Historical Adventures Unit Study

The Historical Adventures Unit Study will be based on two classic Newbery Medal books, Bud, Not Buddy and A Year Down Yonder.  In both books students will meet characters who lived during the Great Depression and experience moments from hardships.  Discover the events that led to and occured during the Great Depression, life in the midwest, train travel, jazz music and things people did to survive from day to day.  The books are recommended for readers 9 - 14 Years or 4th-9th grades.  Content will be adjusted to the student enrollment.  

Class will meet virtually beginning Monday, January 29, 2:30-3:30 pm. 

January  29

February 5, 12, 26  (February 19 is the President's Day Holiday)

March 4, 11, 18, 25

April 8, 15, 22, 29 (April 1 is Easter Monday Observance)

May 6, 13, 

Total sessions:  14

Instructions to join the class will be sent just before the first class date and must not be shared.  

Students will need to borrow or own a copy of the books.  

Students need to have a notebook in which to journal.

Handouts will be sent via email to download and or print.

Outings and activities will be suggested for students to participate in with their family.

Assignments will include but are not limited to: Vocabulary, Writing, looking up historical information presented in the books.

Topics in the books include: train travel, music of the 1930's (jazz bands, swing music), culture of the mid-west states, importance of family, genealogy, survival skills, frugality, hard times, getting along with others, and sharing.

Students will be informed of the writing style of each author, settings, plots, narration, characters, and how to write a short story.  

S.T.E.A.M (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) will be included in the unit study.  

The Books

Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis is the story of a ten-year-old orphan named Bud who runs away from a foster home. He travels through Michigan in search of his biological father using only a clue left by his mother, flyers for a jazz band called the "Dusky Devastators of the Depression." Herman E. Calloway, the band's leader, is the man Bud believes to be his father.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Children's literature, Young adult fiction, historical novel

Awards: 2000 Coretta Scott King Author Award; Newbery Medal; William Allen White Children's Book Award

AN ALA Best Book For Young Adults, An ALA Notable Children’s Books,  AN IRA Children’s Book Award Winner, Named to 14 State Award Lists "The book is a gem, of value to all ages, not just the young people to whom it is aimed." -- The Christian Science Monitor "Will keep readers engrossed from first page to last." -- Publishers Weekly, Starred "Curtis writes with a razor-sharp intelligence that grabs the reader by the heart and never lets go. . . . This highly recommended title [is] at the top of the list of books to be read again and again." -- Voice of Youth Advocates, StarredFrom the Hardcover edition.

A Year Down Yonder is a novel by Richard Peck published in 2000 and won the Newbery Medal in 2001. It is a sequel to A Long Way from Chicago, which itself received a Newbery Honor.  A Newbery Medal Winner

Richard Peck's Newbery Medal-winning sequel to A Long Way from Chicago

Mary Alice's childhood summers in Grandma Dowdel's sleepy Illinois town were packed with enough drama to fill the double bill of any picture show. But now she is fifteen, and faces a whole long year with Grandma, a woman well known for shaking up her neighbors-and everyone else! All Mary Alice can know for certain is this: when trying to predict how life with Grandma might turn out . . . better not. This wry, delightful sequel to the Newbery Honor Book A Long Way from Chicago has already taken its place among the classics of children's literature.

"Hilarious and poignant." —Publishers Weekly, starred review

A Newbery Medal Winner

A New York Times Bestseller

An ALA Notable Book

An ALA Best Book for Young Adults

A Booklist Best Book of the Year

A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year