline, older
brother Matthew, and oldest brother Sidney are to run the plantation with Mama and the now-freed
former slaves Eb, Sukey, and Ole Tom. The war is not short, as the South had hoped it would be.
Running the plantation changes from slave labor to a collaborative effort between family and freed
blacks working for a small wage. Daily life changes from outwardly genteel to frank problem
solving for keeping food on the table and harvesting the crop. They must calculate the outwit the
Pillaging hungry soldiers from both sides, divert and dodge the slavers as the family conspires to
move its precious human cargo to safety, and pray that their men will return from battle alive.
Three years in war-torn Tennessee change young Maddie, too. Always a curious, observant artist
and vivacious child, she becomes an expert rider with a purpose, a smuggler of runaway slaves to a
safe stop on the Underground Railroad, and, at least once, the youngest female Confederate spy in
Tennessee. War Comes to Madeline is a fast-reading, action-packed story that will keep young adult
readers entertained from first page to last.
4634 WAR COMES TO MADELINE $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
Novel Type
History,
Action, Adventure
Primary Audience
Boys/Girls
Interest Level
10-14 yrs
SECESH
by Sue Thomas
July, 1861. The Civil War is dividing the people of Missouri. Eleven-year-old Kate is loyal to the
Confederacy from the onset, but when she listens to her parents and two older brothers and hears
their divided opinions, she begins to realize that the issues are not simple.
Through Kate’s eyes, we see a family’s daily life and a system of relationships: North and South;
family and neighbors; siblings, parents, and children; family and farmland; mother and daughter;
and father and sons. Momma was raised on a Kentucky tobacco plantation and condones slavery,
viewing slaves as manpower. Steadfast and loving Poppa comes from the Kentucky hill country, is
a hard worker, and learned to read from Momma. Together they homesteaded in Missouri and are
raising a family. Oldest son David shares the popular idea that the war will be short, and he joins the
Confederates for the money. Fifteen-year-old Waltus joins the Yankees. Passionate about the rights
of every human being to be able to have a life, to work, and to dream of accomplishment, and himself
dreaming one day of owning a wool mill, Waltus can’t fight on the side that condones men stealing his
sheep, his dream, or the rights and hopes of others. Young Benjamin is often the thorn in Kate’s side
and Momma’s “good boy,” but he and Kate share dangerous adventures.
Novel Type
History
Primary Audience
Girls
Interest Level
8-12 yrs
Kate is a typical intelligent eleven-about-to-be-twelve-year-old. She cannot keep a secret. She asks
hundreds of questions. Her pet, Grasshopper (a goat), is her confidant. She begins to question Momma’s
opinions because she is shaken by Momma’s heartless reaction to a neighbor’s captured runaway slave girl being separated
from her baby (who is sold) to teach her a lesson. Throughout the insecurities and deepening awareness of others’ feelings
that war brings to her, Kate learns that family love remains a solid grounding.
A leading educator in the field of teaching children to express their creativity, Sue Thomas has written an excellent book
on teaching the writing of poetry: The Poetry Pad. In Secesh, she brings her considerable talents to shaping wonderfully
absorbing characters and a historically correct, action-filled plot.
540X SECESH $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
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GIDEON TELL AND THE SIEGE OF VICKSBURG
“Recommended.” —The Book Report
by Robert W. Walker
With his father killed in the battle of Shiloh and four younger siblings still at home to support, and
too young by one year to join the Union Army, fourteen-year-old Gideon Tell becomes apprentice
photographer to fast-talking, clever, and well-read Charles Rintree. Rintree is headed to infiltrate
enemy lines at Vicksburg to take photographs of positions and armaments, reckoning to get them
to General Grant, not for outright cash, but for the fame and subsequent money that fame will bring.
Vicksburg has been blocking Union supply lines in the Mississippi.
Novel Type
History,
Action, Adventure
Primary Audience
Boys/Girls
Interest Level
10-14 yrs
Aboard Empress, Grant’s supply steamer, Gideon and Rintree are caught between a double line of fire.
The captain has taken civilian passengers aboard against the arguments of Union troop commander
Lieutenant Stephen Kane. With the steamer under attack, Rintree has Gideon bravely remain on deck
taking pictures of the shore battlements. Later, seeing the photographs and realizing that photographic
surveillance is the way of the future, Kane conspires with Rintree to place him and Gideon inside
the city of Vicksburg—their cover story to be that they are refugees desiring to return to the South—
Rintree the surgeon, and Gideon his son with an interest in the new science of photography chronicling
his father’s work. The Millers, newspaper owners with Union sympathies, will be their “contacts.”
Rintree quickly becomes a surprisingly good full-time civilian surgeon. Vicksburg’s society loves him. Gideon realizes that
it is up to him to take the pictures. Under the guise of a newspaper photographer creating an image of Vicksburg for Miller’s
newspaper, Gideon may go almost anywhere and photograph freely “on assignment.” His objective is the panoramic view
from atop the courthouse.
Slowly, Gideon reassesses Rintree as a liar, forger, and perhaps wheeler-dealer angling to sell the photographs to the
highest bidder. When Kane arrives incognito (switching identity with a recently dead war correspondent and doing a fine
impression of him), they share their suspicions of Rintree being a double spy. It becomes imperative to get Gideon and his
prints to General Grant. A prisoner/troop train out of Vicksburg is the answer. What follows is a thrilling, action-packed,
no-holds-barred, identities-revealing, great train escape.
The novel is seasoned with humor, seeds of romance, masked identities, and great insight into character development and
relationships. A bonus is actual photographs of Vicksburg and historical personages that are woven into the story.
5558 GIDEON TELL AND THE SIEGE OF VICKSBURG $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
SUMMER SPY
“Summer Spy is a terrific Civil War yarn.” —The Children’s Bookwatch
by Linda Miller Wilson
Tennessee was almost split in half by the Civil War. Residents of the eastern mountain region were
largely pro-Union. When the state seceded in 1861, those resisting the Confederacy faced harsh
retribution. Many families left the state, but Matthew and Elizabeth Burnett on their farm, high in the
Smoky Mountains, chose to stay.
Novel Type
History, Adventure
Primary Audience
Boys
Interest Level
8-12 yrs
It is 1863, and Tennessee is a battleground for the clash of Union and Confederate forces. Nathaniel,
the Burnetts’ oldest son, is a Pinkerton spy, risking his life for the Union to report on Confederate
troop movements. When Nat breaks his leg in a fall, he asks his fourteen-year-old brother Jonathan to
deliver vital information to the Pinkerton contact. Jonathan enjoys the solitude of mountain life and
lacks his brother’s daring spirit, but he agrees to go.
In his first confrontation with a Confederate officer, Jonathan manages to quell his jittery stomach
by imitating Nat. Later, his resourcefulness is tested in a midnight battle with bushwhackers. An
unexpected detainment in a Confederation camp and his friendship with Onesimus, a young black
slave, convince Jonathan that “there is no winning under either flag.”
Summer Spy is the story of a boy whose unswerving determination to fulfill a promise to his brother
carries him through each personal challenge until he finally realizes his own strength and courage.
1722 SUMMER SPY $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
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A BIT OF IRISH EARTH
by Paul Shanley
This is wonderful historical fiction with its roots in both Irish tradition and lore and the American
Civil War. Some of the story is biographical; the rest is wishful blarney.
John Shanley did migrate from Ireland and did join the Union Army. He was wounded in the second
battle of Bull Run, and he was later captured and sent to Richmond, probably to Libby Prison as a
prisoner of war. But he died in Richmond on January 17, 1864.
The author is a distant relative through John’s oldest son. He visited Libby Prison and was so moved
that he decided to recreate John Shanley’s trek from Ireland to a better life in the United States. He
has rewritten family history a bit, superimposing possible adventures, an escape from Libby, and a life
in Boston and Bangor. John Shanley is given the life he could have had, and the reader is treated to
the person he most probably would have become because of his personal convictions.
Surely Irish eyes are smiling on the older Shanley’s enhanced daring adventures and the younger
Shanley’s sensitivity to his story. The atmosphere and mood are accurate.
179X A BIT OF IRISH EARTH $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
Novel Type
Primary Audience
Boys/Girls
Interest Level
12 yrs & up
CHARISSA OF THE OVERLAND
by Phyllis de la Garza
It’s 1862, Missouri. Set against the action of Quantrill’s Raiders, westward expansion, Indians, and
unrest over the Civil War, Charissa of the Overland tells the amazing story of Charissa Pankhurst, a.k.a.
Charlie Pankhurst.
Charissa’s parents die of typhoid. Southern zealots force her much older husband and her to hide out
and live in caves in the Ozarks. Her husband is mercifully shot when he contracts rabies, and the young,
wounded Union soldier Charissa meets while living in the caves is hunted down and hanged by Quantrill’s
Raiders. Feeling it her duty to tell the young man’s parents, Charissa risks her life to get to their farm.
This is her journey of change. At the farm, needing to take control of her life, she vows to kill Quantrill.
There, sixteen-year-old Charissa clips her hair and casts aside her calico skirts to morph into Charlie, a
young man with freedom a woman could never know, and then she strikes out for an adventure-filled life
on the rough frontier.
Novel Type
Historical,
Relationships,
Action/Adventure
Charlie’s relationships with men and women exhibit humor as she perfects her walk, tobacco chewing,
Primary Audience
Boys/Girls
and spitting expertise. They reach memorable proportions when squaws capture Charlie spying on their
Interest Level
ceremony and prepare to castrate her, only to discover her secret. The women collapse laughing, and
12 yrs & up
Charissa makes her escape. Later, Charlie becomes close to her freight-hauling boss and is certain that
he knows she is a woman when he announces that he has a proposition to put forth. Sure that he will propose marriage,
Charissa buys a velvet dress for her unveiling. But she is mistaken. His proposition is an offer to Charlie for half of the
business. Those who had met Charlie early and recognized that she was a girl in disguise kept the secret, did not question
her motivation, and offered suggestions for appearance improvement. Charissa listened well!
Phyllis de la Garza’s works have been reviewed as “Grassroots at its best...thorough and commendable...a delicious sense of
humor...both sympathetic and even-handed....” She is a member of Western Writers of America and a SPUR Award finalist.
