Because of his tendency toward the macabre, the stories of Edgar Allan Poe are frequently associated with Halloween, but his writing has had a far deeper reach than connections to the holiday. As National Poetry Month approaches, students can explore his work and its cultural impact through primary sources from the Library of Congress.
Last November, we published a post addressing the controversies associated with Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. A recent comment pointed out that Huck's views on slavery are those of the dominant society of the time. Because the post featured a letter from Frederick Douglass as a supplement to the novel, the commenter wondered "why not present the experiences and views of the oppressed rather than the oppressor?" That struck me as an intriguing question, so here are a few places to start exploring those views and experiences with your students.
Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe was widely influential when it was published in 1852. The Library's “Sources and Strategies” article in the May 2014 issue of Social Education, the journal of NCSS, discusses the influence of the novel. Perhaps just as important as its effect, however, was Stowe’s original impetus for writing it.
The role of the Ambassador is to raise “national awareness of the importance of young people’s literature as it relates to lifelong literacy, education and the development and betterment of the lives of young people.” DiCamillo, the fourth to hold this position, has chosen “Stories Connect Us” as her theme, saying “When we read together, we connect. Together, we see the world. Together, we see each other.”
Despite the controversies, Huckleberry Finn has remained a staple in high school literature study because teachers seek to engage students with texts that provoke discussion and questions. Primary sources from the Library of Congress can help deepen students' thinking around the issues central to The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and other literary works.
Where can you find digitized rare books, information about the National Ambassador for Young People's Literature, the National Book Festival, and myriad other resources to support literacy and reading? Visit READ.gov, from the Library of Congress.
April has been set aside as a time to celebrate and explore the rich and varied legacy of poetry. This conversation with Library of Congress staff Peter Armenti, Digital Reference Specialist, and Rob Casper, Director of the Poetry and Literature Center, explores how to find poetry resources from the Library.
April has been set aside as a time to celebrate and explore the rich and varied legacy of poetry. The online activity “Making Connections through Poetry” invites students to analyze primary source images and documents from the Library of Congress and then create a poem to share their understanding of history.
