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Saturday, August 8, 2009

FAMILY REMINDERS- JULIE DANNEBERG

CALLING ALL COLORADO TEACHERS,
ESPECIALLY THOSE WHO TEACH COLORADO HISTORY.
HERE'S A BOOK YOU'LL WANT TO OWN!

Ten-year-old Mary McHugh lives with her father and mother in Cripple Creek, Colorado in the late 1800's. Mary is at school one day when a siren goes off, indicating that there has been an accident at the mine. After school, Mary discovers that her own father has been injured. He survives, but is no longer the happy, wood-carving, piano-playing daddy that Mary knew before the accident, and Mary and her mother must find a way to help him work out of his deep depression, and also help the family survive without its previous income.

FAMILY REMINDERS would be a terrific read aloud for anyone doing a unit on life in the mining towns. I can also see myself handing the book to some of our second, third, and fourth grade readers, think LITTLE HOUSE books, but a little easier. And I love Mary and her mom, plucky heroines who make lemonade when life hands them lemons. They're great models for today's tough economic times.

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