3709 CHARISSA OF THE OVERLAND $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
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REDHEADED ANGEL
by Joy Fowler
This is the story of Columbia Victoria Stuart Boyden, who finds herself a virtual orphan after her
father goes to fight in the Civil War and her mother dies. She makes the long and difficult trip to her
uncle’s Virginia plantation, where she is taken in and treated as a member of the family.
Her uncle is the illustrious General Jeb Stuart, and Columbia becomes part of an exciting world
of war, privilege, and adventure. Through her eyes, we see the exuberant world of the Virginian
Confederacy in the early years of the Civil War.
Dr. Joy Fowler is Chair of the Writing Department at the School for Creative and Performing Arts in
Cincinnati, Ohio, where she has taught for more than twenty years. Much of her writing is connected
to her hobby of historic re-enacting and portrayals of historic characters.
7345 REDHEADED ANGEL $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
Novel Type
History
Primary Audience
Girls
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THE PRINTER’S DE VIL
by Marion Page
Strangers Tyler Maldren and Jem Harvey have Southern accents that few in Groton, Vermont, have
ever heard. And they have a printing press. The townspeople don’t trust them; many are convinced
that they are Southern spies. Why else would the two want to start a newspaper in little Groton?
When fifteen-year-old Livy chances to meet them on the road near her home, they seem an answer
to her dream. She has just graduated from the one-room schoolhouse and hopes to go to secondary
school at Newbury Seminary, but she needs money. If these are newspapermen, they’ll need news.
Writing things down is easier for Livy than talking, and with a houseful of sisters, she knows all the
town’s news. She blushes at her own forwardness in asking Tyler and Jem if she can be a reporter
for their paper. She has no idea of the dangerous future she bargains herself into.
Novel Type
History,
Relationships, Romance
Primary Audience
Girls
Interest Level
12-15 yrs
The Printer’s Devil plays on several well-wrought levels: the mystery of the newspapermen and their
interest in a rumored tunnel, the harsh reality of what happens in wartime to a farming town when
sons go off to war and the old folks cannot keep up the farms, when girls take over chores typically
performed by men and how their lives are affected, and the effects of the Missouri Compromise of
1861.
Livy manages to get herself into a dangerous situation. She determines to rescue the child-slave
Solomon, whom she believes the newspapermen are holding captive. She screws up her courage
to investigate the existence of the legendary tunnel under the Peter Paul house, where the newspapermen have set up
shop. And she loses her Yankee heart to Jem, who turns out to be an officer in the Confederate army looking for a stash of
excellent counterfeit money, plates, and dyes made by the infamous Bristol Bill and his gang. This money, and the ability
to print more of it, would enable the Confederates to buy arms, food, uniforms, and army supplies, or to print a flood of fake
bills and make inflation worse in the North, or to purchase gold and trade with European countries sympathetic to the South.
Livy grows up fast and clarifies her own values in this Civil War story.
4640 THE PRINTER’S DEVIL $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
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A FE W DAYS’ JOURNE Y
by Linda Miller Wilson
In 1868, fourteen-year-old Mattie is bored with her life in the Smoky Mountains. When her aunt invites
Mattie to accompany her to Texas to visit the aunt’s sons and daughter-in-law expecting her first child,
Mattie seizes the opportunity. Their plan is to travel by train to Memphis, Tennessee, and from there by
stagecoach across Arkansas and Indian Territory into Texas. However, by the time they reach Nashville,
Aunt Martha, suffering from motion sickness and done in by the smoke and ash, decides to turn back.
But Mattie cannot accept so quick an end to her adventures. Strong-willed and short on patience, she
determines to continue the trip alone and reminds her aunt that it will be only a few days’ journey.
In the days that follow, Mattie survives the harshness of stagecoach travel, is saved from a tornado by
hiding in a “fraidy hole,” and is captured by a ruthless outlaw...twice! She paints vignettes of a variety
of unique stagecoach passengers for the reader and joins in discussions with her fellow travelers about
the news of the day, which includes Ulysses S. Grant and the railroad west. She spends quality learning
time with a caring Choctaw family and meets a relay station manager and a retired general. Michael
Rutledge, a handsome fellow passenger, is a young man whose smile gives her flutters in her stomach.
Linda Miller Wilson is the author of Summer Spy, and Mattie is Mathilde, sister of Jonathan and
Nathaniel of that Civil War story.
Novel Type
History,
Action, Adventure
Primary Audience
Girls
Interest Level
11 yrs & up
4020 A FEW DAYS’ JOURNEY $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
JOSH
“Josh is an expertly crafted, engaging, entertaining, and recommended story for young readers.
—The Children’s Bookwatch
by Eileen Ross
Colorado, 1879. Orphaned eleven-year-old Josh and his five-year-old sister Maribelle have come from
St. Louis to a small farming town to live with childless Aunt Abigail and Uncle Caleb. Josh brings
with him the shame of his father’s past and his own guilt that he is ashamed of the father he feels he
is supposed to love. Josh also fears that someone will find out about his father and think that he, Josh,
will grow up to be just like him. Inside, Josh wonders if he will. He dearly loves little Maribelle, from
whose innocence and love he draws strength.
Uncle Caleb expects hard work and offers little praise. Aunt Abigail is all kindness. Caleb wants to
send the children to a foundling home in Cheyenne. Abigail points out that it is not Christian to punish
the children for their father’s deed. Widow McClendon, intelligent, respected, and obviously once very
Novel Type
beautiful, employs Josh to do “chores.” He enjoys being around her. She speaks with him, understands
Social/Family Relationhim, and because she, too, has a secret—she is the sister of the town’s historic, infamous outlaw—she
ships,
Self-Esteem
knowingly counsels him about freedom from family guilt.
Primary Audience
Josh’s days are filled with thinking that his every action is universally scrutinized, trying to please
Boys
his uncle on the farm and his teacher in school, and dealing with the aggressive school bully, Harlow.
Interest Level
Josh’s mettle and kind spirit are apparent throughout the story: his concern for his sister’s well-being,
8-12 yrs
his rescue of a puppy from a certain death of freezing in the river, his concern for sick Uncle Caleb and
his ability to handle both Caleb’s farm chores and his own, and his rescue of Harlow from a raging fire. While sitting with
sleeping, sick Caleb one night, Josh writes to him from his heart about his feelings. Later, unable to find time to complete
a homework assignment for Thanksgiving, he submits the letter—a letter of hope to God from a child.
All is resolved in time for Thanksgiving. Josh’s “paper” is read at the town meeting as the best assignment, and the teacher
deems his work the village’s Thanksgiving theme: looking back on the blessings of the past year and ahead to blessings that
await us. Uncle Caleb recants; the children can stay. Harlow extends a hand of friendship.
This is a superbly crafted story balancing action and contemplation.
1048 JOSH $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
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THE HOMESTEADERS SERIES
“Reading the Homesteaders Series is an opportunity to experience the struggles of pioneer life
with the family and community as a focal point for strength and growth.”
—Marilyn Broding, MLS (librarian), Battle Lake, Minnesota
“The Homesteaders Series provides adventure to readers of all ages. The books are easy to read and have high interest as the reader learns
about the hardships and adventures of our immigrant ancestors. A must-read for readers of all ages.”
—Kirsten Olson, elementary teacher, Brainerd, Minnesota
“The Homesteaders Series presents quickly readable tales to help young readers understand the intense struggles faced by new settlers just after the Civil War as
the railroad moved West. The historic insights are combined with worthy illustrations of how cherished friendships yielded solutions to severe struggles without
bitterness and failure. Proven faith-based solutions are described in appealing ways to help young readers in their personal struggles with varying kinds of diversity.”
—J.S.C., Muscatine, Iowa
“Many of my students hear the voices of their parents and grandparents in the Homesteaders Series. However, the message of hope in these books
and the resiliency of the human spirit appeals to all students. With authenticity, Peterson pulls us back to our roots.”
—Toni Gredensky, Wahpeton High School, Wahpeton, North Dakota
Novel Type
American History,
Family Relationships
Primary Audience
Boys/Girls
Interest Level
10-14 yrs
by Esther Allen Peterson
The Homestead Act of 1862 changed the world with its offer of free land. Millions of people
immigrated to America seeking their fortune. Thousands came from Norway to the empty prairies
of the Dakota Territory.
The Esther Allen Peterson stories are not true, but they are real. The things that happen to Trygve
and his family happened in everyday life to most homesteaders in the 1860s. Esther first became
interested in the lives of the original homesteaders when her minister husband, Donald, served four churches in
Fairdale, North Dakota, thirty miles from Canada. She says: “The people were wonderful. They still had that
pioneering spirit—that is, they felt a responsibility to look out for and help one another. The older members of
our congregations were born in those sod houses, and their parents built those square white farmhouses that sat
on almost every 160-acre parcel. When we arrived, those big old two-story houses were being torn down, and
the grandchildren of those pioneers were building modern houses.”
A LONG JOURNE Y TO A NE W HOME
Driven by grinding poverty in the 1860s, the Ytterhorn family of sharecroppers in northern Norway
sells their furniture to pay for passage and the promise of a better life in North Dakota. With their
scant belongings and determination against all odds, they typify the immigrants’ experience in a
moving and vivid story. It is a very long journey, beset by tragedy and hardship. During the sea
voyage, young Ma Ytterhorn dies from childbirth fever, and her husband doubts his decision to
submit his family to such a perilous undertaking. He, the new baby, and his other children call
upon his wife’s best friend to come out and join them. They then face the winter trek overland by
wagon together. Along the way, they encounter plenty of helping hands and, eventually, land to
cultivate a new homestead and a new beginning.
4702 A LONG JOURNEY TO A NEW HOME $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
WILL SPRING COME?
The second volume traces the Ytterhorn family through its first year on the new land. Arriving in
May, they claim land, build a cabin, break sod, raise a garden, and grow wheat for bread. They
seem to be winning the race to provide sufficiently to survive the harsh winter.
In September the Olson family arrives from Norway to claim the adjoining plot of land. The
Ytterhorns immediately aid their new neighbors in their struggle to prepare for winter. A third
family claims two plots of land, but they have arrived so late that their preparations are makeshift.
Despite the uncertainties and harsh conditions, the three families develop a community, begin a
school and a church, and seem to be thriving when disease and tragedy strike. By spring, all has
changed.
