This week my class and I went to Sun Yat Sen Gardens (now of course that was now a couple of weeks ago), a field trip I totally recommend. It gave my class a real feeling for life in China long ago. A book that I recommend to tie into Grade Seven Social Studies is Along the River by Adeline Yen Mah whose own story told in Chinese Cinderella sounds rather interesting. Set in China in 1942, after she suffers a head injury, CC finds herself drifting into the setting of China's most famous painting, set in the Sung dynasty almost 800 years before.
A new book by popular author, Kimberly Willis Holt (author of when Zachary Beaver Came to Town) is The Water Seeker. I found this book quite fascinating but not sure if it would appeal to my students. When I was a child, living in a rural area in Quebec, I would hear stories of dowsers who could feel water with a stick so that people would know where to dig for wells. This is the story of a father and a son with this gift describing their journey from the Missouri Territory to Oregon. This is the kind of story you didn't hear from Little House on the Prairie. But again this is a story that takes you on a journey, one that would be hard for my students to imagine. It really describes how hard life was then and how tough pioneers had to be and hopeful. Lots of unforgettable characters in this novel.
2 comments:
Thank you for posting your review. I have been looking for something new to read (not related to Twilight and vampires) and this book seems like a perfect find!
great-I know there seem to be so many books dealing with vampires etc.
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