Catch You Later, Traitor Companion Booktalks

Amer­i­ca in the 1950s

Edmund Lin­dop with Sarah Deca­pua
21^st Cen­tu­ry Books, 2010

• Top­ic-cen­tered chap­ters, e.g.: the tran­si­tion from WWII, the Kore­an War, the 50’s econ­o­my and soci­ety, the Red Scare

• Pho­to-illus­trat­ed

• Report mate­r­i­al galore, includ­ing sub­stan­tial back mat­ter

Bat 6

Vir­ginia Euw­er Wolff
Scholas­tic, 1998

• In rur­al Ore­gon not long after WWII, the annu­al soft­ball game between 6^th grade girls from two towns is a caul­dron of secrets, sim­mer­ing racism, class divide, hope and friend­ship.

• Quick-read­ing, mul­ti­ple-view­point nar­ra­tive shared by all the girls and some adults pro­vides a “you are there” report of the big event

• Jane Addams Peace Award, an SLJ Best Book of the Year

Belles of the Ball­park: Cel­e­brat­ing the All-Amer­i­can Girls Pro­fes­sion­al Base­ball League

Diana Star Helmer with Thomas S. Owens
Sum­mer Games, 2015

• The 1992 film A League of their Own is now a gen­er­a­tion old and pos­si­bly unknown to many young stu­dents; this book is per­fect for those just dis­cov­er­ing the women’s-league top­ic or for fans of the film that want to know more

• Detailed league his­to­ry from its ori­gins dur­ing WWII, through its 12 sea­sons

• Loads of pho­tos and many inter­views

Catch a Tiger by the Toe

Ellen Levine
Viking Juve­nile, 2005

• It’s 1953 in New York, and 13-year-old Jamie’s father IS a com­mu­nist; life changes

• Com­mu­nists in the ‘50s were often very involved in civ­il rights actions; this nov­el explores the rel­e­vance of that con­nec­tion to the “witch-hunt­ing” and fin­ger-point­ing

• Author’s note and addi­tion­al back mat­ter

City of Spies

Susan Kim and Lau­rence Kla­van
illus by Pas­cal Dizin
First Sec­ond, 2010

• It’s 1942 and the world is at war, and in New York 10 year old Eve­lyn has the run of the city; adven­ture ensues in this graph­ic nov­el

• Visu­al blend of old-style-Amer­i­can comics (Eve­lyn reads them and draws her own) and updat­ed Euro­pean (Tin-Tin) visu­al sto­ry­telling

• See­ing the ene­my everywhere—a great cur­rent top­ic for dis­cus­sion and a ter­rif­ic nar­ra­tive back­bone for a mys­tery

Cold War

Josepha Sher­man
Lern­er Pub­li­ca­tions 2004

• Begins with his­tor­i­cal back­ground on the “rise of the super­pow­ers,” includ­ing a brief run­down on both the US and Russ­ian rev­o­lu­tions and the par­ti­tion­ing of Europe dur­ing and after World War II.

• Strong pho­to illus­tra­tion

• Back mat­ter includes glos­sary, time­line of Cold War events, maps, and read­ing list

Fab­u­lous Fash­ions of the 1950s

Feli­cia Lowen­stein Niv­en
Enslow, 2011

• 48-page overview of the fash­ion era

• Pho­to illus­trat­ed, with repro­duc­tions of actu­al 50s adver­tis­ing

• Glos­sary and fash­ion time­line in back mat­ter

The Green Glass Sea

Ellen Klages 
Viking Books, 2006

• And you think your fam­i­ly has a secret… A nov­el about grow­ing up in the shad­ow of the Man­hat­tan project

• Set in 1943, pro­vides con­text for why the Sovi­et Union and com­mu­nism would loom as such a foe in the 1950s

• Scott O’Dell Award for his­tor­i­cal fic­tion

How I Dis­cov­ered Poet­ry

Mar­i­lyn Nel­son
illus by Hadley Hoop­er
Dial Books for Young Read­ers, 2014

• Child­hood memoir—fictionalized—in poems, each set in the years 1950–1959

• Illus­tra­tions and black and white pho­tographs expand the “curb appeal” for the read­er wary of poet­ry

• Coret­ta Scott King hon­or book

Life: Our Cen­tu­ry in Pic­tures for Young People

edit­ed by Richard B. Stol­ley
adapt­ed by Amy E. Sklan­sky
Lit­tle, Brown and Co., 2000

• Before, dur­ing, and after the 1950s. Great con­text for study and dis­cus­sion of the decade

• Intro­duc­to­ry essays for each decade writ­ten by notable children’s authors, includ­ing Lois Lowry, Patri­cia and Fred­er­ick McKis­sack, Avi, and Kather­ine Pater­son.

• Illus­trat­ed with pho­tos from the Life mag­a­zine archives

The Loud Silence of Francine Green

Karen Cush­man
Clar­i­on Books, 2005

• Com­mu­nism, the Red Scare, injus­tice; also, friend­ship and being 13

• Detailed and unusu­al set­ting (1950 Los Ange­les, a Catholic school) with many cul­tur­al ref­er­ence stu­dents will enjoy explor­ing; dis­cus­sion guide  

• New­bery medal author

Spy

Richard Platt  
DK Eye­wit­ness Books, 2009

• His­to­ry of spy­ing with many bios of famous spies

• Gad­gets galore

• The usu­al DK mag­ic potion of well-done visu­als and text

We Would Have Played for Noth­ing: Base­ball Stars of the 1950s and 1960s Talk About the Game They Loved

Fay Vin­cent
Simon & Schus­ter, 2008

• Inter­views with some of baseball’s best play­ers from the 1950s and 1960s

• Sec­ond install­ment of the author’s project, an oral his­to­ry of base­ball; inter­est­ed read­ers can go back to Vol­ume 1 (1930s and 40s) or jump to Vol­ume 3 (1970s and 80s)

• Illus­trat­ed with peri­od pho­tos