7680 WILL SPRING COME? $9.99
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THE HOMESTEADERS SERIES
THE HOUSE THAT CARED
In the third book, the Ytterhorn/Olson families face another year of challenges and opportunities
on the North Dakota prairie. The achievement of the year is building a frame house with windows
to replace the sod houses that were their initial dwellings. Weather, illness, new neighbors, and
greed all threaten their well-being—and indeed their capacity to keep the house. Hard work,
cooperation, and loyalty to one another help the families survive in very difficult circumstances.
5051 THE HOUSE THAT CARED $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
THE REFORMATION OF GRANDMOTHER HULDA
In the fourth book, the Ytterhorn/Olson families barely receive news of Grandmother Hulda’s
imminent arrival before she is at the railroad station waiting to be picked up. The prairie has been
good to those members of the family who have survived; they have been transformed from poor
tenants in Norway into prosperous farmers cultivating their own land in the Dakota Territory.
Now Hulda is arriving with her reputation of being mean, and worse, with her is unmarried
daughter Ingaborg, who is remembered for bossing around the young Olson children. How will
the New World remake them into new people?
4856 THE REFORMATION OF GRANDMOTHER HULDA $9.99 Special: $7.99
THE PRAIRIE BLOOMS
In the fifth book, the struggle of the combined Ytterhorn/Olson families for survival on the Dakota
prairie continues with new threats, including a prairie fire and an additional setback in the form
of an October blizzard.
Signe and Elna go to school in McCauleyville, and both are encouraged to take the test early
to become teachers. Just after their fifteenth birthdays, they find themselves being vetted to
become teachers in the small neighboring communities. Soon they each will have to prepare
lessons, maintain a school, keep unruly children in line, and teach them to read and write and do
arithmetic. And they will have to do it all alone, without anyone to help them, except, of course,
for the local bachelors looking for wives.
Trygve meanwhile is earning good money as a carpenter in McCauleyville, and the family’s hard work on their
land continues to produce an abundance that enables them to live so much better than they had in Norway just a
few short years earlier.
4847 THE PRAIRIE BLOOMS $9.99 Special: $7.99
SIGNE
In the sixth novel in the Homesteaders series, five years have passed since the families left
Norway. Elna and Signe are now fifteen and already qualified teachers. While Elna is ready
to marry Trygve, Signe is determined to remain single and continue teaching. When smallpox
comes to the community where she teaches, those who had it before can help the others prepare
for it. Signe cares for both children and adults, and her hopes for the future change dramatically.
5516 SIGNE $9.99 Special: $7.99
HHOM5 HOMESTEADERS SERIES Set of six novels: $36.00
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A CHARM OF SILVER
“...the plot’s fast-moving excitement will provide enjoyment for readers. Additionally, the portrayal of the conflict between the Irish and Cousin Jack populations in
the American West is fascinating, and the lessons on the price of prejudice, ethnic conflict, and racism make the book useful for classroom discussions.” —Booklist
NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY CHOICE, BOOKS FOR THE TEENAGE READER
by Cameron Ferguson
Set in the thriving mining city of Butte, Montana, in the spring of 1889, and involving its Irish, Cousin
Jack (people from Cornwall, England), and Chinese cultures, this novel underscores the tensions and
cultural interactions of the period and accurately depicts mining methods and atmosphere through its
underground action sequences.
Molly Harrington lives with her upper-class, widowed, maternal grandmother Cattie in a fancy house
in the fashionable section of Butte. Molly’s mother has died, and her father, a miner, has broken off all
contact. Grandmother has no use for the poorer shanty Irish or any other cultures and has given Molly no
information about her father. But Molly is now fifteen, and her tension over Grandmother’s strict control
is forcing her to break from Cattie and try to find her father. By putting bits of remembered and overheard
Novel Type
Historical, Adventure,
pieces of information together, she determines that her father is a Cousin Jack. Her search enables her to
Social/Family Relationships
mix with the townspeople and learn about them and the mines. She cleverly follows a supply delivery to
Primary Audience
her father’s mine, where she discovers him stealing silver from an adjoining Cousin Jack tunnel. Even so,
Girls
Interest Level
she begs for a reconciliation, which he rejects.
12 yrs & up
Back at Grandmother’s, after hearing that the Cousin Jacks have discovered the theft of their silver, Molly
again sneaks into the mines to warn her father to escape with his freedom. Determined, he now commands her to stay with
him until his business is done, but she flees through the tunnels. Topside, there is news of a coming battle: the Cousin Jacks
have accused the Irish miners of stealing their silver. Molly feels that she must now tell what she knows to the Cousin Jacks’
mine superintendent to stop an underground battle. She returns to the mines with the superintendent’s son to find him, but it
is too late. The fight is on. She and the son are separated, and Molly is on her own. For a fleeting moment, she confronts her
father again, and their relationship is forever changed. Events occur rapidly, and with a surprise twist, the battle is defused.
Cameron Ferguson deftly mixes history and characterization. His characters’ personalities develop mainly through their
reactions to events. Their actions and conversations drive the plot.
1641 A CHARM OF SILVER $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
FOR THE LOVE OF GOLD
“...a good lesson in the telling.” —The Provident Bookfinder
KANSAS STATE READING COUNCIL CHOICE
by Janelle Diller
Colorado, 1896. Keziah Fursman hurries home alone after school. Hairless Henry Stokes, an oddball
miner, follows her and warns her that her father had better stop taking his gold. Her family does not
understand the message. Some months later, the family gains full ownership of a mine that Daniel
Fursman, Keziah’s father, grubstaked veteran miner Jeb Rowley to. Jeb died under curious circumstances.
Daniel would prefer selling the mine to mining it.
Two fires destroy the town. Although Daniel is tempted to mine the vein he’s found, since he’s the town’s
best carpenter, he’s overwhelmed with work in rebuilding Cripple Creek. The family’s gold fever is put
on hold. A neighbor, Mr. Schmieder, does strike a rich vein and immediately buys a huge house with all
Novel Type
its accouterments. Keziah and her family are jealous. It appears that mining has made a better life for
Mystery, Adventure,
the Schmieders. So Daniel decides to reopen his mine, but promising veins play out quickly, and the
Values, History
family finds itself in debt from the mine’s expenses. They begin to see that all is also not well with the
Primary Audience
Schmieder family. Keziah faces the truth: the Schmieders were poor and unhappy; now they are rich and
Girls
unhappy. Fortunately for the Fursmans, Ethel Blake agrees to buy their mine as payment for their debts
Interest Level
12 yrs & up
at her supply store.
Keziah and Daniel return to the mine once more to collect his tools. Henry Stokes kidnaps Keziah, still
believing that Daniel was stealing his gold—just as Jeb Rowley did. Keziah reasons with him. To check her story, Stokes
returns to Cripple Creek and later releases her unharmed. Keziah finally understands that the most precious gold is her family.
The novel has richly developed characters and is filled with historical atmosphere. A teacher’s guide is available.
2680 FOR THE LOVE OF GOLD $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
4241 TEACHER MANUAL $5.00
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HISTORIC AL NOVELS
GOING FOR THE GOLD
by Norma Lewis
In the depression that began in 1893, people had no unemployment insurance or welfare programs.
The promise of gold lured them all, and by 1897, “Ho! For the Klondike!” rang out across the land.
North America’s last gold rush had begun.
Few of the adventurous schemers and dreamers had any idea of what they were getting into. The
Klondike River was just a name to them, and the fact that the gold lay buried fifty or sixty feet in
permafrost meant nothing to the uninitiated.
Sailing through Southeast Alaska’s Inside Passage, with stinking chickens, sheep, and pigs, then
crossing either the White Pass at Skagway or the Chilkoot Pass at Dyea jolted most into the reality of
the hardships of their quest. The Northwest Mounted Police allowed no one to enter Canada without
enough food and supplies to last a year. That meant at least a half ton to transport. Most stampeders
Novel Type
moved their own outfits, fifty to seventy-five pounds, five to ten miles, cached it, then returned for the
History, Gold Rush,
next load. Icelock and mudlock were often the only rewards for endurance. The gold was not there
Biography
to grab and run with.
Primary Audience
Boys
This book is an entertaining compendium of an amazing period, built on painstaking research
Interest
Level
and short-story biographies. The vivid portraits are full of details and include an exciting cast of
11 yrs & up
characters: George Carmack and Skookum, Jim Mason, Belinda Mulrooney, Mike Mahoney, Soapy
Smith, Martha Purdy, Jack London, Ed Jesson, Stroller White, Klondy Nelson, Felix Pedro, Jujira
Wada, Fannie Quigley, and Wyatt Earp. There are period photos and author’s notes to bring the stories to conclusion, as
well as an extensive bibiliography.
327X GOING FOR THE GOLD $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
JOURNE Y TO A NE W WORLD
IMMIGRATION • A MERICAN/JE WISH HISTORY
by Myra Saturen
Myra Saturen has based her novel on the notes that her grandfather, Joseph Hyman, wrote in pencil on
little tablets of paper about his family’s immigration to the United States from Russia in the early 1900s.
The novel tells the story of Joseph and Ruth and also Nathan and Frieda. Their parents, in the late
nineteenth century, made the difficult decision to leave Russia and come to America to Cincinnati. During
that time period, many Jews left their homes in Poland and Russia and migrated to America.
The Goodman family is part of this migration; their adventures are at once unique and compelling and at
the same time very like the experiences of millions of other families. More than anything else, they stick
together, depend upon the children working to make ends meet, and pay a huge price in so many ways for
Novel Type
the freedom and prosperity they find in America. Together they form an essential part of the making of
American-Jewish
History
modern America.
Primary Audience
Myra Saturen says that on reading her grandfather’s notes after he died, she was “overwhelmed by the
Boys/Girls
beauty and humor of the writing. It gave me a real picture of what my grandfather’s, and even my greatInterest Level
10 yrs & up
grandparents’, lives were like.” She says she wanted to preserve the story of her family for her own
two children, who are now adults. “The younger generation doesn’t know them at all,” she says. “They
weren’t around to hear their voices and smell the foods they cooked.” This is Saturen’s second novel for older readers. Her
first was Julietta. Set in medieval France, it is about a young woman who overcomes prejudice against race and gender to
become an herbalist physician.
