Meet Kit, an American girl Book by Valerie Tripp

 This book is about a girl named Kit who is growing up during the great depression.  Kit loves to type on her typewriter and often creates a "newspaper" for her family to read to know what is going on. Due to the Great Depression, Kit's father loses his job and the family ends up having to take in borders.  

I think I would use this book in my classroom.  I think it is a very interesting viewpoint that I haven't really read many books about.  I think these books go really well with history lessons since there are books in this series from a lot of different time periods.  I think this book is good for students in grades 3-6.  

Henry's Freedom Box: A True Story from the Underground Railroad Book: By Ellen Levine

 Henry's Freedom Box tells the story of Henry Brown, who begins the book as a slave. Henry marries a girl who is owned by someone else and when money gets tight, Henry's wife and children are sold.  After seeing his wife and children sold, Henry is determined to escape the grasp of slavery and decided to mail himself away.  He mails himself to Philadelphia and begins his new life there.  

I think I would use this book in my classroom.  I feel like it is a good book for students around the 2nd-4th grade.  I think this would pair very well with a history lesson.  

Meet Rebecca: An American Girl : By Jacqueline Dembar Greene

 This book is the first in the series about a girl named Rebecca and her family.  Rebecca's family is from Russia but Rebecca is a first-generation American who lives in New York City.  Rebecca's family is Jewish which is very evident by many of the events and traditions highlighted in these books. In the first book, Rebecca is desperate to grow up and be more like her older sisters.   

I do not think I would use this book in my classroom for a group reading but I do think these books are very good for children to read during independent reading.  While I would encourage any student to read these books, as they are called American Girl Doll Books, I have often seen them appeal much more to girls than to boys so I feel like if I wanted to read a book on this subject with the class I could find a different book that has a greater appeal to more of my students.  

So Far from Home: The Diary of Mary Driscoll, an Irish Mill Girl, Lowell, Massachusetts, 1847: By Barry Denenberg

This story is a fictional diary from the viewpoint of Mary Driscoll.  It follows her from Ireland to America and then shows the hardships she went through once arriving.  She has to work in a factory under terrible conditions and longs for her family she left back in Ireland.  

 I am not sure if I would use this book in my classroom because it is definitely more appropriate for around 5th or 6th grade, I do think this is a very good book for young readers.  It has a lot of historical accuracies built into the story.  It also depicts hardship that while readers today may not relate to them specifically, it shows hardships that are often not depicted in other youth historical fiction books.  This specific book talks a lot about living in Ireland during the 1840s.  This would pair well with a history class, or with a writing assignment if students were having to keep their own sort of a diary.  

The War that Saved my Life: By Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

 This book was very surprising.  The story begins with a girl named Ada and her brother Jamie.  They live with their mom right before World War II.  Their mother treats Ada horriblily all because she has a club foot and can not walk very well.  Because of the approaching war, Jamie is to be sent to live out in the county with the other school children where he will be safer.  Mam does not permit Ada to go but she sneaks away and goes anyway.  Ada and Jamie end up staying with a woman named Suzan Smith, who is very kind to them despite not wanting children when they first arrive.  Under the care of Suzan, Ada gets much better.  She gets crutches so she can walk and she learns to ride a horse.  Jamie goes to school and continues to learn and Suzan teaches Ada at home how to read and write.  All the time they are preparing for the war, digging a shelter, beginning to ration food, and help at the WVS group.  Ada and Jamie grow to love living with Suzan but then their Mam comes to get them and take them back to London with her.  She does not approve of how proper her children have become and how nice they now look.  Once back in London she returns to treating Ada terribly and locking her up to avoid the "shame of having a crippled".  After Ada and Jamie have been back a few days, the Germans bomb London.  They barely make it to the shelter and when they come out they do not know what happened to Mam.  When they are looking around after they find Suzan who has come to take them back.  When Suzan and the children arrive back at Suzan's home, they find that it has been bombed.  The only reason Suzan is ok is that she came to get the children.  The whole time when reading the book, I assumed the only life that was saved in this was Ada as she was finally allowed to experience life but in the end, I realized Suzan's life had also been saved by the children.  

This is an amazing book but I do not think I would use it in my classroom.  This book is definitely more appropriate for upper elementary students or maybe even junior high and I plan on teaching lower elementary.  If I ever taught a higher grade I would definitely use it.  This book is so interesting and there were a lot of hidden lessons in it.  This book could also be paired with a history unit on World War II and talking about the experience of children during this time.