Book Review: LINCOLN'S GRAVE ROBBERS

A simple plan: break into Abraham Lincoln’s tomb, steal his corpse, hide the body, demand $200,000 and the release of convicted counterfeiter Benjamin Boyd as a ransom. Steve Sheinkin’s Lincoln’s Grave Robbers proves that fact is sometimes stranger than fiction. This true crime thriller details how the Secret Service was able to capture and convict master counterfeiter Boyd in 1875. With Boyd in jail, the supply of high-quality counterfeit money dried up, causing a real headache for criminals on the streets of Chicago. Several “coney men” were desperate to get Boyd out of jail and back to work. They concocted a wild plan to secure the release of the engraver from prison by snatching President Lincoln’s body. Fortunately, the Secret Service had an uncover snitch who helped them foil the plan.  

Sheinkin’s fascinating page-turner is perfect for middle school readers and pairs well with James Swanson’s Chasing Lincoln’s Killer. These two well-written books are excellent examples of how exciting narrative non-fiction can be. I hope Scholastic and other publishers will continue to publish these types of works as teachers try to encourage more non-fiction reading in the classroom. My only problem with Lincoln’s Grave Robbers is the cover, which is too dark and not eye-catching. Readers can easily overlook this great book on library or bookstore selves, which would be a real shame.  

4.5 out of 5 stars
Grades 5 and up 

Book Review: MUSH

Joe Funk's Mush is short overview of the Iditarod race, focusing primarily on the dogs. The photography in the book is beautiful, and the layout is not overwhelming or distracting to the reader. The information is straightforward and easy to digest, making it a perfect high interest, low reading level book. Funk does not present his information in the typical chronological manner, which makes the book feel a little choppy. I would have like more information about the history of the race and the dangers, but that would have made the book longer. Mush would work very well in the classroom for modeling non-fiction reading. It would also be a good starting point for students to research about this historic race.

4 out of 5 stars
Grades 4 and up

Book Review: THE PRICE OF FREEDOM

Judith and Dennis Fradin's short, illustrated book tells the story of a group of Ohio residents who thwart the capture of a runaway slave. Kentucky slaves John Price, his cousin Dinah and their friend Frank followed the underground railroad into Ohio in January of 1856. They intended to go to Canada where their freedom would be guaranteed, but they decided to stay in the welcoming town of Oberlin. In October of that year, several slave hunters arrived in Oberlin to find the men. With the help of one of the few local families in support of the Fugitive Slave Law, they are able to grab John Price and take him to Wellington, Ohio. Believing in a "higher law," hundreds of Oberlinians go to Wellington a free John before the slave hunters are able to force him aboard a train back to Kentucky. This event became known as the Oberlin-Wellington Rescue. 

With powerful illustrations, the Fradlins show one of the little known, yet important events that would lead to the Civil War.  Price of Freedom is an excellent classroom novel for studying the Underground Railroad. It can be read aloud in about 10 minutes and would easily fuel discussion and further research.

4 out of 5 stars
Grades 4 and up

Non-fiction Book Project

Today the 5th graders came to the library to select a book of their choice for their non-fiction project.  This project will incorporate reading non-fiction, generating questions while reading, web searching and creating a Keynote presentation. In preparation of them coming, I pulled over 200 books across our entire non-fiction collection that are high interest and under 200 pages.  I had to borrow a few tables to display them all.  When the students arrived, we walked to each table while I gave a mini-booktalk on some of the really interesting titles such as The Perilous Journey of the Donner Party, Dark Game, Spies of Mississippi, and The Man-Eating Tigers of the Sundarbans.  I then had the students sit at one of the tables, with no more than 3 students to a table.  They had to pick at least one book from the table and write down the title, call number, subject, and mark their level of interest on a form that I provided them.  They would have 2 minutes to do this and then move to the next table.  I used Online Stopwatch to time them.  By the time they were done, the students had made notes on at least 8 books.  They then could check out their favorite book.  Every student was easily able to find a non-fiction book that appealed to him or her; most of the students were really excited about their selection.

These 5th graders will now have three weeks to read their book.  As they are reading, they will generate questions about what they are reading on sticky notes.   Many of these questions will most likely be answered as they continue to read the book, but some their questions will require them to search the Internet.  We are using this unit to discuss web-searching techniques and finding reliable web sources; they will have time in class to search for answers to their questions.  After they have finish reading the book and answering their questions, they will select their four best questions, which they will explain to their classmates in a five to seven minute Keynote presentation.