4948 JOURNEY TO A NEW WORLD $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
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BREAKER AT DAWN
by Paul Sullivan
This is a novel of the American coal industry in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It
is told from the point of view of Paddy O’Grady, a twelve-year-old working in a Pennsylvania mine
in the breaker, where boys below the age of fourteen sort through rapidly moving streams of coal,
picking out rocks and shale from the anthracite on the way to the rail siding.
Novel Type
History,
Child Labor
Primary Audience
Boys
Interest Level
10 yrs & up
Miners and their families come from Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Germany, Poland, Slovakia, and Italy.
The mine owners allow the differences of national origin and ethnic rivalries to keep the workers
separate and relatively powerless, and the mining towns are divided by ethnicity. Mining families
are poor, and Paddy O’Grady is not unusual for going to work in the breaker at the age of eight.
The law says that children under the age of twelve are not allowed to work, but the O’Grady family
desperately needs the income that Paddy can bring in, and documents can be manufactured as needed.
The boys who survives the twelve-hour days in the breaker can go down into the mines and earn more
money when they turn fourteen. But the work is dangerous, the overseer harsh, and Paddy has years
to go before he can become a miner—an occupation that is killing his father.
7055 BREAKER AT DAWN $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
UNSWEPT GRAVES
“This is a charming, highly imaginative and inventive book that is
equally well-written and well-researched.” —China Insight
by Robert Black
Travel back in time to the 1890s.
Unswept Graves is a gripping story that starts in the present day in a small Nebraskan town about
to celebrate its annual Founders’ Day. The founders were said to include young Jasmine Wu’s greatgreat-grandparents, Charlie and Hannah Fong. Jasmine and her friend Oz get to find out the Fongs’
story when they are suddenly and magically transported by her ancestors’ mysterious pendant back in
time to the Chinatown of San Francisco in the late 1890s.
Novel Type
American-Chinese History,
Adventure
Primary Audience
Boys/Girls
Interest Level
12 yrs & up
The children find out that it was a dangerous, brutal time to be Chinese, especially for young girls.
Jasmine is kidnapped and sold into slavery. Oz has to dress as a boy to rescue her and get her to the
shelter of the Mission Home. They meet Charlie Fong, and somehow they have to make sure that
the future happens. In the end, the founders and ancestors are honored as they should be, and Jasmine
discovers her heritage.
The title of this book refers to the traditional Chinese festival of Ching Ming, or “Grave Sweeping
Day,” when families pay tribute to their ancestors and tend to their family gravesites. Author Robert
Black says his purpose is “to give readers a taste of what life used to be like—and an experience of
being there. I hope too they will learn the same lesson that Jasmine learns during her trip to the past,
about the challenges and hardships people had to face and the determination it took to survive all
that.”
Black’s research into the life of Chinese immigrants reveals shocking anti-Chinese prejudice in the U.S. at the time, and
also the dangerous work of rescuing slave girls by the Presbyterian Mission Home in San Francisco. The home still exists
on Sacramento Street. It is now Cameron House, a Chinese community center.
Robert Black’s previous novel is Liberty Girl. Set in Baltimore, it is based on his grandmother’s diaries about growing up
part German at the end of World War I.
There is a supporting website (www.rablack.com) showing contemporary photographs and footage of Chinatown, as well
as a bibliography for further reading.
9035 UNSWEPT GRAVES $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
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CHARLIE BOY
by Kim Delmar Cory
Detroit in the 1890s. In bicycle shops around the city, men are experimenting with the internal combustion
engine in an effort to make horseless carriages. It is the crucial time in the growth of Detroit as the automobile
center of the world, and this book brings to life the excitement and individual nature of the early development
of the automobile.
A bicycle shop owner named William Metzger was one of the pioneers of the auto industry. Into his shop
comes twelve-year-old Charlie O’Brien, a boy with an astounding ability to draw and to make automobile
ideas come alive. Charlie moves into Metzger’s shop, and together they work toward the development of the
automobile. They ride with Charles King in the first car to drive the streets of Detroit. They spend evenings
with the Dodge brothers working on ideas. They also do not miss baseball at Bennett Park, which would
later be called Tiger Stadium, and many of the other attractions of Detroit in the 1890s. The novel is very
accessible for young readers, who are drawn into Charlie’s world.
Charlie is a fictional character, but Will Metzger was a real Detroiter who opened the first automobile
dealership in Detroit in 1890s. He was the M in EMF cars (an early competitor of Ford), built cars for Pierce
Arrow, and was a founder of the Detroit Athletic Club and of the American Automobile Association.
4969 CHARLIE BOY $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
Novel Type
American History
Primary Audience
Boys
Interest Level
10 yrs & up
LILLY ’S WAY
by Kim Delmar Cory
Muskegon, Michigan, 1891. Twelve-year old Lilly works in her mother’s inn, along with teenage brother
Gaston and teenage sister Lu. The family has been fatherless since just before Lilly’s birth. Father deserted
them. The inn was a gift to Lilly’s parents from her father’s wealthy parents early in the marriage to help
settle their son’s gambling, irresponsible nature. It didn’t work, but it has provided shelter and a modest
income for the family. Now, money is tight, and changes have to be made.
Their mother, Beth, wants to make the inn into a resort by sprucing it up and marketing some of its specialties,
particularly orchard-fresh foods and tours. Gaston wants to join a lumbering outfit to make extra money. Lu,
artistic and a wonderful seamstress, works part-time at the Muskegon paper and wants to look fashionable
and marry well. Lilly, more than anything else, wants to attend college, become a writer, and know that her
father loves her.
Novel Type
Rich and powerful businesswoman Grandmère Claire Marie never approved of her son’s marriage and broke
Family Values,
ties with the family when he left it. In town for a Chamber of Commerce meeting, a chance sighting of Lilly’s
Historical Adventure
flaming red hair, unmistakably the same as her son’s, revives her thoughts of the family and the past. Her own
Primary Audience
red hair is not lost on Lilly, who sees her across the street and immediately knows who she is.
Girls
Interest Level
Later, when Gaston is in an accident during a logger’s contest with $1,000 prize money, Lilly runs into town
9 yrs & up
to Grandmère to fetch a doctor because she is sure a good one will respond to her grandmother’s call. They
arrive at the accident site to find Gaston already in the care of Dr. King. On the way, Grandmère begins to heal the family rift by
accepting Lilly as her grandchild. When Lilly tells Beth about Grandmère’s words, Beth realizes that she and Grandmère really
never took the time to listen to each other.
Duncan Christie arrives to woo Beth. Gaston appears to have won the $1,000, to be used on the inn. And Lilly determines that
Dr. King is the right man for her mother, particularly after she overhears that Duncan is an embezzler. He has been courting Beth
because one of her orchards is supposed to contain bank robbers’ gold. Meanwhile, Grandmère has been quietly maneuvering to
help the family. The $1,000 Gaston got from the logging company was from her, as was a well-meaning letter to Beth. As the
family begins to clear the orchard of dead trees, they find a willow filled with gold coins. Thoughts now turn to building a proper
dock for a ferry landing, indoor plumbing, telephones, and college.
The novel closes with Lilly coming to terms with herself about her father, who has been in town and has left at his mother’s
mansion letters for the children and one for his mother, who personally delivers the children’s and apologizes for the missed
years. Lilly reads that he loves her. She needed to know that, but now, more importantly, she realizes that she has always been
her mother’s daughter, and she prepares to get on with the things she has to do.
Lilly’s Way is at once a beautiful novel of family values and an accurate historical picture of the juxtaposition of Michigan’s
lumbering and tourist industries.
3636 LILLY’S WAY $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
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HISTORIC AL NOVELS
THE GHOST MEMOIRS OF ROBERT FALCON SCOTT
by Ken Derby
Novel Type
History, Adventure,
Biography
Primary Audience
Boys
Interest Level
12 yrs & up
The ghost of Robert Falcon Scott must tell his story before he is allowed to pass into the beyond. He tells
it to “CyberRat” through the Internet. His quest for the South Pole is compelling and sheds light on the
motivations of all explorers.
Scott (1868–1912) was a dreamer. Since childhood, he wanted to join the French Foreign Legion and be an
explorer. His family instead cast him into their mold of the Royal British Navy. Robert was determined to
make the best of the situation. Family bankruptcy and his father’s death put the family’s total support on
Robert’s shoulders, so he accepted the offer of Sir Clements Markham, president of the Royal Geographic
Society, who was organizing and equipping a British Antarctic expedition to the South Pole.
Through the Internet dialogue, the reader learns about both of Scott’s expeditions. The first, lasting from 1902
to 1904, failed to reach the South Pole. Conditions were miserable. Scott’s team survived, and he returned to
England to become famous for his trek for as far as it went. In 1910, he was determined to win the prize of
success for the British Empire, so he began his second expedition. It was a disaster from the beginning. The
motor-driven sledges broke down, and blizzards wrecked havoc on his timetable. His team arrived at the Pole
to find a note from Norway’s Roald Amundsen, and on the torturous way back, Scott’s team froze to death in
agony. The technique of the ghost purging himself of his story allows all details to be revealed.
5523 THE GHOST MEMOIRS $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
LIBERT Y GIRL
by Robert Black
Set during the last year of World War I in Baltimore, Maryland, seventh grader Eleanor Blizzard and her
mother have moved from their home in Indiana to be with Eleanor’s father, who is doing essential work for
the Allies in the Great War against Germany. The family will remain in Baltimore as long as the war lasts.
Not yet enrolled in school and with no one her age around, Eleanor and teenage Maggie, the African-American
housekeeper of the building, begin a friendship that transcends the differences in their social and economic
positions and their cultures. In an environment of war hysteria, the great influenza pandemic, and the racial
divides of 1918 Baltimore, Eleanor attempts to do what she knows to be right. Once in school, Eleanor is
singled
out as dangerously different and is bullied. Classmates, led by Boy Scout Billy Blake, believe that
Novel Type
History,
she lived in a log cabin in Indiana and that her studying German in school makes her suspect for espionage.
Relationships
Before the Great War was really over, an erroneous French report of armistice spread worldwide over the
Primary Audience
wire services. Historically accurate, Liberty Girl captures that glorious moment and the jubilation that the
Girls
peace announcement brought. The novel also explores the empty feeling in the hearts and minds of the
Interest Level
neighborhood residents as the mistake comes to light. In addition, the Spanish influenza epidemic also
10 yrs & up
involves the characters in varying degrees of difficulty.
