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A review by the_fabric_of_words
Crash: The Great Depression and the Fall and Rise of America by Marc Favreau
5.0
I'm going to start off by saying, I really, really, really wish this book had a free teaching guide to go along with it! It would be an excellent option for teaching the Great Depression, but lack of any free teaching materials that can be adapted for lesson plans necessitated that I not review this as a teaching resource.
What I loved about this non-fiction book were little things, like how in the Prologue it ends with the simple statement of how the Great Depression extended into a decade: "A nation of consumers became a nation of savers. Commerce screeched to a halt." It's a hard concept for students to grasp, how banks grow money by lending, and what happens when the money supply constricts. (For a great classroom simulation that allows students to experience this concept, see the "Money Mania" and "Bank Run" lesson plans in my Great Depression: Economics and Literature teaching post.)
The picture on page 42 is priceless, as are all the photographs (with credits!) by Dorothea Lange and Arthur Rothstein from the Dust Bowl for the Farm Security Administration. They're used in many texts about this time period.
The writing is light, easy to read and comprehend, and the book covers most of the salient points of the time period, including the pressure to kick out Mexicans through "voluntary repatriation" which was often anything other than voluntary. It's sometimes totally overlooked in books about this time period.
A fantastic read, sure to capture reluctant readers with its style and generous incorporation of visual images from the time period.
Visit my blog for more great middle grade book recommendations, free teaching materials and fiction writing tips: https://amb.mystrikingly.com/
What I loved about this non-fiction book were little things, like how in the Prologue it ends with the simple statement of how the Great Depression extended into a decade: "A nation of consumers became a nation of savers. Commerce screeched to a halt." It's a hard concept for students to grasp, how banks grow money by lending, and what happens when the money supply constricts. (For a great classroom simulation that allows students to experience this concept, see the "Money Mania" and "Bank Run" lesson plans in my Great Depression: Economics and Literature teaching post.)
The picture on page 42 is priceless, as are all the photographs (with credits!) by Dorothea Lange and Arthur Rothstein from the Dust Bowl for the Farm Security Administration. They're used in many texts about this time period.
The writing is light, easy to read and comprehend, and the book covers most of the salient points of the time period, including the pressure to kick out Mexicans through "voluntary repatriation" which was often anything other than voluntary. It's sometimes totally overlooked in books about this time period.
A fantastic read, sure to capture reluctant readers with its style and generous incorporation of visual images from the time period.
Visit my blog for more great middle grade book recommendations, free teaching materials and fiction writing tips: https://amb.mystrikingly.com/