Today is BookFlix Friday!
Few things can draw a reader to a new book like a book trailer can.
Get the popcorn ready.
Lights…Camera…Action!
Last week we talked about time traveling. One of the ways we “time travel” is by reading books that take place in the past.
We can read informational books about a time period or about the history of something specific.
What many students find captivating is reading narratives—stories—that take place in an interesting time and place in history. We imagine ourselves in the main character’s shoes—living, experiencing, surviving in the past.
What would it be like to visit the south during the time of Jim Crow laws where things were separate, but (supposedly) equal?
What would it be like to live in a concentration camp in Nazi-controlled Europe during WWII?
Or infiltrating the Hitler Youth as a kid spy:
When the Nazis were bombing England in WWII, many children were sent off to the countryside to escape. What would it be like to live with someone you don’t know? If you had a twisted, lame, club foot… and your mom had kept you locked in the one-room apartment your whole life… and you snuck out…?
You many have heard your teachers talk about the times of slavery. How about though the eyes of slaves?
What was the South Sudan genocide about?
What kinds of historical events could I SURVIVE?
THIS is the draw of historical fiction (HF). These kinds of book are the ones with the black labels by the door. I encourage you to check these books out and TIME TRAVEL yourselves.
Author Jennifer Nielsen brings you one girl’s story of the Berlin Wall…
Description from IndieBound
A Night Divided joins the Scholastic Gold line, which features award-winning and beloved novels. Includes exclusive bonus content!
With the rise of the Berlin Wall, Gerta finds her family suddenly divided. She, her mother, and her brother Fritz live on the eastern side, controlled by the Soviets. Her father and middle brother, who had gone west in search of work, cannot return home. Gerta knows it is dangerous to watch the wall, yet she can’t help herself. She sees the East German soldiers with their guns trained on their own citizens; she, her family, her neighbors and friends are prisoners in their own city.
But one day on her way to school, Gerta spots her father on a viewing platform on the western side, pantomiming a peculiar dance. Gerta concludes that her father wants her and Fritz to tunnel beneath the wall, out of East Berlin. However, if they are caught, the consequences will be deadly. No one can be trusted. Will Gerta and her family find their way to freedom?
And now… a new HF novel:
{Eat the Book} 