Robert Black has created this novel out of his grandmother’s memories of growing up in wartime Baltimore, and he paints a
visually vibrant canvas of the period. His characters face believable situations and speak believable dialogue.
4894 LIBERTY GIRL $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
OIL FIELD BRATS
by Joyce Esely
It is 1927, and the oil field towns of the Texas Panhandle have no roads, houses, or schools.
Novel Type
The riggers and their families live in tent camps in a treeless landscape and have to cope with
History, Family
snakes and mice, the constant smell of oil, the bootleggers and ruffians, dust storms that last Primary Audience
a week, and mudslides when it rains.
Boys/Girls
Interest Level
The resourceful Peterson children are “oil field brats” who collect bottles and give rides in
9 yrs & up
mud-sleds to contribute to the family “house fund,” with which they hope to move into a
proper house with walls one day. Their papa has sunk the money into gushers that do not
gush or which catch fire and take days to extinguish.
Betty Lou sees a tap dance class, and the height of her ambition is to be in a place where she can learn to dance. That is her dream
amidst the dust and danger and the itinerant lifestyle of the oil field pioneers.
5297 OIL FIELD BRATS $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
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HISTORIC AL NOVELS
TENDING BEN’S GARDEN
by Kim Delmar Cory
This is the story of a big sister’s fierce love for her younger brother. Set in Michigan during the Great Depression,
Kate and Ben’s family do not think that they can do the best for little Ben, an uncommonly bright child, and
they allow him to go to a foster home.
Kate will not accept the situation, and she gets her brothers to help her tend Ben’s garden through all the seasons
of his absence. The garden was important to Ben, so the garden is important to them. But Kate has to face some
unpleasant realities, even while hanging on to her dreams of getting Ben back. She rides the railroads with the
hobos in search of him and nearly loses her life.
Through all the difficulties the Depression brings to her family, eventually Ben is returned. At the end of the
book, there is a poignant scene in which it is Ben’s turn to look after Kate as an old woman.
Kim Delmar Cory’s other children’s books, Lilly’s Way and Charlie Boy, are meticulously researched historical
novels and are frequently used in fourth-grade curricula for the study of Michigan history.
7789 TENDING BEN’S GARDEN $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
Novel Type
Family,
American History
Primary Audience
Boys/Girls
Interest Level
10 yrs & up
THE DAY MRS. ROOSE VELT CA ME TO TOWN
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by Anne Buckley
The Day Mrs. Roosevelt Came to Town was inspired by an overnight visit Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt
made to Lancaster, Texas, in 1936, prior to attending the Texas Centennial. The novel, a work of historical
fiction, traces the efforts of a young African-American woman, Olive Johnson, as she moves beyond her station
of maid and creates a new life for herself. Olive is empowered by Mrs. Roosevelt’s words and spirit.
Olive learns about Mrs. Roosevelt by reading her work aloud to her employer, Ethel Wilson, whose untimely
death sends Olive to the home of Louise and Bill Andrews as a maid. Abusive treatment from Louise prompts
Olive to consider other work. The opening of Madam C.J. Walker’s College of Beauty Culture in Dallas, a
school for colored cosmetologists, answers her dreams. After working for the Andrews during the day, Olive
commutes to school nightly on the electric trolley (the Interurban). Tuition is a strain, but her mother, Bessie
Mae, helps her work it out. A young African-American porter, Lewis Bonner, becomes intrigued with Olive
Novel Type
History, Adventure
and her determination. He helps her overcome her apprehension about the big city and school. Usually shy,
Olive warms to him. Bessie Mae and Pastor Simpson of the Free Will Baptist Church favorably measure Lewis’s Primary Audience
Boys/Girls
character, and with their approval, a romance develops.
Interest Level
Louise Andrews, hating to lose a good maid, tries to derail Olive’s education by loading her down with
12 yrs & up
impossible household chores. But Olive perseveres because she needs the money. Olive’s moments of joy
and laughter come from little third grader Lily, Louise’s daughter, and Lily’s grandmother Ella. They forge a deep and caring
relationship. Events take a tragic turn when Olive’s mother dies in a tornado. Overcome with grief, Olive retreats within herself,
rejects Lewis, and finds solace only in her beauty training. She struggles to cope with the devastating change in her life.
Eleanor Roosevelt’s written words echo in Olive’s mind, and when Mrs. Roosevelt finally arrives in town and speaks to the crowd
gathered at the train station, Olive’s inner soul knows that Mrs. Roosevelt’s speech is for her. Mrs. Roosevelt’s words about being
afraid herself in life, race, immigrant families, and an individual’s spirit empower Olive. Lewis is the porter on the Roosevelts’
railroad car. Heeding her inner soul and inner strength, Olive steps forward to join him and begin her new life.
Anne Buckley has been a freelance writer, journalist, and publicist. Winner of the Anita Cole Memorial Scholarship, University
of North Texas Centennial Literary Festival, Anne is also an active member of Women in Film/Dallas and the Dallas Screenwriters
Association.
4586 THE DAY MRS. ROOSEVELT CAME TO TOWN $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
GROWING UP AS A GREEK A MERICAN
Novel Type
Growing Up, Humor,
Autobiography
Primary Audience
Boys, Girls, & Their
Parents
Interest Level
12 yrs & up
by Dr. John Kallas
These stories will forever define the Greek-American experience in the twentieth century.
They are just the way you’d want them—warm, funny, loving, and accurate. This is life as
it was lived in Greek-American households all over the country. These are the triumphs and
sorrows of a strong people in a land where diversity was not always welcome.
The author of computer books and software, as well as a number of plays, John Kallas was
also the President of the Greek Writers Guild of America. He is an excellent storyteller and
a very funny man.
0130 GROWING UP AS A GREEK AMERICAN $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
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KLAUS
by Michael Hagen
The setting is Munich, Germany, November 8, 1923, Hitler’s failed putsch.
Fourteen-year-old Klaus is celebrating his birthday quietly with his father in their simple apartment. His father
had been a captain in the German Army during World War I, and his heartfelt gift to his son is the pocket watch
that had saved his life in battle. Now Germany is in a time of economic disaster and political turmoil, a time
when a pound of bread cost billions of marks and revolution is more probable than not. Although adolescent
Klaus is aware of the political instability and feels danger for his father, who works for the head of the Social
Democratic Party, which is hated by the members of the Nazi Party, he naively hopes that his father’s past
military service and his affirmation of nationalism might be a buffer to danger.
Novel Type
For young Klaus, Germany’s problems are still external. His good friend Fritz knows everything, especially
History, Adventure
about cars, and has a sister, Anna. Klaus is learning English from watching Tom Mix movies, and he wants to
Primary Audience
go to America to become an actor.
Boys
Interest Level
Wondrously, Klaus has just watched a stage rehearsal of Hedda Gabler. But on the way home from the
11-14 yrs
rehearsal, his life changes abruptly. He is caught in a wild crossfire and is wounded during Hitler’s attempted
putsch. Later, Hitler’s brown-shirted Storm Troopers break into the apartment looking for his father. With his
own life threatened, Klaus knows that he must lie to save his father, but he is afraid to open his mouth for fear of bungling the job.
Innocence is left behind in yesterday’s youth.
Michael Hagen writes with a fluidity and beauty that make Klaus an unforgettable story for teenagers. Mr. Hagen also has
authored the historical novels Sail to Caribee and The African Term.
0955 KLAUS $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
RIVER RATS
by Leslie J. Wyatt
Novel Type
Bullying, Growing Up
Primary Audience
Boys
Interest Level
9 yrs & up
The novel is set in 1940s rural Missouri, with World War II about to shatter lives forever. The story is told in
the authentic voice of twelve-year-old Kenny, who roams the countryside with his older brother and friends,
hanging out together in the bottoms of the Chariton River. Trouble comes with the arrival of a new boy, Henry
Nichols, who is “a thin stick of a person, looking like a half-starved hound...and not like us.”
Can he join the River Rats? Kenny’s big brother Jim is a bully and tries everything he can to humiliate and hurt
the newcomer, who doesn’t even go to “school because he is so poor.” Kenny has to risk losing the friendship
of his own brother by doing what, deep down, he knows is right. In the midst of the rough and tumble of the
boys’ day-to-day lives, the story tackles head-on the dilemmas and choices Kenny must face about loyalty,
friendship, and right and wrong.
Author Leslie J. Wyatt learned first-hand from someone who grew up in the Chariton River bottoms. He says,
“Listening to his stories was like stepping into a bygone age. I began to wish I could capture them for my
children and all the other children in the world who would never get to live that life.”
3789 RIVER RATS $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
ONLY THE BIRDS ARE FREE: THE STORY OF A WAR CHILD IN GREECE
by Anna Christake Cornwell
Novel Type
Historical,
Relationships,
Autobiography,
Adventure
Primary Audience
Girls
Interest Level
13 yrs & up
Born in the United States to Greek parents, Anna Christake Cornwell is trapped in Greece during the Nazifascist occupation in World War II. Her mother and father had returned to Greece to educate their young son
Tasio and their daughter Anna in the mother tongue and to visit the homeland. But in 1940, in spite of the
growing danger of world war, her father opts to return to the United States. Alone. Mother often rues his
selfish decision. She is left to protect her two young children from the Nazis for the next five and a half years.
The horrors of war bring Anna, Mama, and Tasio to know hunger and the constant threat of starvation, disease,
exposure to the elements, and enemy bullets. Constantly on the alert for raids, the refugees often run to the
mountains to hide, abandoning what little of their belongings remain.
Anna is fired up by the countrywide struggle for freedom. She becomes active in the youth liberation movement.
Later, emerging into womanhood and self-realization, she becomes a freedom fighter, a leader risking her life
for her ideals of independence and freedom.
Only the Birds Are Free is a story of action and emotion. The characters are robust, and the descriptive
passages are unforgettable. Anna’s story was originally published in Greek; this is the English translation.
