"I am going to do a unit on the Holocaust with the 5th grade next year.
I'd like some recommendations of good fiction and nonfiction books that
will support it at this level.
Wow! What a response! Thank you to everyone who responded. There is
also a text file of an elementary school's holdings on this subject that I
have attached. This is really going to be helpful.
Susan Davis
Media Specialist
Bennett Elementary School
1755 NE 14 Street
Fort Lauderdale FL 33304
754-322-5464
FAX 754-322-5490
susan.davis@browardschools.com
Hana's Suitcase is a Caudill nominated title for next year, and we are
building a unit around it, with many supplemental materials. Our focus is
not just the Holocaust, but the impact of war all over the world. To
teach
this, some of the sources we are using include:
Faithful Elephants by Yukio Tsuchiya
Baseball Saved Us by Kin Mochizuki
The Journey that Saved Curious George by Louise Borden
The Little Ships: The Rescue at Dunkirk, by Louise Borden
Who Was the Woman Who Wore the Hat by nancy Patz
Keeping the Promise, A Torah's Journey by Tami lehman-Wilzig
Six Million Paper Clips: The making of A Children's Holocaust Memorial, by
Peter Schroeder
The Greatest Skating Race by Louise Borden
Take a look at the page of book lists at
http://www.quizlistinteractive.com/AcceleratedReader_BookLists.aspx
In the left-hand column are two lists that should be helpful: "Holocaust"
and "Jewish Interest." Since these lists are based on the QuizList
Interactive 88,000+ records database, there are many titles listed.
Clicking on the individual title once you have selected the book list, will
give you the LOC information as well as reading and interest levels.
If you do an advanced search on Titlewave with reading levels, you will be
provided with many many titles.
My favorite is Jacob's Story. A biography along the same lines is Zlata's
Diary..the story of a young girl in the 80's that is a modern day
comparison. You might also want to visit the Holocaust Museum on-line.
They will send you a trunk on loan that is filled with lesson plans,
posters, videos, and class sets of stories.
Number the stars
The Devils Arithmetic
Anne Frank
The Butterfly - Polacco
Six Million Paper clips
The cats in Krasinski Square - Hesse
The Harmonica - Johnston
Erika's story - Vander Zee
One eye laughing, the other weeping - Denenberg (Dear AMerica)
Fireflies in the dark - Rubin
When Hitler stole pink rabbit
Flowers on the wall - Nerlove
I never saw another butterfly
Some of these are picture books.
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry is an excellent readaloud with lots of good
talking points. It can be followed by The Yellow Star: the story of King
Christian X of Denmark.
Here are some suggestions from "The Spirit That Moves Us" by Laura R.
Petovello (for grades K-4, so 5th grade might fit here):
Terrible Things by Eve Bunting
Best Friends by Elisabeth Reuter
The Lily Cupboard: A Story of the Holocaust by Shulamith Levey Oppenheim
The Number on My Grandfather's Arm by David Adler
Child of the Warsaw Ghetto by David Adler
Passage to Freedom: The Sugihara Story by Ken Mochizuki
Rose Blanche by Roberto Innocenti
A Picture Book of Anne Frank by David Adler
My son (a junior in high school) recommends:
The Wave: The Classroom Experiemnt That Went Too Far by Todd Strasser
I recommend (as allegory):
Feathers and Fools by Mem Fox
"Milkweed" by Jerry Spinelli
This very topic is this month's discussion subject on CCBC_Net. This is
through the Children's Cooperative Book Center on the UW-Madison campus.
The website is..
http://www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/default.asp
There is a link to the discussion list.
They have just started and have made mention of some great titles already.
I just finished a booktalk for a graduate LIBM class. The audience was
4th -
6th grades. The books that I selected were Twenty and Ten, The Yellow
Star,
Number the Stars, I'll Never See Another Butterfly, and Terrible Things.
I am attaching a teacher resource file that I made as a handout for your
information. I am an avid Holocaust reader and think the message of
tolerance should be taught in schools. While teaching 4th grade I used
Number the Stars as a classroom novel. There are wonderful activities and
lots of good conversation topics that arise from this book. It is not too
graphic like The Devil's Arithmetic and the bravery of Annemarie even
appeals to the boys.
>
>At our school we use
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry and The Upstairs Room by Johanna Reiss as
novels. We also use Rose Blanche by Roberto Innocenti which is a picture
book but for older readers. Very powerful images. I used it as a way to
introduce the literature units. I also used the non fiction book The
Hidden Children by Howard Greenfield. For Anne Frank we use Anne Frank by
McConough (another picture book for older readers) and a beautiful new
book Anne Frank by Josephine Poole. For information about the Holocaust
we use Tell Them We Remember by Susan Bachrach and another picture book,
Star of fear, star of Hope by Jo Hoestlandt.
I have done a holocaust unit with my fifth grade for many years. Here is
a list of books I have used fiction and non-fiction, picture books and
chapter books.
Chapter Books
Jacobs Rescue by Malka Drucker and Michael Halperin
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
The Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen
Behind the Secret Window by Nelly S. Toll
Picture Books
Rose Blanche by Roberto Innocenti
Best Friends by Elizabeth Reuter
Child of the Warsaw Ghetto by David Adler
While this one deals with Japanese interment camps it can be used as a
comparison
Baseball Saved Us by Ken Mochizuki
The Yellow Star: the story of King Christian X of Denmark by Carman A.
Deedy
Hidden Child by Isaac Millman
The Night Crossing by Karen Ackerman
The big lie: a true story by Isabella Leitner
Mercedes and the Chocolate Pilot by Margot Theis Raven
Torn Thread
Number the Stars
Twenty and Ten
Good Night MaMan
Four Perfect Pebbles
Memories of Anne Frank
I did this with my own SS class in fifth grade. We used the National
Holocaust museum as our idea. Each student was given the name of a person
I
had found in my research. The name was printed on a wristband that they
wore during the unit. At the end of the unit, they discovered the age,
gender, country of origin and if they survived or not.
It was very powerful
My students said that that would never ha ppen again. Then I showed them
other examples of ethnic cleansing that has taken place in our world since
then. Lots of opportunities for discussion.
Please use my historical fiction list
http://bookgirl3.tripod.com/historicalfiction.html
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