Great Reading to Celebrate America!

Author Pamela Patnode recommends the following books to help children learn about our nation. Happy reading!

 

1st Grade  through 5th Grade

 

The Fourth of July Story by Alice Dalgliesh

The Pledge of Allegiance - Scholastic

The Long Way to a New Land by Joan Sandin

The Long Way Westward by Joan Sandin

The Drinking Gourd: A Story of the Underground Railroad by F.N. Monjo

Escape North! The Story of Harriet Tubman by Monica Kulling

The Cabin Faced West by Jean Fritz (Pioneer Days)

A Lion to Guard Us by Clyde Robert Bulla

Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder

American Girl Doll books including: Kirsten, Samantha, Addie, Kaya, Kit, and Molly

Ben Franklin of Old America by Margaret Cousins (ages 10 and up)

Number the Stars by Lois Lowry (WWII – setting in Europe) ages 10 and up

Snow Treasure by Marie McSwigan (WWII – setting in Europe) ages 10 and up

Ben and Me: An Astonishing Life of Benjamin Franklin by His Good Mouse Amos  by Robert Lawson

Strawberry Girl by Lois Lenski

Ginger Pye by Eleanor Estes

Abraham Lincoln by Ingri and Edgar Parin d’Aulaire

Benjamin Franklin by Ingri and Edgar Parin d’Aulaire

 

Middle School

Shades of Gray by Carolyn Reeder (Civil War)

Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes (Revolutionary War)

Guns for General Washington: A Story of the American Revolution by Seymour Reit

Amos Fortune: Free Man by Elizabeth Yates

Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis

The Watsons Go to Birmingham by Christopher Paul Curtis

Helen Keller: From Tragedy to Triumph by Katherine E. Wilke

The Old World and America by Rev. Philip J. Furlong (textbook)

George Washington’s World by Genevieve Foster

Abraham Lincoln’s World by Genevieve Foster

America My Country an IDEALS publication

 

High School

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

America: The Last Best Hope by William Bennett

The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom (WWII – setting in Europe)

The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane

Hitler by Albert Marrin (WWII – helps students understand some background to WWII)

Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman

Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Laddie by Gene Stratton Porter

From Sea to Shining Sea by Peter Marshall and David Manuel

Up From Slavery by Booker T. Washington

Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe

Read about the lives of American Saints and influential Catholics: St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, St. Kateri Tekakwitha, Charles Carroll, St. Francis Cabrini, etc.

Game:

Professor Noggins History of the United States

Music: Wee Sing America