“Big River” is a musical based on the famous fiction Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain.  In 2005, the Middle School put on a fabulous production of this play. The Middle School PTA Parent SEED Book Committee compiled a short recommended reading list that can help deepen a young person’s understanding of the historical context of Huck’s story. The titles include both fiction and nonfiction.

Carbone, Elise. (FIC CAR) 4th – 8th
Storm Warriors

This story gives you a first hand view of a Black life saving crew on the off-shore islands of North Carolina in the 1890s, the days just after the Civil War. The boy narrator goes through some amazing experiences as he learns to know more about himself, the sea, and the larger world. His character is artfully revealed, and appealing. The story gives an unexaggerated portrayal of real historically accurate heroic rescues, and rescuers. Good story for any middle school reader.

Cox, Clinton. (B TWA) 4th – 8th
Mark Twain: America’s Humorist, Dreamer, Prophet, a Biography

Clinton Cox’s book reveals Mark Twain’s many contradictions. Although the son of a slave owner and known to use racial slurs he married an heiress and longed to be rich himself and in his early years ridiculed the women’s rights movement. Later Mark Twain became obsessed with race and poverty. He became a major voice for the struggle against racism and supported women’s rights. This biography tells of his deepest sadness, outliving his younger brother, his three children and his wife and losing all his money by investing in schemes and inventions. Cox’s biography is a vivid portrayal of Mark Twain’s life journey to becoming one of the most important American writers in history dedicated to exposing the evils of slavery and the plight of African Americans during the post-Civil war time.

Fox, Paula. (FIC FOX) 6th – 8th
The Slave Dancer

This story begins in New Orleans in 1840. Jessie, a twelve-year-old boy is kidnapped by a crew to play the fife for a ship importing and selling slaves. Jessie plays the fife while the slaves are forced to dance and move their pained, shackled limbs for “exercise”. The horrific and inhuman acts which Jessie witnesses on the ship are vividly described. Beautifully written, almost poetic at times, this story intensely describes a gruesome time in history.

Hamilton, Virginia. (973.7 HAM) 4th – 8th
Many Thousands Gone: African Americans from Slavery to Freedom

This is a wonderfully researched, thoughtfully executed and beautifully illustrated history of slavery from the earliest slave trading in Africa through the Emancipation Proclamation. Through individual profiles of well known and lesser known persons, told in their own voices, Hamilton provides a very complete and vivid portrayal of African Americans' journey from slavery to freedom. Hamilton's history is an excellent resource for people of all ages; it is particularly suitable for grades four and five.

Krass, Peter (B TRU) 6th – 8th
Sojourner Truth:  Anti-Slavery Activist

A rich and informative biography of Sojourner Truth, from her birth into slavery in 1797 to her death as a Freedwoman nearly a century later.  Having been freed in 1827, Sojourner Truth went on to participate in some of the North’s most important and daring political movements, including radical agitation for the abolition of slavery and for the political rights of women of all races.  This is finally more than just a biography; it is an excellent introduction to this period in American history.

Lester, Julius. 8th and up
Long Journey Home:  Stories from Black History

This is a collection of six short stories about African American life during and after slavery, based on true stories.  The stories are vividly written, and they include the perspectives of both white and black narrators.  Themes include daily life on the plantation, slaves’ aspirations to freedom, the Underground Railroad, and the hardships of African American life after Emancipation.  Lester is an imaginative writer and he admits to literary embellishment; but the stories are nonetheless sound historical treatments of the era.  The frank depiction of racial oppression makes this collection more suitable to slightly older readers.

Lyons, Mary E. (FIC LYO) 6th – 8th
Letters From A Slave Girl - The Story of Harriet Jacobs.

This is a powerful and poignant tale of a slave girl, Harriet Jacobs’ yearning and ultimate escape to freedom.  The book, which as the title indicates, is written in letter format, is a fictional account of Jacobs’ plight based on her 1861 autobiography.  Not only are the letters a stylistically clever way to immediately involve the reader in Jacobs’ struggle, they also provide a subtle celebration of her determination and strength.  Following the Nat Turner rebellion in 1831, slave owners in North Carolina, where Harriet lived, were prohibited from teaching slaves to read or write.  Harriet’s first master, Miss Margaret Horniblow, whom we meet in her first letter when the book opens and who is on her death bed, violated these laws and taught Harriet to read.  Harriet, in turn, taught herself to write.  This book is a well-researched, thoughtful and important contribution to the literature of American history.  This book is best suited for seventh and eighth graders due to the mature issues raised by the content.

