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Oklahoma History
Antle, Nancy, Beautiful
Land: A Story of the Oklahoma Land Rush,
Puffin, 1997. (Grades 3-5)
This short chapter book describes the opening of the Oklahoma Territory.
Anna Mae, her brother, and her father have been living in a dugout
on the Kansas prairie for two years waiting for word that the new
territory is open for settlement. When the news comes, the family
lines up with others to race in a land run. Claim jumpers try to
cheat them, but soldiers ride to the rescue and all ends well. Although
too short to explore fully the emotional issues raised, the book
fulfills its purpose in creating sympathetic characters and showing
what daily life may have been like for settlers of the period.
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Booth, David, and Karen Reczuch, The Dust
Bowl, Kids Can, 1999. (Grades K-3).
A drought is plaguing a farm family, and Matthew's
grandfather looks out the window and tells him about the Big
Dry of the 1930s. He describes the good times when farmers felt
as if they had struck gold, and also recalls the great dust clouds
that could block out the sun for days. Once again, as this new
drought continues, the family clings to the hope of seeing their
land green.
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Cooper, Michael, Dust to Eat: Drought and Depression in the
1930s, Clarion, 2005. (Grades 6-8)
Personal stories of survival during the Great Depression and
Dust Bowl within the Great Plains, with depictions of migrant
camps and description of President Roosevelt's response to those
in need.
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Friedrich, Elizabeth, and Michael Garland, Leah's
Pony, Boyds Mills, 1999. (Grades K-3).
Amid the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, Leah's father
is faced with the loss of the family farm and puts his farm and
equipment up for auction, but Leah comes up with the money by
selling her beloved pony.
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Hesse, Karen, Out of the Dust, Scholastic
Paperback, 1999. (Grades 4-6)
A poem cycle that reads as a novel, "Out of the
Dust" tells the story of Billie Jo, a girl who struggles to help
her family survive the dustbowl years of the Depression. Fighting
against the elements on her Oklahoma farm, Billie Jo takes on
even more responsibilities when her mother dies in a tragic accident.
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Myers, Anna, Red-Dirt Jessie, Perfection,
1997. (Grades 4-7)
Jessie, a girl living in the Oklahoma dust bowl
during the Depression, tries to tame a wild dog and help her
father recover from a nervous breakdown.
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Porter, Tracey, Treasures in the Dust, HarperCollins,
1999. (Grades 4-7)
Annie May Weightman and Violet Cobble are best
friends and neighbors. They live in Cimarron County, Oklahoma,
during the Great Depression. This is their story, told in two
voices. Annie is happiest on the ground, sifting through the
dust for traces of the past. But Violet is a dreamer always playing
make believe to escape, to fly away from the dusty land. In this
beautifully crafted novel, poet Tracey Porter joins together
two unique voices to tell a larger story of America, its hopes
and dreams, during a time when thousands fled their prairie homes
in search of work, food, and shelter.
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Stanley, Jerry, Children of the Dust Bowl:
The True Story of the School at Weedpatch Camp, Crown, 1992.
(Grades 4-7)
This true story took place at the emergency farm-labor
camp immortalized in Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath. Ostracized
as "dumb Okies," the children of Dust Bowl migrant laborers went
without school - until Superintendent Leo Hart and 50 Okie kids
built their own school in a nearby field.
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Thomas, Joyce Carol, and Floyd Cooper, I Have Heard of a Land, HarperCollins, 2000. (Grades PreK-3)
Tribute in the form of a lyrical poem to the African-American pioneers who participated in the Oklahoma land runs of 1889 and 1893. Includes some hidden facts as it singles out a lone woman who hears of a place where she only has to "Lift up her feet/ running for the land/As though running for her life/And in the running claim it," a place where "Her possibilities reach as far/As her eyes can see/And as far as our imaginations can carry us." The layout and design of the book capture the expanse of the prairie. Some historical and personal context are provided.
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Townsend, Una Belle, and Emile Enriquez, The Oklahoma Land Run, Pelican, 2008. (Grades PreK-3)
Depicts the dramatic opening of 2 million acres of land in Oklahoma in Oklahoma on April 22, 1889, and the mad rush that ensued as 50,000 people scrambled to stake their claim. Young Jesse convinces his injured father to let him drive the wagon. During the action-packed race, Jesse proves up to the challenges and secures a beautiful stake.
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Turner, Ann Warren, and Robert Barrett, Dust
for Dinner, Harper Trophy, 1997. (Grades K-3).
This I Can Read Book revolves around an Oklahoma
family displaced by drought and the Depression. Because the book
is divided into chapters, youngsters will get the feeling of
reading a "real book," while having the luxury of short sentences,
generous leading, and a direct, easy-to-grasp plot line. Realistic,
nicely executed illustrations decorate every page, and the book
ends on a happy note: Dad finally finds a job in California.
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Recommend a book.
Ag-Related Books for Children and Young
Adults
Oklahoma Ag in the Classroom
Oklahoma Ag in the Classroom is a program of the Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service, the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry and the Oklahoma State Department of Education. |