Guest zealth Posted July 25, 2011 Share Posted July 25, 2011 I will be leading a US Geography "class" for our homeschool coop in the fall and have spent hours looking for appropriate texts. This idea was originally born out of Holling C. Hollings books, but these books skip some massive regions of the country, priomarily the west coast, the southeast/deep south and the non-contiguous states of Alaska and Hawaii. I would love to at least incorporate the west and south in this class though suggestions for Alaska and Hawaii are also welcome. For those of you not familiar with Holling's books (and I recommend you GET familiar), they are travelogues of a sort with a character moving through various regions of the country, the plotline intimately tied to the location. These books ride the line between picture books and chapter books, which is really ideal for the crew I anticipate this fall. I would love suggestions of other texts that would have a similar feel and would address the regions I am currently lacking. If you or someone you know have supplemented the Holling books or the Beautiful Feet Geography curriculum in a useful way, I would love to know that too! Thanks! Gina Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tina Posted July 26, 2011 Share Posted July 26, 2011 I got this from one or another forum years ago, so not sure who to thank. Anyway, here's a list of books to go with various states for the grammar stage. Alabama: A Picture Book of Rosa Parks - Adler From Plant to Blue Jeans - Hommedieu (re: cotton) Life on a Plantation - Kalman Plantations - Stone Eli Whitney - Alter Alaska: Mama Do You Love Me? A Child's Alaska Mush! Circle of Thanks Akiak Arizona: Tuesday in Arizona Cottonwood Trees - Prevost Squirrel's Song - Wolkstein Is My Friend at Home? Bierhorst Arkansas: Come Go With Me: Old Time Stories From the Southern Mountains - Thomas (re: Oachita Mountains) California: How Far Felipe? Smoky Night Condor's Egg Striking it Rich Nine for California Colorado: Fat Chance Claude Stones, Bones and Petroglyphs - Goodman Native Americans and Mesa Verde - Martell Connecticut: Solomon Grundy Warm as Wool (or Ohio?) Delaware: The Legend of the Cranberry The Light in the Forest (books on tape) Standing in the Light (video) Florida: Elizabeth and Larry and Ed A Visit to Grandma's St. Augustine (video) A Kid's Guide to Florida The Great Pig Search Freddy Goes to Florida All Dressed up and Nowhere to Go My Family Vacation The Worst Goes South Beezy Georgia: Georgia Music Peach and Blue - Kilborne A Confederate Girl - Steele Mama and Me and the Model T Hawaii: The Last Princess: Ka'Iulani - Guzzetti Haleakalala National Park - Radlander Hawaii in Words and Pictures - Fradin The Last Hawaiian Queen - Stanley The Island Below the Star Dear Katie, the Volcano is a Girl - George Punia and the King of Sharks Luka's Quilt Idaho: Mailing May Wolf: Return of a Legend (video re: Sawtooth Mountains) One Potato - Porter Sunday Potatoes, Monday Potatoes - Shiefman More Potatoes - Belsam Potato - Watts The Enormous Potato - Davis Potato: A Tale From the Great Depression - Leid Illinois: The Journey Joshua's Westward Journal Indiana: The Floating House Story of Johnny Appleseed - Aliki True Tale of Johnny Appleseed - Hodges Johnny Appleseed: A Tall Tale - Steven Kellogg Johnny Appleseed: The Story of a Legend - Will Moses A Place Called Freedom Iowa: Eve and Smithy Story of Paul Bunyan - Emberly Kansas: Wagon Wheels The Loudest, Fastest, Best Drummer in Kansas Climbing Kansas Mountains The Van Gogh Cafe Kentucky: Your Best Friend, Kate Daniel Boone Just in Time for Christmas Kentucky Troll: Mysteries Underground (nat. geo. video on Mammoth Cave, et al) 'B' is for Bluegrass Kentucky in Words and Pictures Louisiana: Why Lapin's Ears are Long All the "Clovis Crawfish" books Mimi and Jean Paul's Cajun Mardi Gras Cajun Through and Through Feydra Leroux: A Cajun Tall-Tale Maine: Blueberries for Sal One Morning in Maine Miss Rumphius Grandpappy Grandmother Bryant's Pocket Time of Wonder Maryland: Molly Bannaky Massachusetts: Make Way for Ducklings Cranberry Thanksgiving She's Wearing a Dead Bird on her Head A Picture Book of Paul Revere Plimoth Plantation (video) Across the Wide, Dark Sea Paul Revere's Midnight Ride Which Way to the Revolution Letting Swift River Go Michigan: Paul Bunyan: How a Terrible Timber Fellar Became a Legend - Rogers Paul Bunyan Fights the Monster Plants - Blassingame The Christmas Tree Ship The Log Cabin Church Mrs. Mack Minnesota: Follow the Stars: A Native American Woodlands Tale - Rodanas Legend of the Lady Slipper - Lunge-Larsen Sacred Harvest: Wild Rice - Reggiunti Mississippi: Freedom School, Yes! Oh Lord, I Wish I was a Buzzard Grandaddy's Gift Little Toot on the Mississippi Missouri: Mark Twain and Huck Finn - Ross River Boy: The Story of Mark Twain - Anderson Mark Twain and the Queens of the Mississippi - Harness Mark Twain? What Kind of Name is That? Quackenbush (what kind of name is *that*?) Tom Sawyer, Danger in the Graveyard - Richardson Tom Sawyer Gives up the Brush (video - 30 minutes) Wagons West! Fiddlin' Sam Dengler There Goes Lowell's Party - Hershenhorn Montana: Once We Had a Horse Nebraska: Dandelions The Huckabuck Family Nevada: Tulip Sees America (covers several states) Any books on desert life, particularly the Mojave, would work for studying this