National Holidays

Reviewed with Mari C. Schuh’s Flag Day.

PreS-Gr. 2. Designed for beginning readers, these books in the National Holidays series are useful for presenting basic information to younger children. The texts are quite short, with one or two lines in large typeface on each of the nine double-page spreads. The format is rather small, but the colorful, full-page photographs illustrate each subject clearly, and the inclusion of people from many ethnic backgrounds reflects the diversity of people celebrating American national holidays. Each book briefly explains a holiday, its history, and how it is celebrated. Flag Day includes Truman designating June 14 a holiday, children studying the history of the American flag, and pictures of flags displayed on houses and in a parade. Labor Day tells when the holiday was created, whom it honors, and some of the ways that people relax on the day. Each book ends with a glossary and a short list of recommended books, as well as directions to the publisher’s Internet site, which leads children to appropriate, subject-related sites for each holiday. Carolyn Phelan

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Description

Simple text and photographs describe the history of Labor Day and how this holiday, which honors people who work, is celebrated in the United States.

“A gripping account…. Winds were so strong that they tore babies from the arms of their parents. Over four hundred people lost their lives, including over two hundred veterans of World War I. It was a tragedy that did not have to happen.” – John Wallace Viele, author of The Florida Keys: A History of the Pioneers “Makes for fascinating reading about a period of time when science, politics, and nature converged, resulting in disaster.” – Rodney E. Dillon Jr., Vice President, Past Perfect Florida History, Inc.”

Description

In the midst of the Great Depression, a furious storm struck the Florida Keys with devastating force. With winds estimated at over 225 miles per hour, it was the first recorded Category 5 hurricane to make landfall in the United States. Striking at a time before storms were named, the catastrophic tropical cyclone became known as the 1935 Labor Day Hurricane, and its aftermath was felt all the way to Washington, D.C. In the hardest hit area of the Florida Keys, three out of every five residents were killed, while hundreds of World War I veterans sent there by the federal government perished. By sifting through overlooked official records and interviewing survivors and the relatives of victims, Thomas Knowles pieces together this dramatic story, moment by horrifying moment. He explains what daily life was like on the Keys, why the veteran work force was there (and relatively unprotected), the state of weather forecasting at the time, the activities of the media covering the disaster, and the actions of government agencies in the face of severe criticism over their response to the disaster. This title provides a frightening account of the first Category 5 storm to strike the U.S.