Freedman, Russell. Children of the Great Depression (Golden Kite Awards (Awards)). New York: Clarion Books, 2005.

Russell Freedman was honored in 2006 as the NCTE Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction for Children for his book Children of the Great Depression. Freedman provides the reader with a clear outline of the time period that the book explores that is straightforward to read. He touches upon the stock-market crash as well as including voices of people who lived during the Great Depression. In the book, he covers the causes of the Depression, work life, migrant work, schooling, entertainment, and the children who rode on the railways. The author conveys his message through his black and white photos that really bring home to the reader how bad the Depression was in the United States.

Resources to Support the Text

Pictures from the Great Depression

This website provides the reader with visual pictures of the Great Depression. It can be used to introduce the topic through allowing the students to see a glimpse of what the Great Depression was like for the people who endured it. In this collection, there are pictures from the Dust Bowl that farmer's crops and land and migrant workers who traveled looking for new jobs. Through the photographs, the students will be able to visually see and understand that the lives of the people who lived during the 1930s in the United States were not easy.

Great Depression Labor Map

This map illustrates the Great Depression from 1929-1939 in the United States. It specifically looks at the percentage of labor forced unemployed in the United States during the Depression. The students will be able to look at the map of the United States and compare and contrast the rates of unemployment that was forced by the Depression. There are three categories that the states are classified as in regards to unemployment percentages; more than 25, 18-24 and less than 18. This map provides a clear idea about the large number of unemployed workers that were affected by the Depression.

Key Vocabulary

Unemployment, relief program, pension, migrant worker, deficit spending, rationing, Dustbowl, tariffs, Black Tuesday

Reading Strategy

Before reading the text, invite a guest speaker that lived during the Great Depression in the 1930s to come into the classroom. Let the speaker share information about the Depression, how it affected their life and how it was to live in the United States during this time.

Writing Activity

Did the Great Depression suffering that Americans endured in the United States weaken or strengthen family relationships?