5728 ONLY THE BIRDS ARE FREE $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
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HISTORIC AL NOVELS
MONDAY
by Garlyn Webb Wilburn
It is 1943 on a small farm near Parkerville in central Texas. Jeff has failed English. Given the option
by his strict fourth-grade teacher either to complete all assignments sent home during the summer or
to attend summer school, which she will be teaching, Jeff’s parents feel that a visit to his grandparents’
farm might be just the thing to help him buckle down to work and to change his attitude. They warn
him that if he does not do the reading and spelling work with Grandma, he will be brought home to go
to summer school.
Treated on the farm as a responsible member of the family, Jeff is given chores to do. Usually he is
paired with Monday, a strong-willed donkey that Jeff believes is “the most cantankerous donkey that
ever lived.” Jeff knows what he needs to do, and what he needs Monday to do. Monday knows what Jeff
thinks he should do; it is seldom what Jeff has planned. Readers will laugh at some of the situations Jeff
and Monday get into as the summer wears on. The observant reader will sense Jeff’s shifting attitude as
he reminisces about his adventures with Monday, and he credits the donkey not only with stubbornness,
but also intelligence and bravery in running off wolves.
Novel Type
Humor
Primary Audience
Boys/Girls
Interest Level
8-12 yrs
Toward summer’s end, Jeff is on time with his reading and spelling, and he builds a cart for Monday to
pull him in. He leads them both into a place where Monday clearly does not want to be. Too late, Jeff realizes that it is past
time to turn around and go home. While he is at a stream getting a drink, a blood-curdling scream from Monday mortifies
him, and he turns to see the damage a panther is doing to Monday’s back, neck, and shoulders. Monday’s survival becomes
paramount for Jeff, and so is the donkey’s presence in his life. Jeff’s attitude toward Monday has come full circle; he would
like to buy Monday when he grows up! Among other things, Jeff has learned that along with Monday’s stubborn nature
comes many admirable traits.
Garlyn Webb Wilburn lives in China Spring, Texas, where he spends his time raising donkeys and writing for young readers.
6260 MONDAY $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
MOUNTAIN SONG
by Elizabeth Janoski
West Virginia, 1942. Fourteen-year-old Jedadiah struggles to provide for his family since his father’s
death. To keep the farm going, he must find a way to gather coal for the winter and slaughter the hogs.
He also worries that his mother, once a schoolteacher, will send him away to high school, into the world
beyond the mountain that he loves. Jedadiah’s legacy is in the barn, a stack of chestnut lumber that has
been waiting for a craftsman to make it into furniture to sell. Jedadiah is too small and too young to
use the tools.
To gather the coal, Jedadiah needs the help of Rhys Maddox, new mine manager at Salt Lick. To
butcher the hogs, he needs the Slocum boys. Rhys is interested in the mountain’s timber and coal, as
well as providing jobs and needed fuel for the war effort. He labors to bring the Salt Lick mine back
into production. Although he is interested in Jedadiah’s mother, Jedadiah believes that Rhys only wants
the farm in order to expand the mine. The Slocums are thieves interested in the chestnut lumber. They
try to steal the lumber, and as Jedadiah chases them off the property, the barn and house catch fire and
are destroyed. Jedadiah’s mother accepts Rhys’s offer of a home and a teaching job in Salt Lick and
moves the family into the mining camp, where Jedadiah feels caged and useless. He looks for a job to
earn money. He believes that the family will be trapped by Rhys’s kindness, and he seeks revenge on the
Slocums for the fire and for their poisonous moonshine stills.
Novel Type
History, Adventure,
Coming of Age
Primary Audience
Boys/Girls
Interest Level
10-14 yrs
After a bitter argument with his mother and Rhys, Jedadiah heads for the mountain, where he stumbles upon another still—
and the Slocums ready to do him in. But Rhys has come looking for him and intervenes. Jedadiah escapes, but Rhys suffers
the consequences: entrapment in an abandoned mine tunnel. As the miners and mountainfolk try to save Rhys, Jedadiah
realizes that he himself is the one responsible for much of his own misery and the predicament that Rhys is in. He must save
Rhys. And as he shares in Rhys’s ordeal, he discovers that he never has to leave the mountain permanently, but in order to
steward its resources properly, he must gain an education.
Mountain Song is the story of a boy’s journey toward manhood and the understanding that he must accept full responsibility
for the consequences of his actions.
6287 MOUNTAIN SONG $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
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NADIA OF THE NIGHT WITCHES
by Tom Townsend
Nadia of the Night Witches is an action-packed story of courage, determination, and romance; it is the story
of young women at war in unprecedented aerial combat during World War II. There is dramatic fighting
action, a superb storyline, and character development. Although the book is a work of historical fiction, the
Night Witches were very real. Following the German invasion of Russia in the summer of 1941, the Soviet
government authorized the formation of three squadrons of female pilots. One of these, the 588th Night
Bomber Squadron, became known as the Night Witches. Equipped with obsolete, open-cockpit biplanes
built in the 1920s, they flew some of the most daring combat missions of World War II. During the past
half-century of the Cold War, their story has, for the most part, remained untold outside of the Soviet Union.
Seventeen-year-old Nadia Tarachinko has just graduated from flight school, and for whatever short time
she believes she has left to her life before being killed by the advancing Germans, she wants to kill Germans—
Novel Type
nothing else matters. The action begins immediately. In a flashback, we see Nadia’s family farm being
History, Adventure
Primary Audience bombed, her family being killed, and a near-crazed and bloodied Nadia being rescued from two German
soldiers by Lilly, who swoops out of the air in a PO-2 and flies the girl, sitting on the body of her bloodied
Boys/Girls
and dead back-cockpit navigator, to the safety of the Night Witches’ base. Missions, battles, and innermost
Interest Level
12 yrs & up
thoughts of the fighting young women play from the pages. Although this is Nadia’s story, it is also a riveting
look at patriotism, love, and war through the eyes of young women at war.
Those in battle are afraid to care for anyone because death is so eminent. Yet Townsend shows us love in various combinations:
Lilly and Nadia (both Night Witches pilots), Shenya (Nadia’s navigator) and Nicholai (a Russian flight captain), Nadia and Misha
(a tank command sergeant), and the Night Witches barracks’ (all ranks) compassion for a surviving young German boy who they
are determined to keep incognito and hand off to the safety of the Allied forces as soon as they can at the war’s end.
This is the time of Stalin and Mother Russia and the Young Communists League. All Russians fought. The open-cockpit PO-2
biplane was simple enough for peasant girls to fly and cheap to build and repair. And training women for air battle freed up the
men to fly the more important missions of the Great Patriotic War. Nadia of the Night Witches is dedicated to the memory of all
those pioneer women, both Allied and Axis, who flew military aircraft in World War II.
Tom Townsend is a noted historian with more then twenty books to his credit. He has won literary and video awards and has
worked on significant made-for-television and big-screen films.
2737 NADIA OF THE NIGHT WITCHES $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
CASSIE’S WAR
“...an excellent book.” —Ohioana Library Association
by Allan M. Winkler
It is just prior to the bombing of Pearl Harbor, 1941. Like so many others, Cassie’s family has left a home
and lifestyle hampered by economic depression and moved to California to find work in the defense plants
and to live in a housing project. It is a long way from the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee.
School is on double session, with forty children in each section of the fifth grade. There, Cassie and Miko,
a Japanese-American, find each other and become best friends. Miko’s family owns and lives on a farm, but
being Japanese carries problems for them that Cassie at first cannot understand. Seeing the war as the key
to his dreams, hating the Japanese, and bigoted toward Italian, Spanish, and Jewish people, Cassie’s father
undermines their father-daughter relationship by ordering her to end her friendship with Miko. He also
forbids Cassie’s mother to work, even though she is lonely, homesick, and suffering from boredom.
Novel Type
History,
Relationships
Primary Audience
Girls
Interest Level
10 yrs & up
With the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Cassie’s life changes: her father is drafted, goes off to war, and is killed;
Miko’s family is sent to an internment camp in Utah; her mother goes to work; and Cassie assumes more
home responsibilities and learns about rationing, coupon books, and the black market. She builds a new
friendship with Maria, a quiet, sensitive, Mexican classmate. Through Miko’s letters, she glimpses life in
the internment camp. The atomic bomb becomes a reality.
At the war’s end, Miko returns to a strained reunion with Cassie. Understanding Cassie, their friendship, and
Cassie’s guilty feelings about distancing Miko, Maria sparks the rekindling of Cassie’s and Miko’s friendship. Although things
have changed, they have somehow stayed the same. Now there will be a friendship of three.
1064 CASSIE’S WAR $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
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HISTORIC AL NOVELS
GYPSY PRINCE: WAR HORSE
by Tom Townsend
Gypsy Prince was born small, the last foal of an old German war horse that had survived World War
I. The stablemaster expected that because of his small size, the horse would end up pulling a beer
wagon. But it is the late 1930s, and the Reich needs every horse for the conflict to come. It also
needs all the expertise it can find to care for the horses, and so Gypsy Prince and Hans, the stable
boy who looks after the horse, end up in the same unit of the German Army, paired for the duration
of the conflict.
They go into battle on the Eastern Front as part of the invasion of the Soviet Union. Together they
make it as far as Stalingrad, where, with the Russians encircling the Germans, Gypsy Prince is turned
loose rather than be turned into a stew for the hungry troops. With extraordinary luck, he makes it
through enemy lines back to the German forces, where he is once again pressed into the war effort.
This time he is shipped to the Western Front, where he is taken and used by the French Resistance after
the invasion at Normandy. Eventually, the horse finds himself loose and travels through France to
Germany. He crosses the Rhine at Remagen just ahead of the American troops and continues to make
his way across the countryside until he reaches the farm where he was born.
Through the eyes of the horse and the perspective of his interactions with humans, kind and unkind,
Tom Townsend has provided a very basic and comprehensible history of the Second World War. This
perspective is superb for allowing youngsters to see the values of the participants in the war without
being didactic or preachy.
Novel Type
History, Relationships,
Action, Horse Story
Primary Audience
Boys/Girls
Interest Level
10-16 yrs
4349 GYPSY PRINCE $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
HITLER’S WILLING WARRIOR
by Henry Gutsche
Historians now debate the guilt of the German people. Some argue that all Germans were a party
to the evils of the Nazis, the Holocaust, and the execution of nine million people in Germany’s
concentration camps. Others argue that only a small number of Germans were really guilty—that
the vast majority had no choice but to follow, themselves victims as well.
