In honor of our nation's 250th Birthday,
my fellow TeachingAuthors and I have chosen
to celebrate in our upcoming posts children's
books that celebrate the American Revolution
and our country's history.
I proudly kick-off the series with Red-White-and
Blue Oldies-but-Goodies that remind me of...
me! - so that I can recommend them to you!
(Apologies to Little Caesar and the Romans.)
First, there's Me, as in, Me the Child who
treasured her "Orange True Books."
My bedroom bookshelf held:
Betsy Ross: Girl of Old Philadelphia;
Ben Franklin: Printer's Boy;
Martha Washington: Girl of Old Virginia.
FYI: I'm a Philly Girl, a product of the
Philadelphia Schools until I was 10.
Stories about the childhoods of colonials were
right up my alley, so to speak, as in Elfreth's
Alley which I visited with my Overbrook
Elementary School classmates every year,
before or after visiting Ben Franklin's grave
at 5th and Arch Streets and Betsy Ross'
house at 2nd and Arch.
Bobbs-Merrill began publishing the
Childhood of Famous Americans series
with its fictionalized narrative storylines in
1932, releasing 220 titles until 1958.
You can see the titles here.
The goal of the series? "To make the child of
today the friend and playmate of great
Americans of the past."
In 1950 Random House began offering a
similar, though fact-driven, children's
history series: Landmark Books.
You can see the titles here.
But I remained True Blue to my Orange
True Books.
Next, there's the Me who earned a B.S. in
Elementary Education from the University
of Pennsylvania.
It was in my Children's Literature class that
I first met Newbery and Caldecott medalist
Robert Lawson and his revered (forgive the
pun) titles, including Mr. Revere and I:
Being an Account of Certain Episodes in
the Career of Paul Revere, Esq. as
Revealed by his Horse (Little Brown, 1953)
and Ben and Me (Little Brown, 1939).
Both books are considered timeless. Indeed,
both have been re-released with new
covers several times since the initial
publishing. Ben and Me became a movie.
My professor, Dr. Huus, held the bar high
for children's books.
I introduced Ben and Paul to the delight of
my fifth graders at Bryn Mawr Elementary
School while Student Teaching.
You can read reviews of Robert Lawson's
books here.
Finally, there's Me, the long-time Fifth
Grade Teacher at Chicago's Morgan Park
Academy, then Kenilworth's Joseph Sears
School, who took joy in amplifying the
Scott-Foresman Social Studies text
In the Americas to teach the American
Revolution via Esther Forbes' 1944
Newbery Medal Winner Johnny Tremain.
The novel follows 14-year-old Boston
silversmith apprentice Johnny from the
start of the Revolution onward as he
comes to make sense of the war.
Forbes used official records, diary entries,
letters of actual apprentices so that
Readers - my fifth graders - lived the
experience in Johnny's shoes, mind and
heart.
Not all historical critics agreed on Forbes'
presentation of the war.
My students agreed, though, how Johnny
helped them be there, living our history.
I remain connected to many of my former
students, now grandparents (!), and all
can recite the words that drove the story:
"Pride goeth before a fall."
Were I teaching the Revolution today to
5th graders, they'd be reading Johnny
Tremain.
With apologies again to Caesar and the
Romeros, what fun walking down Memory
Lane to write about the above BOOKS of
my past.
May one of them help you remember a
Red-White-and-Blue Oldie-but-Goodie,
with hopes you'll share the title and/or
memory in our comments.
Happy Birthday, America!
Esther Hershenhorn
P.S.
Thanks to Jan at BookSeedStudios for
hosting today's Poetry Friday.
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