Civil War books for 8th grader (xpost)...

[Heather in VA]

I'd like some recommedations for books (both fiction and non-fiction) of the Civil War time period. She's already read Little Women about 6 times. I'm pretty liberal (for this board at least LOL) on what I let her read - i.e. she can handle the reality of war etc.

 

She is a very capable reader.

 

Heather

 

PS - Does anyone have any feelings on Uncle Tom's Cabin? I've never read it.

[Carol in Cal.]

I read it for the first time this year, and although I'm very glad to have done so, I am not suggesting it to my 12 year old even though she is an avid reader, because it is so evocative. You might want to preread it.

 

DD is studying that period now, and we are doing a TLP study of "Rifles for Watie" which is really an OK but not great book. She is also reading "Hospital Sketches" by Louisa May Alcott--that qualifies as original source material from the Civil War. She just finished "Behind Enemy Lines" which is on the short side but very entertaining. And she is reading the Marrin book about Robert E. Lee right now. Marrin has also written an OOP book about Ulysses S. Grant which I hope to find at the library as well. I have assigned her "Look Homeward, Hannalee" as her next novel about that period. "Red Badge of Courage" is sort of the classic 'let's figure out how bad war experiences really are' book for the Civil War. DD already pretty much has the point of view, so I'm just making it available rather than assigning it. It is kind of boring, I think, but I found it enthralling and amazing as a kid. But then, I had always thought war was glorious and that to die in battle was what moral people did, and was unfamiliar with the idea that you could hate war and still be virtuous. So for me it was a revelation, but not one that DD needs. "Andersonville" is quite difficult--it is about life in a POW camp during the Civil War. Pre-read that one for sure. I'm not assigning it, but it might be good for an older child.

 

For the ante-bellum period, we studied "Life on a Southern Plantation, 1853", "Amos Fortune, Free Man", "Amistad", "Tom Sawyer", and used "Sounding Forth the Trumpet" as a spine. That last book is extremely well written and engaging, but it is also quite Providential--something that I have avoided until now. However, I thought that it would be reasonable to expose DD to that POV at this time since she is older and more critical in her evaluation of sources, so we did discuss it and compare it with some of the other books that we read about Lincoln, the South, and the war with Mexico. She also read "The Last Safe House" and "Go Free or Die".

 

Since we live in CA, she already knows a lot about the Gold Rush, and so we tied that into this era as well. We have also talked a bit about the transcontinental railroad, and she will read two historical fiction books about that as well.

 

Then we are going to lap back through the theme of Western Expansion a bit, although these other books have touched on it a lot, and also cover the other reform movements of the ante-bellum period, especially the Seneca Falls conference and the WCTU and Women's Sufferage movements, as well as the industrial revolution and the rise of campaigns against child labor.

 

For reconstruction, we will read "An Old Fashioned Girl", "40 Acres and a Mule", and others that I have not selected yet. Those take place during the last half of the 19th century.

 

I am not assigning "Huckleberry Finn." I don't hate it, but it's much darker than I had recalled, with an amazing amount of casual personal violence. As I said, I don't oppose it, but I don't want to spend a lot of time there at this point either. But it IS a classic of the ante-bellum period, of course.

[Julie in GA]

For non-fiction, there's the Landmark book, Gettysburg, and Jean Fritz's book on Stonewall Jackson (I think it's just called Stonewall). For fiction not mentioned by Carol, there's Across Five Aprils and Shades of Gray.

[Julie in GA]

Just remembered we're talking 8th grade here. My fictions recs might be a bit easy. Then again, Across Five Aprils is a classic, so if she's never read it, she might as well!