This curriculum unit takes the form of historical fiction, an original story for middle school students which revolves around the 16th-century Spanish conquest of Guatemala and the Mayan people. Incorporated into the story are many of the Mayan sites, ruins, geography, culture, legends, historical characters, and cities. The climax is set at the…

This story, for readers aged 8 to 10 years, is about Salik, a husky puppy who journeys from Greenland to Antarctica to become a sledge dog. Through Salik's training and his first sledge journey, children find out about the life of a dog team and the work the dogs do. The story is accompanied by a number of illustrations by Christine Forsyth. A…

Intended for preadolescents, this novel can serve as an antidote to the well-documented sexism girls encounter as they struggle with questions of self-esteem. It tells the story of 11-year-old Lily, harassed by a boy at school, but with a distinct advantage in that her flute teacher is a time traveler. In the novel, Lily travels back 3,500 years…

The true story of Oscar, an Arctic husky who had been a sledge dog in Antarctica, is told for readers aged 10 to 12 years. The author, Oscar's long-time master, visits Oscar at the Melbourne zoo as the story begins. He recounts some of his memories of Oscar, including a number of expeditions, and Oscar's fight to remain "king dog" of the…

This play, intended for middle school and high school students, uses the historical events of the Macartney mission to China from 1792-94 to illustrate the problems that can occur when different cultures interact. The play describes the first major encounter in which government officials representative of the European Enlightenment come face to…

This novel is one of only a very few available that deals with Indian-American children--a rapidly growing population, especially in urban areas like New York, Los Angeles (California), San Francisco (California), Chicago (Illinois), and Toronto (Canada). The novel tells the story of an opinionated 11-year-old girl who lives in Ohio, likes to…