McKissack, Patricia C. & Fredrick L. (973.7 MCK) 4th – 8th
Days of Jubilee, The end of slavery in the United States

This gorgeous volume shows diaries, letters and first-0hand accounts of African Americans experiencing the end of slavery.  Frederick

Douglass proclaims the 4th of July as a travesty of Independence Day, and little known fugitive slaves like Nicholas Biddle march with the Union Army to cheers in one town and threats in the next.  Lincoln and his positions are seen through many eyes, and the reader can imagine how complex American history really is.

Nelson, Vaunda. (PIC NEL) 4th – 5th
Almost to Freedom

This evocative picture book is told from the viewpoint of a rag doll about a young girl and her family’s dramatic escape from slavery via the Underground Railroad.

Russell, Sharman Apt (B DOU) 6th – 8th
Frederick Douglass:  Abolitionist Editor A biography of the anti-slavery leader

This title chronicles Douglass’ life from his birth into slavery in 1818 to his death as a world renowned politician and writer in 1895.  Though never losing sight of Douglass himself, the book is nonetheless a fairly ambitious treatment of the entire period, and is especially strong on daily life under slavery and on the politics of the Civil War.

Schmidt, Gary D. (FIC SCH) 6th – 8th
Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy

Based on a little known piece of history, the island of Malaga Maine was originally settled by Benjamin Darling a freed (or escaped) slave and his white wife, Sarah Proverbs. More slaves followed. In the early 1900’s, as the shipping industry began to fail in neighboring white mainland Philipsburg, the town elders begin to see the poor community of Malaga as a possible lucrative tourist attraction and proceed to destroy it. Schmidt’s fictional portrayal of this story is told through the friendship between Lizze Bright, a Malaga local and Turner Buckminster, the bullied new preacher’s son and how they take a stand. Although the story is sad, there is much humor and it is filled with feeling and imagery.
 
Siegel, Beatrice.
Murder On The Highway

It is non-fiction, the story of a forty-year-old mother of five who left her family in Detroit to join the 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery civil rights march in Alabama.  Late in the day after the completion of the march, she was gunned down on a lonely stretch of highway by members of the Ku Klux Klan.  The book is accessible to all middle school readers, and it does a good job in explaining the civil rights struggle. The book also tells the life story of the murdered woman, and provides some history of the Ku Klux Klan.  Some readers may read this book independently, and many more will find it useful in doing research on the civil rights movement of the 1960s.

Staples, Suzanne Fisher. (FIC STA) 6th – 8th
Dangerous Skies

This story presents readers with a first hand account of how the love and loyalty of childhood friendship is tested by an adult world that operates in a prejudiced and unfair way.  Two families share the same name from the days of slavery, and are practically kin but separated by race. This is a tense, beautifully written book set in the Eastern Shore of Virginia. The story is full of realistic natural and human details of life there, including some upsetting and believable racism and sexism. The young protagonists are much braver than most adults.  Good for 6-8th grade readers.

Taylor, Mildred D. (FIC TAY) 7th – 8th
The Land

The powerful, painful, and breathtaking prequel to the Newbery Medal winner Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry set in post-Civil War era deals with Paul Edward’s (son of a white plantation owner and a slave mother) struggle to realize his dream of owning a piece of land and establishing his own place in the world.

Taylor, Mildred D. (FIC TAY) 4th – 6th
The Well

A short, fast paced page turner. Hammer Logan’s family is the only family in this region of Mississippi with a well that hasn’t dried out from the drought.  The Logan’s share their well with all their neighbors. However, the fiercely proud Hammer finds it difficult to share with Charlie, a white teenager who takes pleasure in taunting and humiliating him. Tensions rise and quickly spiral into hateful actions and confrontations between the two which seriously jeopardizes the entire community.

Zeinert, Karen. (326 ZEI) 4th – 8th
The Amistad Slave Revolt and American Abolition

This is a well-written account of the Amistad incident known to many from the Steven Spielberg film of several years ago.  The book provides the reader with the necessary historical context, and it is narrated in a clear, compelling style that makes it a quick, informative and memorable read.  I recommend this book for inclusion on the Big River program and on the more comprehensive list.

Selected titles by Mark Twain:

Adventures of Tom Sawyer

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

The Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court

The Prince and the Pauper

You can find these books in the Middle School Library.

This list is compiled and annotated by the  

Middle School PTA Parent SEED Book Committee

Laura Aziz, Kathy Chan (Chair), Roxanne Hsu Feldman (Librarian/Consultant), Lois Perelson-Gross, Matt Jacobson,

Sarah Meredith, Wakasa Nagakura, Dominica Jones-Samuels