April is National Poetry Month, and 7th/8th grade Social Studies teachers take note, I wanted to share this awesome World War II history book in verse.
That's right, history. In verse. I loved it!
It's not until much later in life that the author, Lois Lowry, notices this, but when she's a little girl, living in Hawaii, her parents video her playing on the beach, with the USS Arizona cruising in the background.
She uses this event to delve, a little, not too much, into the lives of some of the men who were killed and the women whose lives were irreparably changed on Dec. 7, 1941.
While this text could be used in the younger grades too, it's an excellent introduction to the attack on Pearl Harbor. I often used picture books this way in 7th/8th grade Social Studies, as they generally reach all level readers by that age. Using picture books in the later grades offers students a chance to quickly build background knowledge about key historic events. And your students will find it a novel reading and learning experience, one they may not have had in years.
