Themed Book Lists for Family Reading & Discussion Programs

The Council has worked with humanities scholars to create Family R&D Program themed book lists for libraries looking to address themes within a specific topic. Libraries can choose to use all books on the list, or to select those that most interest them.

Host sites must apply with a theme even when using the book lists below.

Current topics include:

The Civil War
Native American Literature

The Civil War

	*Bull Run* by Paul Fleischman. (Reading level: Ages 9-12, 128 pages) Through the alternating viewpoints of 16 characters from various walks of life, readers gain insight into the first battle of the Civil War and into the nature of war in general. Poignant, dramatic cameos seamlessly woven together make for compelling historical fiction.
	*Stonewall* by Jean Fritz, illustrated by Stephen Gammell. (Reading level: Ages 9-12, 152 pages) Stonewall is a compelling account of the life of one of America's most brilliant military heroes: General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson. Fritz combines tales of Jackson's formative years, his eccentricities, and his passions with the harrowing history of the Civil War to give us a sympathetic view of citizens of both the North and the South.
	*Stonewall Hinkleman and the Battle of Bull Run* by Michael Hemphill and Sam Riddleburger. (Reading level: Ages 9-12, 176 pages) In this well-paced time-travel novel, smart-aleck Stonewall Hinkleman is not having fun. Named for "Stonewall" Jackson, the 12-year-old spends his summers being dragged to Civil War reenactments by his enthusiastic reenactor parents. This weekend, it's the First Battle of Bull Run, but when Stonewall sounds the "Charge," he find him self at the actual battle.
	*Across Five Aprils* by Irene Hunt. (Reading level: Middle Grades, 224 pages) Jethro Creighton, an intelligent, hardworking boy, is growing into manhood as his brothers and a beloved teacher leave to fight in the Union and Confederate armies. Hunt presents a balanced look at both sides of the conflict, and includes interesting information on lesser-known leaders and battles.
	*The Last Brother* by Trinka Hakes Nobel, illustrated by Robert Papp. (Reading level: Ages 4-8, 48 pages) Eleven-year-old Gabriel has followed his older brother Davy to war after their older brothers were killed fighting. On the day before the Battle of Gettysburg, he meets Orlee, a young Confederate who is fishing in the stream. The boys have an interlude that has nothing to do with the imminent battle and they part, hoping to meet again.
	*Silent Thunder* by Andrea Davis Pinkney. (Reading level: Ages 9-12, 208 pages) Summer and Rosco are a brother and sister who are slaves on the Parnell Plantation in 1863 Virginia. Rosco, age 13, has secretly learned to read while accompanying the master's son to his lessons. He teaches Summer, 11, her first letter by pointing out to her that the scar on her body is really the letter P, the master's brand. But Rosco also knows another secret: Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation.
	*Pink and Say* by Patricia Polacco. (Reading level: Ages 4-8, 48 pages) Say, who is white and poor, tells how he is rescued by Pink, who carries the wounded Say back to the Georgia home where Pink's black family are slaves. Pink and his mother nurse Say back to health, and Pink teaches his friend to read; but before they can leave, marauders drag the boys to prison. Pink is hanged, but Say survives to tell the story and pass it on across generations.
	*Shades of Gray* by Carolyn Reeder. (Reading level: Ages 9-12, 160 pages) The Civil War and the Union Army have left 12-year-old Will Page an orphan, and he is sent to his mother's relatives in the country in Virginia. Prepared to hate his uncle, a "coward" who refused to fight for either side, Will slowly comes to respect the man's position.
	Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom by Carole Boston Weatherford, illustrated by Kadir Nelson. (Reading level: Ages 4-8, 48 pages) Weatherford's handsome picture book about Harriet Tubman focuses mostly on Tubman's religious inspiration, with echoes of spirituals ringing throughout the spare poetry about her struggle. Nelson's stirring, beautiful artwork makes clear the terror and exhaustion Tubman felt during her own escape and also during her brave rescue of others.

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Native American Literature

	Crazy Horse's Vision by Joseph Bruchac, illustrated by S. D. Nelson. (Reading level: Ages 4-8, 40 pages) This story of the legendary Lakota warrior traces Crazy Horse's boyhood, zeroing in on a pivotal event in his life and highlighting an important Native American rite of passage.
	*Sees Behind Trees* by Michael Dorris. (Reading level: Ages 9-12, 128 pages) Because Walnut can't see well, he has difficulty meeting the challenges, especially feats of skill with bow and arrow, that prove he is ready to receive a new name and become an adult. When a sympathetic uncle invents a new contest to "see what can't be seen," the boy's other senses bring success and earn him the name Sees Behind Trees.
	*The Birchbark House* by Louise Erdrich. (Reading level: Ages 9-12, 256 pages) The sole survivor of a smallpox epidemic on Spirit Island, Omakayas, then only a baby, was rescued by a fearless woman named Tallow and welcomed into an Ojibwa family on Lake Superior's Madeline Island. We follow Omakayas and her adopted family through a cycle of four seasons in 1847, including the winter, when a historically documented outbreak of smallpox overtook the island.
	*Sky Dancers* by Connie Ann Kirk, illustrated by Christy Hale. (Reading level: Ages 4-8, 32 pages) John Cloud, who lives on a reservation, misses his father and uncle during their weeks working construction sites in Manhattan. John's first visit to the city brings both strange sights and deepening pride when he witnesses his father's agile figure high atop the incomplete Empire State Building.
	*Rain is Not My Indian Name* by Cynthia Leitich Smith. (Reading level: Middle Grades, 144 pages) After Rain's best friend is killed in a car accident, she becomes involved in examining her own heritage, the stereotypical reactions to it, and her own small-town limitations.
	*Kiki's Journey* by Kristy Orona-Ramirez, illustrated by Jonathan Warm Day. (Reading level: Ages 4-8, 32 pages) Kiki is furious when her teacher and the kids in her Los Angeles school assume she knows all things Native American just because her parents were born on a reservation. But when her family goes back to the Taos Pueblo to spend time with Kiki's grandparents, the child has an opportunity to explore her Tiwa heritage and learns that, like her parents, she belongs to both the pueblo and the city.
	*Crossing Bok Chitto* by Tim Tingle, illustrated by Jeanne Rorex Bridges. (Reading level: Ages 9-12, 40 pages) While searching for blackberries, Martha Tom, a young Choctaw, breaks her village's rules against crossing the Bok Chitto. She meets and becomes friends with the slaves on the plantation on the other side of the river, and later helps a family escape across it to freedom when they hear that the mother is to be sold.

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