Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Book #11



Still trying to find the perfect Civil War novel for 6th and 7th graders to read this spring. This one opens in rural Illinois at the start of the World War I, and flashes back to explore a bit of family history as various factions form before the Civil War. Two strangers come up river from New Orleans, and the complexities of racial identity in that town at that time are moved forward into the 20th century.

This is a really good YA novel, but would require a lot of scaffolding and context-building. Hmmmm.

2 comments:

Shelley said...

Sounds interesting. Part of the context-building might include talking about what happens after the war is over. Seems like that's where the real battle happens.

Geoff said...

And the race relations in New Orleans provide an interesting window into that time period!