Grade 6 Historical Fiction Research: Great Depression

This series examines the causes and effects of the most important events in the last century. Each title provides in-depth background information using primary source material and detailed descriptions of an event, while also considering the issues at stake, the people involved, the aftermath, and the consequences.

Describes what life was like for Americans during the Great Depression and World War II, exploring the causes of the Depression, the impact it had on how people lived, the ways people tried to earn and save money, what it was like to be a child during the Depression, the changes that occurred when the country joined World War II, and the role women and children played in the war efforts at home.

When Franklin Delano Roosevelt proclaimed, The only thing we have to fear is fear itself, he understood his words well. In the inspiring Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Nothing to Fear , readers will learn how Roosevelt overcame a debilitating battle with polio to lead the nation through war and the Depression.

Bonnie loves to sing while her father plays a fiddle. In better times, the family was happy in its modest home. But hard times took away Bonnie's father's job, then their house, and then even her father's fiddle. Hearing the unkind remarks of a neighbor, Bonnie's father leaves to search for work at the nearby port and to relieve the economic burden on his wife, who has started to take in laundry. A distraught Bonnie determines to take her dog, Caesar, and go find her daddy! In her search, Bonnie discovers the pivotal part she can play in rescuing her family and restoring their lives.

Edward loves his pet duck more than anything. He raised it from a baby, and now it follows him everywhere&150even to the big fancy hotel in Memphis where he works with his father. Everyone at the Peabody loves to watch that little duck do tricks; why, it can even waddle up and down in time to a John Philip Sousa march, which is why Edward decides to name it John Philip. But one day the hotel owner finds John Philip in his lobby fountain and he is NOT amused. Until Edward has an idea. What if he can train a bevy of ducks to march along behind him, swim in the fountain all day, and then march out every evening? If Edward can do that, the owner tells him, he and John Philip will have a permanent place at the Peabody. But can it really be done? Based on the real-life tradition of the Hotel Peabody Ducks, Patricia Polacco's latest picture book is one of her most charming to date.