Henner Falk, seventeen, grows up anti-Nazi during the Nazi Era and naively expresses his political
views. For these views, he is imprisoned and tortured. He escapes and then is hunted for years by
a Gestapo agent with a personal vendetta. Henner’s hiding place is in the thick of battle, fighting
in the Luftwaffe against the Allies in Russia, Africa, and Italy. He does not desert; he does not
surrender; he endures and hides, turning down rank promotion to remain inconspicuous in the corps
of pilots to remain alive.
In 1945, Henner becomes a prisoner of war, yet he feels free. In time he is repatriated back to a
different Germany to finish his formal education and to resume his life as best he can with the family
and friends he has left.
This is Henry Gutsche’s real-life story. He later became a leading research scientist in the field of
silicon computer chips in the United States.
Was Henner a henchman or a victim?
Novel Type
History, Relationships,
Action, Autobiography
Primary Audience
Boys
Interest Level
13 yrs & up
5205 HITLER’S WILLING WARRIOR) $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
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HISTORIC AL NOVELS
BE YOND THE YELLOW STAR TO A MERICA
NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY CHOICE, BOOKS FOR THE TEENAGE READER KANSAS STATE READING CIRCLE
CHOICE, YAVNER AWARD FROM THE NEW YORK STATE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, ELLIS ISLAND AWARD
“This is a first-rate, moving autobiographical account of life as a refugee and what it takes to step beyond past pain and create a meaningful life....
A truly wonderful complement to The Diary of Anne Frank.” —VOYA Magazine
“...simple, deeply effective prose...students studying the Holocaust will benefit from Inge’s perspective and empathize with her experiences.
Recommended for junior high school students.” —KLIATT Magazine
by Inge Auerbacher
Inge Auerbacher’s first book, I Am a Star: Child of the Holocaust, won the coveted Merit of Educational
Distinction from the International Center for Holocaust Studies of the B’nai Brith Anti-Defamation League.
That moving autobiography covered her childhood years up to age eleven and her internment in the Terezin
Concentration Camp in Czechoslovakia, ending with the Allied Liberation in 1945.
Beyond the Yellow Star to America carries the reader into Inge’s world of an immigrant in America, at once
dealing with her own psychological and physiological growing up and the real, external world of being an
outsider to American culture. With vibrantly clear images, Inge tells her story through a series of sequential
vignettes, reinforced by many photographs from her collection.
Following a brief historical background, we arrive with Inge in New York Harbor in 1946 aboard the Marine
Perch, an American troop transport ship, and travel with her through her life’s turning points against the 1940s,
’50s and ’60s settings of New York’s East Side, Brooklyn, and Queens. We revisit Europe with her. The hot
Novel Type
History, Self-Esteem, and cold factions of her Americanized relatives, the resolve of her parents to achieve in the American economic
Social/Family
mainstream in spite of the odds against them during their first steps to independence, and Inge’s private, ongoing
Relationships,
physical nightmare fills the reader with pride in the positive qualities of the human spirit and its determination
Autobiography
to survive.
Primary Audience
Girls
But Inge’s American years are not just survival years, as is often the story of Holocaust victims. Her resulting
Interest Level
personal, psychological fuel from the past drives her dynamism and ideals of today for the betterment of people
12 yrs & up
everywhere. She is an activist for humankind. She is both an esteemed chemist/medical researcher and an
accomplished motivational public speaker for brotherhood through education and communication against
bigotry and other manipulative tactics that divide humanity into isolated groups.
2524 BEYOND THE YELLOW STAR $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
RUNNING AGAINST THE WIND:
A BIOGRAPHICAL NOVEL OF M ARY AND M ARTHA DESAUSSURE
“A wonderful story.... ” —Children’s Literature
by Inge Auerbacher
It’s 1945, Brooklyn, New York, Bedford-Stuyvesant. Post WWII euphoria, nostalgia, the PAL, and interracial
relations as they really were, as told by the pioneering black track stars. This is the warm story of Mary
and Martha Desaussure’s religious home life (Papa was a minister), their “mixed” neighborhood, their athletic
triumphs and heartbreaking defeats. This a story of the realities of post-WWII racial prejudices, the pride of
the girls’ immediate neighborhood, and the vulnerability they learned to feel when they ventured outside of it.
Mary and Martha’s immediate neighbors and shop-owner friends, fixtures in their growing-up years, were a
wonderful mix of black, Jewish, Irish, and Italian people. The twins relate personal stories about each, and
because they were children, it is striking how many of their remembrances have to do with food or candy. (The
girls insisted that their story contain an appendix of the recipes that have become a part of their lives!)
Novel Type
Biography,
The twins’ story is also the story of the Police Athletic League and how the sisters, black sisters, helped to
Sports, Black History
reshape it. The PAL gave them the psychological boost to achieve, to believe. It opened very real doors. And it
Primary Audience
changed things forever for women because of them. The PAL story picks up from the first race that Mary won
Girls
at the 13th Regiment Armory Regional Track Meet (but received the silver medal because she was black, and
Interest Level
the white German favorite had to get the gold). It includes the successes of “firsts” the twins shared in the first
9-15 yrs
black PAL girls track team in Bedford-Stuyvesant and the first integrated PAL AAU women’s track team in New
York City. Their scrapbooks are filled with photos and medals. And the panorama shows the white canvas of female athletes and
spectators that first greeted them.
Today, Mary and Martha are leaders in their interest areas. Both rose in the ranks of the Women’s Auxiliary of the National Baptist
Convention; VARANA, the Volta Region Association of North America; and the Women’s Africa Committee of the AfricanAmerican Institute. Mary retired from the Elmhurst Hospital Center as Administrative Executive Secretary to the Director.
Martha pursued politics and became the first black administrative secretary in the New York Supreme Court and then the first
black legal administrative secretary to work in the Appellate Division. She has been a team with Justice William C. Thompson
for more then thirty years.
84 RUNNING AGAINST THE WIND $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
4373
HISTORIC AL NOVELS
THE SUMMER OF MY FIRST PEDIDDLE
“...an engaging story.... Teenage readers will relate ...would work well in a unit on prejudice....” —VOYA Magazine
by Steven Moiles
David Thatcher is a fourteen-year-old whose father, a Washington, D.C.-based Army colonel
in charge of a supplies office, has been subpoenaed to appear before Joseph McCarthy’s Senate
committee. The story revolves around David’s reactions to “McCarthyism” and his confused
feelings about his father’s case.
We follow David through the most important three months of his life as he grows up and begins
to process information and think for himself. He builds an accurate values system as he separates
reality from appearances, recognizes how facts can be distorted by twists or by omissions to lead
to incorrect conclusions, understands the workings of guilt by association, becomes aware of the
manipulative powers of the media through reporting emphasis and the ability to project innuendo
as more, and sees how dramatic presentation techniques can misuse television in presenting “live”
coverage of events to viewers. David learns that friendship, loyalty, love, and truth are paramount.
Two subplots further explore the concept of love. Its romantic viewpoint is expressed through David’s
relationship with Joy. She is an intelligent, beautiful, open-minded, sensitive teenager. Family love
with the purpose of manipulation is epitomized by his soft-spoken, seemingly genuine grandfather.
1226 THE SUMMER OF MY FIRST PEDIDDLE $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
Novel Type
Family Relationships,
History, Values
Primary Audience
Boys/Girls
Interest Level
12 yrs & up
WE HAVE TO ESCAPE
by Judit Makranczy
Twelve-year-old Andras is the best soccer player on his school team. But his teammates, jealous of
this new arrival on the scene with such natural abilities, tease and harass him mercilessly. When he
decides to quit the team, Jennifer, the sister of one of the players, intercedes and offers him the kind
words and support he needs to open up and tell the amazing story he has kept secret.
Andras begins with the terrifying night when the Hungarian Secret Police arrested his father and
mother in his hometown of Budapest, Hungary. He tells the poignant story of his family’s daring
and frightening journey to the United States. Knowing they will be shot if captured, Andras and
his family plan their escape, obtaining the forged documents needed to leave their shattered city
for freedom in America. With his parents, grandfather, and three sisters, he encounters terrifying
situations as the family heads for the border. His once-boyish hopes for adventure turn into abject
fear of those life-threatening events. The little group must survive the terror of bullets, boarder
guards, prison, and dangerous crossings as they begin their journey to freedom and acceptance in a
strange land.
We Have to Escape is a true story of an exciting and terror-filled escape to America and how, once here,
life for Andras seems to be unjustly chaotic as he tries to fit into a strange culture.
Judit Makranczy was born in Budapest, Hungary. Her novel depicts the events of her family’s triumphs
and tragedies as they fled their war-torn country.
3733 WE HAVE TO ESCAPE $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
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Novel Type
History, Adventure,
Biography
Primary Audience
Boys/Girls
Interest Level
10 yrs & up
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WHERE A WHITE DOG SMILES
by Demetra Mihevic
It’s 1952, Greece. Elinohori is a mountain village on the northern part of the Peloponnesus, far
removed from civilization. Nine-year-old Maria lives here with her mother, bossy aunt, grandmother,
and pet dog. Father was a World War II casualty, as were most of the other men in the village.
Therefore, her unmarried aunt has little hope of finding a husband and is in disgrace in the eyes of
tradition. Life centers around picking grapes and making bread.
When Uncle Dimitri, in America, offers to have Maria live with his family, the women agree that
Elinohori offers Maria no opportunity. Soon she is on her way to America. This is the story of
Maria’s passage from her home and family and orthodox Greek tradition to a strange family, school,
language, and way of life.
Novel Type
History, Social/Family
Relationships,
Autobiography
Primary Audience
Girls
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8-12 yrs
Girls will bond with Maria from the beginning of the book—crying with her and smiling with her
through a variety of “girl” experiences that transcend miles and time. From the first, the reader sees
Maria as strong, observant, intelligent, sensitive, introspective, and brave, yet looking to her mother
for direction. Her mother knows the reality of their situation and lovingly nudges Maria into a new
world of hope and personal possibility.
