Elizabeth Ward writes, "A passion for history rarely starts with a textbook. It takes a story to spark an interest. A movie can do it, but so can a novel or a memoir -- or even a picture book." Ward reviews children's books with this historical spark for Washington Post's "For Young Readers." Many books--from picture to novel--make Ward's list. They are:
- Landed by Milly Lee. A picture book. ("12-year-old Lee Sun Chor... sails to America with his father, a returning merchant, early in the last century)
- Marvelous Mattie: How Margaret E. Knight Became an Inventor by Emily Arnold McCully. Non-Fiction. ("invites kids to think about the history of women and scientific innovation, yet it won't bore the socks off them.")
- Counting Coup by Joseph Medicine Crow. Memoir. ("He became a Baptist, went to college, fought with the U.S. Army in Germany and earned a PhD and a reputation as a lecturer and historian, but he is also the last traditional Crow chief. ")
- Swan Town: The Secret Journal of Susanna Shakespeare by Michael J. Ortiz. Novel. (Ortiz reimagines the life of Shakespeare's daughter.)
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