Skip to main content

Books That Take You There: Washington, D.C.

By

Planning your upcoming summer vacation? Washington, D.C., is a city full of history, charm, monuments, and museums. Summer in our nation's capitol is an especially exciting time with many free activities, festivals, and an impressive Independence Day celebration.  Whether you're hoping to travel there in person or dreaming about it from the comfort of your living room, these books will give you a taste of the distinctive D.C. experience!

Written by Cylin Busby
Illustrated by Neely Daggett
New York, NY: Balzer + Bray, 2022. Picture Book.

Take a tour of the White House from a cat's perspective and learn lots of fun facts about the most famous residence in America along the way!

Washington, DC City Trails
By Moira Butterfield 
Oakland, CA: Lonely Planet Global Ltd., 2017. Informational. 102 pages.

Chock-full of little known facts and secrets, each city trail follows a different theme around the Washington, D.C., area. Trails include themes such as City Sounds, Statue City, Washington G-g-g-ghosts, and D.C. Time Travel among others. 

Monument Maker: Daniel Chester French and the Lincoln Memorial
Written by Linda Booth Sweeney
Illustrated by Shawn Fields
Thomaston, Maine: Tilbury House Publishers, 2019. Biography. 63 pages.

Following the early life and training of Daniel Chester French, this biography tells of how French became America's foremost sculptor and the artist responsible for the Lincoln Memorial. Fascinating insight is provided on the motivation, process, and symbolism behind his greatest work.

One More Acorn
By Don Freeman and Roy Freeman
New York: Viking, 2010. Picture Book. 

A squirrel hunts for a memorable acorn during an autumn day in Washington, D.C. His search takes him past famous landmarks such as Lafayette Square, the Washington Monument, the US Capitol Building, the Lincoln Memorial, and ends with a parade down Constitution Avenue.

How to Build a Museum: Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture
By Tonya Bolden
New York : Viking, 2016. Informational. 53 pages.

How to Build a Museum chronicles the 100 year journey of the construction of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the most recent and likely the last museum to be built on the National Mall. 

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Funny Farm by Mark Teague 2009

By Anonymous
There are things I liked about Mark Teague's newest book, Funny Farm , and things I didn't like. Where should I start? I'll do the "didn'ts" first. The illustrations show animals personified. Well, some of the animals are. The main characters, Edward, and his farm family relatives, all dogs, are humanized. They stand upright, do farm chores, eat at a table, wear clothes, knit (yes, with paws) and sleep in beds. Most everybody else on and around the farm, who are also animals, act like animals. They are outside, roll in mud, live in the barn, and require care from their owners. It struck me the most on the page spread where there are pigs playing in puddle in the rain and Edward, a black and white boxer, watches from inside the house. I thought "You're a dog! Go play with them!" But, alas, he can't, seeing as how he goes through his entire visit to the farm wearing a suit and red bow tie. Another picture that bothered me was the maple syrup pa...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Girl Who Could Fly by Victoria Forester 2008

By Anonymous
J Fiction 328 pages I almost didn't finish this book. I got to Chapter 4, and was just about ready to quit (a kind of slow story about a girl, name of Piper McCloud, who discovers she can fly, parents freak out, she becomes a social outcast, yadda, yadda) but suddenly, right there in Chapter 4, the story takes a sharp turn and becomes really interesting . Piper finds herself in the company of others like her, but not "fliers", and under the care and authority of Dr. Hellion. I won't even tell you any more. Read this book. Forester does a great job of keeping you wondering who's the good guy and who's the bad? Piper is a likeable, strong, endearing character that girl readers will enjoy. But don't NOT give it to boys! The main male character is an extremely intelligent young man who is one of the ones you wonder about . . . good or bad? This is a good one, well worth your time.
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: The Factory

By
The Factory By Catherine Egan New York, NY : Scholastic Inc., 2025. Fiction. 306 pages.  Thirteen-year-old Asher Doyle has been invited to join the Factory, a secretive research facility in the desert which ostensibly extracts renewable energy from the electromagnetic fields of its young recruits. But Asher soon realizes something sinister is going on. Kids are getting sick. The adults who run the Factory seem to be keeping secrets. And the extraction process is not only painful and exhausting, but existentially troubling. Asher makes a handful of new friends who help him with an investigation that turns into a resistance, which turns into...a cliffhanger! The Factory is a page-turning sci-fi with multidimensional characters, an intriguing plot, and refreshingly straight-forward writing. Egan weaves in detail about climate crises and social unrest, making the story's dystopian setting feel rich and plausible. With its sophisticated themes and accessible storytelling, I would recomm...
Post a Comment
Read more