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1980

A Gathering of Days by Joan Blos (Atheneum, fifth-grade level). ISBN: 0684163403.

The Medalist A one-year diary kept by a teen-age girl in the early 1800s in New England tells of her family's trials and tribulations. Blos certainly doesn't sugarcoat the negative aspects of pioneer life. She incorporates enough history to make this a solid addition to social studies units.

The Road from Home by David Kherdian (Greenwillow, $12.76, fifth-grade level). ISBN: 0688842054.

Honor Book The author uses the life story of his grandmother to explain the horror of Turkey's version of the final solution, the genocide of its Armenian minority. Nearly all kids and most adults haven't a clue that Turkey set the precedent for the Holocaust in its treatment of the Armenians. More than a million were killed; thousands more were forced to emigrate. The story is as painful to read as the many that focus on the Jews during World War II. The theme of the power and adaptability of life echoes here, too.

Copyright David Ross 2003