Dale Anderson

Summary: "Chinese Americans" is an informational text about the emigration of Chinese Americans into American society. Like many immigrants, the Chinese experienced a great deal of prejudice after entering the United States. They overcame this, settled in cities, and became important contributors to society. Their efforts should not be overlooked.
Review: I thought this book was very informative. There is a growing concern for multicultural considerations in classrooms across the country. Teachers would be wise to pick up this text by Dale Anderson, as it provides a great overview of Chinese history and the challenges they faced while entering the United States. I learned a great deal from reading this.… (meer)

This book looks at the struggles of African Americans to gain equal rights. It tells of the African American's opposition to segregated waiting rooms and eating areas in bus stations. To show the oppositions, riders known as "Freedom Riders" decided to travel by bus to many different bus stations in the South to force the state governments to comply with the Supreme Court's decision that segregated waiting rooms were unconstitutional. Many faced harsh attacks but remained peaceful. Eventually the federal government had to step in, and the "Freedom Riders" won the battle. Math teachers can have students create graphs showing how many people were involved in each of the freedom rides in 1961. History teachers can use this as an introduction to civil rights. They could also use a recording of the Oprah Winfrey show, in which she interviews some of the people who were involved in the freedom rides. This will also help create a great discussion on why racial tension was so much stronger in the South and the many things that influenced these opinions. History teachers could also have students draw a map stating which states showed harsher treatment to African American and did not comply with the Civil Rights Act. English teachers can have students research one of the people listed in the book, such as Reverend Fred Shittlesworth or Diana Nash, who supported the freedom rides. The students can then have students create a letter to Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy using the particular person's point of view and asking the attorney general to support their rights. This book is organized in a simple fashion. Sentences are easy to read. The first chapter focuses on an attack on one of the freedom rides to hook the reader into the story, but the rest of the story is told in chronological order. The book contains many black and right photographs of the different people mentioned throughout the book, as well as of the vicious attacks on the freedom riders. The book contains a table of contents, a timeline, more sources and suggested further reading, a glossary, source notes, and a selected bibliography. The author used numerous sources and various types of sources to create this book. Anderson does a great job of telling the story of this inspiring event in history. (While this book is probably more on the middle school level, it is on the shelf at my high school's library, and many of the students use it for their Civil Rights projects.)… (meer)

Text is organized into an introduction and six chapters. Subheadings further divide the text into 2-3 paragraph sections. Inset boxes help highlight interesting/important information while breaking up the text on the page. Also included are brief biographies on the military personalities, including Nathan Hale, the Quakers and Molly Pitcher. Many maps are scattered throughout the text to help the reader understand the geography and the battles. Reproductions of paintings and photographs of reenactments aid in visualizing the landscape and people. Appendices include: Time line, Glossary, Further resources (books, places to visit, web sites), and Index.… (meer)