We smile at Maria’s joy and befuddlement about such things as taking a shower, skyscrapers,
elevators, hot dogs and mustard and ketchup, cookies, and her first snowstorm. And we appreciate
her problem-solving abilities as she wills her mind to work like a high-powered magnet, pulling in vocabulary at home and
at school because she knows that mastering English is the key to friendships and success. She will meet the children who
mock her accent and play vocabulary tricks on her on their own ground! Eventually one special youngster’s animosity,
aroused by Maria’s growing popularity and determination, is defeated and replaced with friendship and admiration. In her
new home, Maria finds the love of her uncle and aunt. Above all, she finds a friend for life, a friend with whom to share all
her hopes and fears—a white Samoyed, Petie.
Demetra Mihevic is also the author of When a Barred Owl Calls, the sequel to Where a White Dog Smiles.
9848 WHERE A WHITE DOG SMILES $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
MOVES
by Douglas C. Horn
Moves is the story of Hiro, from Nagoya, Japan, who comes to a small town in Montana when
his father is sent to run a company-owned cattle ranch. Hiro quickly becomes the favorite target
of the school bully, but he feels he cannot talk about his problems with his parents, who are
already discussing sending him back to Japan and feeling their own individual problems with
American society.
Novel Type
Social/Family
Relationships
Primary Audience
Boys
Interest Level
8-11 yrs
A source of comfort to Hiro, in the privacy of his own room, is his Aikido equipment and training. He
quickly adapts to Judo lessons taught by a black sensei, who is as sensitive to Hiro’s needs as much
as he is strong. Hiro’s Judo lessons catapult him to peer acceptance and help him to establish an
important first friendship. He learns to confront his problem, but with temperance and understanding.
He understands, too, the psychological pressure on his father, whose concept of leadership is colored
by his social separation. His mother suffers from loneliness and boredom until she takes an active
role in seeking a friend—in spite of the language barrier.
Douglas Horn calls upon his experiences living in Japan and the American West in creating Hiro’s
world. The Judo scenes in the novel reflect his familiarity with Judo and the related discipline of
Aikido, which he teaches in his free time. Mr. Horn is a writer and consultant.
1501 MOVES $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
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HISTORIC AL NOVELS
THE AFRICAN TERM
by Mike Hagen
In 1961, President John F. Kennedy established the Peace Corps as a governmental agency whose
aims were to raise living standards in developing countries and to promote international friendship and
understanding. Peace Corps projects were established at the request of the host country, and volunteer
personnel usually served two years.
Addis Ababa, 1962. Tom Berk, a forty-two-year-old accountant-turned-teacher, has answered the Peace
Corps call. There are thirty-two male students ranging in age from twelve to twenty-four occupying
sixteen double wooden desks in his gray, non-windowed classroom. A single sixty-watt bulb hangs
from the ceiling. All of the students wear shorts and white shirts. Some do not wear shoes. Beck
wears a business suit. Here, schooling is a great honor; the students are outwardly most respectful. All
eyes are on the new teacher from America who will teach English, but one pair cannot mask its dislike.
Novel Type
Fifteen-year-old Sahle Kifle is filled with mistrust of the American; he is clear about his reasons in his
History,
conversations with his friends. However, he is one of the fortunate to go to school, so he must abide
Autobiography
by Berk’s rules. He is not impressed by Berk’s ability to write in Ahmeric and to speak his language Primary Audience
or by Berk’s preference to live among the local inhabitants. But as his friends begin to appreciate the
Boys/Girls
teacher’s efforts to teach with understanding and in a friendly atmosphere, Sahle begins to soften, much
Interest Level
13 yrs & up
against his own wishes. By the time Berk must leave, prematurely, to go to his sick father’s bedside
back in America, an understanding friendship has developed between the two; Berk appreciates Sahle’s
intelligence, and Sahle trusts Berk.
Mike Hagen handles Berk’s world in Addis Ababa outside of the classroom brilliantly. Unforgettable are Berk’s trek
to get there, his house boy’s antics, the foods, the smells, the grit of the dirt, and the sound of the bugs. The school
hierarchy and the punishment it doles out for minor infractions is striking. And Sahle’s home life and family relationships
are related as naturally as if the reader were a casual eavesdropper in the kitchen.
An accomplished stage actor and screenplay writer, Mr. Hagen has also authored Klaus and Sail to Caribee. He was in the
Peace Corps.
3687 THE AFRICAN TERM $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
HOLD ON TIGHT
by Heather Klassen
It’s the 1960s, a time when America and families were being torn apart by the Vietnam War. When
Suzanne’s elder brother Bobby is drafted, Suzanne’s mother wants them all to move to Canada, but
Bobby enlists to fight. Suzanne and her mother join the protesters against the war, but Suzanne’s father
thinks patriotic Americans should support the war the way they did when he fought in World War II.
The divisions in the family reflect the divisions in the country when differences about the war play a
major part in sparking hostile confrontations.
Against a background of box hockey games, the first landing on the moon, and the music of Bob
Dylan, Suzanne not only has to contend with missing her brother, but also has to watch her mother’s
pain and her parents grow distant from one another amidst their resentment. This novel provides vivid
insights into the era and into the disagreements that defined a decade that brought tragedy to so many.
Novel Type
Heather Klassen is a writer for children and young adults. She has more than 400 short stories published,
Sixties America
including award-winning pieces in Highlights for Children. One of her stories was reprinted in Chicken
Primary Audience
Soup for the Teenage Soul II. This is her second novel. Through her writing, she is particularly interested
Boys/Girls
in trying to influence young people to think about social issues, particularly those of peace and justice.
Interest Level
11 yrs & up
As a child in the ’60s, Klassen was greatly affected by the Vietnam War, but Hold on Tight is a fictional
account. She says Suzanne’s voice “just came to me. It was easy to let her tell her story, influenced so
much by the love she had for her older brother.”
Heather Klassen is married with two grown children and lives in Lynnwood, Washington. She has a bachelor’s degree in
social work and a Master’s degree in child development. She is an instructor for the Institute of Children’s Literature.
7161 HOLD ON TIGHT $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
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MY LEE COMES TO A MERICA
by Elmira K. Beyer
My Lee Comes to America is written for the eight- to ten-year-old elementary school student who is in an English as
a Second Language program, is a student in a school housing an ESL program, or is a student in a school that has a
number of students from other-than-English-speaking homes.
The story is about a Hmong family recently arrived in America whose traditions and way of everyday life are
drastically different from the ways of their new home. Moving into a mixed neighborhood and enrolling the children
in a school with an ESL program begins the family’s adaptation to new ways while maintaining their traditional
ethical and moral values. The problems of being accepted into the neighborhood are explored, as are male/female
roles and expectations, the family view of education in general and for girls in particular, and the problems involved
Novel Type
for the children and the adults by not speaking English.
Primary Audience The reader’s perspective is that of little My Lee, who acts for us as a bridge between the two worlds of her family.
Intelligent and respectful, her experiences and her thoughts about them show us problems in the making and their
Boys/Girls
thoughtful resolutions. While demurring to her older brother and his role, she is concerned with making friends and
Interest Level
8-10 yrs
participating in school activities that in America are normal for all students but are frowned upon for girls in her
family’s culture. She desperately wants to learn to play a musical instrument, the violin.
0440 MY LEE COMES TO AMERICA $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
by Jill Max
STRANGERS IN BLACK
Cambodia, 1975-1979. Mok is nine years old when he first becomes aware of the fierce, black-clad guerrilla soldiers,
the Khmer Rouge, who come from the mountains and overthrow Cambodia’s Republican Army government. His
family believes that finally peace and rebuilding will come to the country. Instead, the barbaric soldiers loot and
evacuate Mok’s farmland village and force the people to march to a distant work camp with only what they can carry.
On the long, brutal journey, food runs out. Exhaustion, starvation, and malaria become the family’s deadly
companions, forcing them to forage for food and live on snakes, bugs, rats, and grubs. At the work camp, they receive
only watery rice soup. Dysentery is rampant. Anyone who does not work is killed. Spies are everywhere, hoping
to trade information for food. And Mok’s family is hiding multiple identity secrets, including their connection to the
Novel Type
Republican Army.
War, Survival,
Rice-planting season finds Mok in the fields, overworked and starving, barely surviving. Suffering from malaria and
Relationships
Primary Audience an infected snake bite, he is dumped in the hospital to die. After being nursed back to health, he is taken away to
Boys/Girls
another boy’s work camp. Eventually, Mok is free to find his way back to Battambang, where the family is reunited.
War continues to rage between Khmer Rouge and the Vietnamese. The peaceful farmland the family had known is
Interest Level
12 yrs & up
gone forever. They have to make the perilous journey to the north, to Thailand, where there is food, medicine, and
peace.
The tranquil greenbelt waits beyond the rusted barbed-wire, beyond the crossfire between the Khmer Rouge and the Vietnamese
soldiers, beyond the cratered gray mile of minefield littered with broken, blood-speckled bodies that will be the family’s stepping stones
to freedom. This is a true story.
An epilogue adds information about the family and Cambodia. There is also a glossary and a bibliography.
6171 STRANGERS IN BLACK $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
THE WEAVER’S SCAR
2014 SKIPPING STONES HONOR AWARD
VOYA MAGAZINE’S TOP SHELF FICTION FOR MIDDLE SCHOOL READERS
“In The Weaver’s Scar, readers will share in Faustin’s grief, anguish, and fear in this heartbreaking and
well-written introduction to an area of the world rarely covered in middle school literature.” VOYA Magazine
by Brian Crawford
Novel Type
Survival,
Relationships
This is a story from the Rwanda of 1994.
Primary Audience
Life is difficult enough in Rwanda for a boy in the early 1990s, and Faustin’s father does not make
Boys/Girls
it any easier with inexplicable rules and dark secrets.
Interest Level
Teachers at school begin to emphasize the division between the Tutsis and Hutus, a division that
13 yrs & up
even makes its way to the soccer field.
As the terrible events of the genocide unfold in 1994, Faustin discovers the secrets of the past and of his father’s
disability, the cruelty of his schoolteachers, the full horror of neighbor against neighbor, and how only his running
and the courage of one friend can possibly save him.
The Weaver’s Scar Teacher Manual contains 60 pages of discussion topics and background material for follow-up activities.
88
4779 THE WEAVER’S SCAR $9.99 Special Price: $7.99
4793 THE WEAVER’S SCAR TEACHER MANUAL $10.00
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HOME OF:
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HUNDREDS OF HISTORICAL NOVELS
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