Re: 1850-Mod Book Basket Recommendations

[Julie in MN]

I was wondering if anyone has suggestions for books on the Book Basket list that are *must reads*. I'm hoping to use some of my credits on Paperback Swap to get some things that are recommended reading for the upcoming school year and I didn't want to wait. We read several books this year (Exp-1850) that we really enjoyed (most were not askterisked in the TM), and I wanted to have some things on hand before we start the new school year so I don't have to depend on the library so much. I'm just hoping to get a head start.
Blessings,
Missy

Missy,
You can find the topics in the sample pages, to help you see the topics you'll want books on:
http://www.mfwbooks.com/pdf/year5sample.pdf

One of the big topics at the beginning of the year is learning states & capitals. I don't remember what books were recommended, but I just grabbed everything in the house about states & put it on a shelf for book basket. If you have 2nd-3rd graders, they read more "storybooks" set in the states, like Adventures would have. And for the individual state studies, I remember that the year started with my state - Minnesota!

You pick up history in the Victorian era with Queen Victoria. We also read a little about Florence Nightingale at that time. You quickly get to the time of Abe Lincoln & the Civil War. Again, there are tons of books out there even outside of what's on the book basket list. Clara Barton was at that time also.

We're in week 12. Here are a few books we have especially enjoyed so far, but they may not help you because I don't think any was from the "official" list. But I guess that's a good example of why you don't need to worry too much about sticking to just the official list (especially if you don't have it yet!):

U.S. Presidents, Feats & Foul-Ups, The Good, the Bad, and the Silly, by Nell Fuqua
Young Thomas Edison, by Michael Dooling
Freedom Train, by Sterling

[cbollin]

hmmm.... I'm not a big book buyer (I use library). and my family's preferences might not be books that any other family would like. I have girls so I don't know what books boys like.

Middle gal and I liked Scrambled States of America (not on book basket list actually).

Sorry that I'm not more helpful on this. book basket in year 5 is huge! I stopped counting one day after 400.

-crystal

[4Truth]

Missy, you may have already discovered this if you did EX1850, but the state alphabet books from Sleeping Bear Press are really nice. I purchased S is for Show Me because we live in Missouri, but there's one for every state.

Also don't forget the Childhood of Famous Americans series, and maybe the Sowers series for older kids.

[homeschoolhisway]

We enjoyed several of the Sleeping Bear Press books this year as we covered some of the states in Exp-1850. I usually just skipped over the evolutionary content, but found the rest of the books to be very informative. In our local libraries I didn't find anything else that combined so much information in one book on any given state that was appropriate for elementary and middle school aged children. I will continue to search for those as we cover the rest of the states this coming year.

I'll take Julie's suggestion and use the list of topics to begin to plan. What I've found over the years is that there are usually some books on the book list that I would have overlooked in the library had the book not been listed for book basket. While I don't stick exclusively to the book basket list we've found it to be a good source for books we may not have chosen or maybe even realized were available on our current topic (more so this past year than any other year). A couple of examples are "Dolphin Adventure: A True Story" by Wayne Grover and "By the Great Horn Spoon!" by Sid Fleischman.

Often when I do a search through our library website the books that are listed in the book basket list don't show up under the topic searches, so having titles really makes the difference. Thanks for the suggestions.

Blessings,
Missy


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