History – Page 62 – Cannonball Read 17

What I read to my students this week: Two versions of “We Shall Overcome”

We Shall Overcome: The Story of a Song by Debbie Levy and Vanessa Brantley-Newton

We Shall Overcome by Bryan Collier

January 21, 2025 by stegolily Leave a Comment

Every year around Martin Luther King Jr. Day, I teach my elementary music students the song “We Shall Overcome,” and we discuss the song’s history in conjunction with the Civil Rights Movement. I use Debbie Levy’s book, “We Shall Overcome: The Story of a Song” to introduce the song and spur a discussion. This book traces the history of the song from a spiritual sung by enslaved workers, to a hymn popular in Black churches, to a beloved freedom song of the Civil Rights movement, […]

Magic isn’t real

The Mesmerist by Caroline Woods

January 19, 2025 by Ellesfena Leave a Comment

The story: Abby Mendenhall runs the Bethany Home for Unwed Mothers in Minneapolis in the 1890s. A new girl, Faith, appears on the doorstep needing a place to stay. Faith doesn’t speak and quickly creeps out some of the other girls with her slightly witchy ways that hint at mesmerism, a sort of hypnotism that was trendy at the time and that didn’t require any words, only actions. Abby has Faith room with May, who is eager to leave the Bethany Home but only if […]

We finally get Alice and Blackwood’s story

My Inconvenient Duke by Loretta Chase

January 18, 2025 by Malin Leave a Comment

Nowhere Book Bingo 25: A book that takes place entirely outside the US Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC. My views are my own. Spoiler warning! Because some of the issues I have with this book can’t really be addressed without me spoiling some parts of the plot, skip the parts of the review on my website that I’ve marked with spoiler tags until you’ve actually finished the book. While this is the third book in the series, most of the action takes place […]

Sing Me Sweet Nothings! Or, Don’t.

Growth of the Soil by Knut Hamsun

January 17, 2025 by elderberrywine Leave a Comment

My mom’s family is solid Norwegian – I am only second generation American on that side. So much of this book struck home with me. Those people can work, and so nonchalantly, too. Many don’t realize that until fairly recently, Norway was a very poor country, with steep rocky soil and a very short growing season. Most of the men were out on the sea for most of the year as fishermen or merchant seaman, while the women stayed home to tend their […]

A little hope goes a long way

Two Pieces of Chocolate by Kathy Kacer and illustrated by Gabrielle Grimard

January 17, 2025 by BlackRaven Leave a Comment

Two Pieces of Chocolate by Kathy Kacer and illustrated by Gabrielle Grimard is not an easy book to talk about. It is a story about strength and survival illustrated by imagery that brings to life the situation realistic, but also does soften the seriousness. But after that if you tell what happens, it really tells the whole story and you will not need to read it. Based on real events that happened to a young girl, her mother and fellow prisoners in their final concentration […]

For the Trees!

Franklin's Trees by AJ Schenkman

January 17, 2025 by BlackRaven Leave a Comment

In July 2024 Franklin’s Trees was published. I wasn’t able to read a (online) copy until early 2025. Now, it is not a book I went WOW over, or feel that it was worth waiting for, but it is a book that is a nice book when you find it. It never really wowed me, but AJ Schenkman’s book did interest me. I was not sure what to expect, but went about it with an open mind. We know some about Franklin D. Roosevelt, but […]

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