Crabtree Publications

Historic Communities Series

John and his sister Emily live with their family in a farming community. After rising at sun-up to do their chores on the farm and in the household, John and Emily's day begins with a long walk to the one-room school. A Child's Day also describes: reading and ciphering, "making their manners," the different expectations boys and girls had for their future, children's books, toys, and games.

In the old days the kitchen was the center of family activity. Here the settlers ate their meals, played games, and told stories with only the fireplace and a few candles for warmth and light. In The Kitchen, young readers will take a close look at the early fireplace and the tools and utensils surrounding it. Domestic chores carried out in the kitchen are described including: - baking bread - making butter - preserving food - washing clothes.

In Tools and Gadgets, children will have the opportunity to learn about the tools found in the home, general store, doctor's office, and farm. They will even get to identify some mystery gadgets. This book makes an ideal orientation or follow-up to historic site visits. Featured are implements used by: - farmers - millers - woodworkers - metalworkers - printers

Meet the hardworking people of a colonial community, learn about the importance of family members, and discover the roles that religion and education played in people's lives more than two hundred years ago. They will also learn about: how people traveled from place to place; how adults and children; how a plantation was run, and the impact of the slave trade.

Describes the life of early settlers, including the construction of a home, the clearing of land, folk medicine, candle making, quilting bees, weaving, and wedding parties

Describes crafts made by early settlers, including quilts, candles, clothing, soap, and leather goods

Describes the homes, customs, and habits of seventeenth and eighteenth century North American settlers

Examines the customs and traditions of nineteenth-century North American communities

Introduces the different skills and often difficult lives of women on the farm, in business, and on the plantation as the owner's wife or as a slave in colonial America

Discusses the foods, methods, equipment, and places used by cooks in colonial America

Describes how trading posts, general stores, and family businesses were run, explains the role of the storekeeper in the community, and looks at what goods were sold

Looks at the many different games children played in the nineteenth century, and describes the rules and play in detail

Describes the outdoor games children in colonial times played throughout the year, including "tiger in the corner," hopscotch, and tobogganing, as well as games involving marbles, spinning tops, and hoops.

Examines the different toys with which children played in the nineteenth century

Describes how building a school was a priority once an early community became established. Students of all ages shared one teacher and the same four

Colonial Crafts introduces young readers to the craftspeople who created useful works of art by hand. Children will find out how the artisans learned their trades through many years of apprenticeship, as their masters did before them, and gain an appreciation of the beautiful handmade objects that have lasted more than two hundred years. Visit the workshops of: - the wheelwright - the cooper - the founder - the shoemaker - the milliner - the gunsmith.

Describes the family life, music, worship services, picnics, holidays, courtship, weddings, and seasonal activities of early settlers

Artist Peter Copeland portrays scenes from this grim period in American history in 45 dramatically rendered illustrations that include shocking views of "below decks" aboard a slave ship, slave pens, a family being seized by slave catchers, methods of punishing runaway slaves, an escaped slave with Seminole Indians, John Brown on the way to his execution, refugees arriving at a safe house, and more.