Tag Archives: Civil Rights

Duck for President

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Like When Dinosaurs Came with Everything and Monkey and Me, this book arrived in a Cheerios box in 2008 (as I’ve mentioned before, the best year ever for the spoonfuls of stories promotion in our house). Although they don’t get the legion of historical/political references yet, the boys love Duck (who was first introduced in Click, Clack, Moo: Cows that Type) and this book (in which Duck makes his way from the farm to the Governor’s Mansion to the White House and back home again) is very popular.

Author: Doreen Cronin
Illustrator: Betsy Lewin

Click, Clack, Moo: Cows that Type

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Farmer Brown has some problems.

It was bad enough the cows had
found the old typewriter in the
barn, now they wanted electric
blankets! “No way,” said Farmer
Brown. “No electric blankets.”

So the cows went on strike.
They left a note on the barn door.

Sorry.
We’re closed.
No milk
today.

Soon the hens join the work stoppage. And what are those seemingly-neutral ducks up to?

If workers’ rights are civil rights, as the slogan goes, we have a mini theme going this week. (When the boys stage a sit-in protest of my menu choices, I’ll have only myself to blame.) This book is very funny and I can’t read it aloud without hearing (and slightly mimicking) the Scholastic video version narrated by Randy Travis.

Author: Doreen Cronin
Illustrator: Betsy Lewin

You Forgot Your Skirt, Amelia Bloomer!

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It was Mary Poppins, of all things, that introduced my boys to the idea that women had not always had the same civil rights as men. My oldest was curious, so I started looking for age-appropriate discussions of the subject. This was a success; the boys actively request we read it.

Amelia Bloomer was born in 1818, but she was utterly uninterested in being a “proper lady.” She wanted to work, vote, and wear practical clothing. So, she started her own newspaper, advocated for the vote, and published the pattern for the proto-pants that became known as bloomers. As Mrs. Banks would say: “Well done, Sister Suffragette!”

Author: Shana Corey
Illustrator: Chesley McLaren

Lincoln and His Boys

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Abraham Lincoln was a doting, devoted, and devastated father. This work of historical fiction focuses on his relationship with two of his four sons. Willie narrates the first half of the book (this narration is partially based on a 200-word fragment by the historical Willie; all of the events in the book are historically accurate). When Willie dies at age eleven, partway through his father’s term of office, the narration is taken over by his younger brother, Tad. (The Lincolns had already lost another son, Eddie, at the age of three, while Lincoln was practicing law in Springfield, Illinois.) The book ends as the Civil War ends, before Lincoln’s assassination. (The book does not go on to note that Tad outlived his father, but died at age eighteen and the Lincolns’ only surviving son, the one Lincoln had the most distant relationship with, then arranged to have his mother committed to a psychiatric hospital.)

While this is clearly not the happiest of stories, Lincoln loved his wife and their boys very much and his (over?) indulgence of his boys and joy in their company make this a very accessible, warm book. It is memorable too; my oldest drew Lincoln (complete with this stovepipe hat and beard) and one of his sons in response to an end-of-the-school-year question, along with the following explanation: “My favorite social studies is Aedrham Lingkne. Cus he is vary nice to his cids and evry oun eles!”

Author: Rosemary Wells
Illustrator: P.J. Lynch