state. Books on red rock canyonlands would also work. New Hampshire: Ox Cart Man (or is this Vermont?) Lucy's Summer Sara Whitcher's Story New Jersey: The Colony of New Jersey The 18 Penny Goose New Mexico: Josephina books Spanish and Colonial Santa Fe (video) Carlos and the Cornfield Cowboy's Roundup on an American Ranch Los Posadas: An Hispanic Christmas Celebration Grandmother's Adobe House New York: My New York How Pizza Came to Queens Anna, Grandpa and the Big Storm The Inside-Outside Book of New York City Liberty The Story of the Statue of Liberty Joe and the Skyscraper Under New York North Carolina: Back Home My Great Aunt Arizona Mountain Boy The Colony of North Carolina The Jack Tales Grandfather's Land: We are Mountain People - Fitch North Dakota: River Friendly, River Wild – Kurtz Thrashin' Time: Harvest Days in the Dakotas Ohio: Aurora Means Dawn Lentil (Warm as Wool may fit better here than previously stated state) Flatboats on the Ohio: Westward Bound Oklahoma: I Have Heard of a Land Angels in the Dust They Came From the Bronx: How the Buffalo Were Saved Oregon: Oregon's Journey Long Ago in Oregon Roughing it on the Oregon Trail Pennsylvania: Just Plain Fancy A Humble Life: Plain Poems The Folks in the Valley The Egg Tree The Colony of Pennsylvania Pioneer Church Bewildered for Three Days Punxatawney Phil Rhode Island: Finding Providence: The Story of Roger Williams The Colony of Rhode Island Loud and Crowing (Rhode Island Red roosters) Roger Williams and Rhode Island (video) South Carolina: Carolina Shout! The Colony of South Carolina South Dakota: Mount Rushmore (two titles) Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox - Bleeter Tennessee: Swamp Angel Davy Crockett (Rabbit Ears, w/ tape) Lucky with Potatoes (do they grow these in Tennessee?) Texas: Legend of the Bluebonnet Beats Me, Claude Armadillo Rodeo Bluebonnet at Dinosaur Valley State Park Bubba the Cowboy Prince Susanna of the Alamo The Inside-Outside Book of Texas Armadillo from Amarillo The West Texas Chili Monster Jalepeno Hal The Cowboy and the Black-eyed Pea Fish Fry Freedom's Gifts: A Juneteenth Story Ganzy Remembers Prairie Christmas A Cowboy Named Ernestine Utah: Salt Lake City - Doubleday Grandfather's Gold Watch Vermont: Least of All The Wonderful Hay Tumble Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf Snowflake Bentley Virginia: The Relatives Came When the Whipoorwill Calls One Christmas Dawn Appalachia: Voices of Sleeping Birds The Blue Hill Meadows Night in the Country This Year's Garden Washington: Island Time A Horse's Tale West Virginia: When I was Young in the Mountains In November But I'll be Back Again Scarecrow Silver Packages Waiting to Waltz Wisconsin: Giant Ball of String Dance at Grandpa's Christmas in the Big Woods Winter Days in the Big Woods The Deer in the Wood Going to Town Summertime in the Big Woods Wyoming: Tonweya and the Eagles - YellowRobe Lakota Hoop Dancer - LeftHandBull Iktomi and the Buzzard - Goble Jack Creek Cowboy Washington, D.C.: Capitol: Washington, D.C. From A to Z The White House The Wall Inside-Outside Book of Washington, D.C. Puerto Rico: The Outside Dog Take a Trip to Puerto Rico Sergio and the Hurricane Abuelita's Paradise Virgin Islands: The Day the Hurricane Happened Izzard Pacific Territories: U.S. Territories and Possessions Pacific Islands Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tricia Posted July 26, 2011 Share Posted July 26, 2011 My girls love The Book of Marvels. I have to admit I've loved going over them too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deballen7 Posted July 26, 2011 Share Posted July 26, 2011 There are the Holling C. Holling books of course! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Little Nyssa Posted July 26, 2011 Share Posted July 26, 2011 The Velvet Room by Zilpha Keatley Snyder-- an "Okie" family arrives in California to pick fruit in the Depression. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twigs Posted July 26, 2011 Share Posted July 26, 2011 The Moon by Night - Madeleine L'Engle Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest zealth Posted July 28, 2011 Share Posted July 28, 2011 There are a lot of great resources here! I will definitely tap into these sometime in the future. For this particular class, I was hoping for more that integrated the place or region into the text, travelogue-style. Thanks SO MUCH to everyone who has chimed in so far with all these great suggestions!:thumbup: Gina Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
6packofun Posted July 28, 2011 Share Posted July 28, 2011 First, here is a list of books by state (as the setting): http://www.carolhurst.com/subjects/states.html Second, here is a site that lists children's book awards granted by each state: http://www.cynthialeitichsmith.com/lit_resources/awards/stateawards.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EKS Posted July 28, 2011 Share Posted July 28, 2011 The Moon by Night - Madeleine L'Engle Just a caution about this one. It is about a 14yo girl and a major part of the plot is about an older boy (at least driving age) chasing after her across the country. Minor teenage angst, a first kiss, and another man are also featured. Anyway, you might want to preread. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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