Multi-cultural & International

The First Easter by: Carol Heyer [multi-cultural]

The book is about why people celebrate Easter.  The book tells the story of Jesus Christ.  It starts at His birth then skips to the week before His crusification.  The book explains Palm Sunday what is so special about that day.  It talks about Jesus' trial and how He was sentenced to crusified.  It says that He died and rose again three days later so we can all live.  This book is good around Easter time.  This book is about a religion which means it is very important to be careful because not all students have the same religion.  If you have a unit on religion or races (Jews) you could show this book.

The Trail of Tears by: Michael Burgan [multi-cultural]

This book tells a fairly non-biased account of the Cherokee people.  The book talks about how the Cherokee lived before Europeans settled.  Burgan tells of the various challenges the Cherokee had to go through to fight for land.  The long battle that they lost in the end.  He told how their culture as more and more Europeans moved in.  He tales of the "Trail of Tears" this is the 800 mile walk that the Indians had to endure when they were relocated.  This book should also be handled with care because you could have a Cherokee in your class.  This book is great for making a timeline because their are so many events. 

Only Passing Through: The Story Sojourner Truth by: Anne Rockwell [mutli-cultural]

This is about Story Sojourner. Her birth name was Isabella.  Her original slave master died and that is when the story began.  She was sold to farmer who beat her and left scars.  She was then sold to another farmer who married her and she has 5 children.  She ran from the farm when her freedom was not given to her as promised and an abolisionist bought her only to free her.  As a free woman she began to learn more and more. She had a number of accomplishments and decided it was her path to be an inspiration to all blacks during that time renaming herself Sojourner Truth. This book is good for Black History Month and students can use this book for research for a project.