Tag Archives: Sarah Albee

The Clothing Dilemma

25 Jun

Today, I’m packing my bag for my trip to the ALA conference in San Francisco.

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Portland is expecting a heat wave, with temps hitting 100ºF by Saturday. UGH. Fortunately, San Francisco is expecting lovely, normal temps in the 60’s & 70’s.

Packing means thinking about what events I have to attend, how much walking I’ll be doing, a jacket for morning and evenings, clothes I can mix and match but still feel as though I’m not wearing the same thing day after day.

Sarah Albee has a new book out through National Geographic, entitled  Why’d There Wear That? Fashion as the Mirror of History.

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Publisher’s Summary: Move over Project Runway. Get ready to chuckle your way through centuries of fashion dos and don’ts! In this humorous and approachable narrative, kids will learn about outrageous, politically-perilous, funky, disgusting, regrettable, and life-threatening creations people have worn throughout the course of human history, all the way up to the present day. From spats and togas to hoop skirts and hair shirts, why people wore what they did is an illuminating way to look at the social, economic, political, and moral climates throughout history.

You can see some details in this trailer:

This is a book you can read cover to cover or by dipping into things that catch your interest, especially after perusing the amusing chapter titles.

Chapter 1 That’s a Wrap: The Ancient World 10,ooo B.C. – A.D. 1000

Chapter 2 Keeping the Faith: The Middle Ages 1000 – 1400s

Chapter 3 Going Global: The Age of Exploration 1400s -early 1500s

Chapter 4 Ruff & Ready: The Renaissance 1500s -early 1600s

Chapter 5 Lighten Up!: The Age of Reason 1600s – 1700s

Chapter 6 Hats (and Heads) Off: revolutionary Times mid-1600s – early 1800s

Chapter 7 Growing Pains: Marching Toward Modernity mid-1700s – early 1900s

Chapter 8 Labor Pains: The Industrial Revolution mid-1800s – early 1900s

Chapter 9 Class Dismissed: World at War The 20th Century & Beyond

Fact boxes and sidebars are off-set in blue and yellow, which doesn’t interrupt the flow of the main text.Back matter includes a timeline, a lengthy bibliography, author’s notes, an index and a list of the images used.

Tons here to interest kids with a wide range of interests.

Bad News Bugs

8 Jun

Last week or so (time blurs at the end of the school year) my teaching partner asked me to do her a huge favor: go through the Scholastic and Arrow book orders and spend her 6000 points on books for the kids in her class. I laughed. This wasn’t going to feel like a job at all; this would be a delight.

She has a couple of boys in her class who really like non-fiction, and history in general. One boy, Bryan, has become a biography-nut since our writing unit on biographies. So, for  two of the boys in her class, I chose this book

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Bugged: How Insects Changed History by Sarah Albee is a fun romp through some of the icky and funny parts of human history. With chapter titles like

The Horrible History of Human Hygiene

Medieval Microbes

More Thinking but Still Stinking

It’s All Fun & Games Until Someone Loses an Isle

you know Albee will mix a lot of humor with the gruesome to make it palatable. Figuratively, not literally.  each chapter is broken into parts with headings and the illustrations, some originals by Robert Leighton, some reproductions from the period covered, give readers a sense of what life might have looked like at the time.  Each chapter is amply illustrated and has sidebars that add even more zest to the disgusting facts Albee writes about. Backmatter includes a glossary, further reading and surfing, notes of sources, picture credits and an index.This is a well-researched book that every history teacher should have to spice up their units. Upper elementary and middle school teachers would do well to add this to their classroom libraries. But be prepared for groans and gags from the kids as they read it.

 

 

 

 

 

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