I have created Author Guides for three of my books: Orphan Train Rider: One Boy’s True Story, We Rode the Orphan Trains and for Surviving Hitler: A Boy in the Nazi Death Camps, showing how they align with the Common Core State Standards. As a former middle and high school teacher, I found it insightful and rewarding to study the standards and to explore how my books can be used to meet the critical thinking, reading, writing, and listening/speaking standards.
The Standards did not exist when I was writing my books, yet because of my eleven years’ experience as a teacher I had crafted my stories to meet the very skills now outlined in the Standards.
I have filled the Guides with the background stories of how my books came to be, how I researched them, conducted interviews with the main characters, found the best photos to illustrate the text, and then wrote the books. I included lots of ideas for student assignments, and lists of reflective questions. You’ll find them available at online booksellers.