Wednesday, December 07, 2005

December 7 - Pearl Harbor Day

Pearl Harbor Day



A Boy at War by Harry Mazer, 2001
Adam is newly arrived in Honolulu and attending civilian school for the first time. His father is a naval officer on the USS Arizona. Adam and his Japanese friend Davi are fishing near the battleships in Pearl Harbor on the morning of December 7, 1941 when they see the Japanese bombers fly directly overhead. The boys are engulfed in the immediate horror and the swirling events in the days that follow.



Attack on Pearl Harbor by by Shelley Tanaka, 2001
This terrific and very readable nonfiction title was a Texas Bluebonnet book. Great illustrations, diagrams and maps tell the story of the Day of Infamy.

This is a superb nonfiction book to read aloud. Teachers should use this title to model how to grapple with nonfiction text.



Early Sunday Morning: The Pearl Harbor Diary of Amber Billows, Hawaii, 1941, by Barry Denenberg, 2001
The Dear America books are well researched and try to bring a first person voice to historical events. The stories are fictional.



Under the Blood-Red Sun by Graham Salisbury, 1994
A Japanese American boy and his family must deal with the anguish and fear on the island of Oahu that followed the attack on Pearl Harbor. Tomi's best friend Billy is white and they share a love for baseball and the USA but his grandfather is waving the Japaneses flag in front of their home. Salisbury does a good job of presenting the confusing and conflicting emotions all Americans experienced in the wake of the attack.

No comments: