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Category: Reading and Writing

7 Holidays That Italian Americans Celebrate With Traditional Foods

7 Holidays That Italian Americans Celebrate With Traditional Foods

by Dina M. Di Maio In the 1860s, there was a civil war between the North and South. Of Italy. The famous General Giuseppe Garibaldi led his troops through Southern Italy to liberate the people. However, revisionist history is showing that they didn’t necessarily want to be liberated. Many felt their homeland was under attack, and they fought to remain part of what was known as the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. However, they lost, and the Northwestern region of…

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As They Like It: Teaching the Bard to Teens

As They Like It: Teaching the Bard to Teens

by Marissa Price Bringing Shakespeare into the 21st Century is no mean feat. His plays are the ultimate classical texts on par with the greats of the past including Cicero and Plato. His effect on the Western literary canon is phenomenal and enduring. And as a high school teacher with a broad spectrum of students, explaining that William Shakespeare was once a person, just like them, who had a job and did it well helps to humanize him. They love to…

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7 Amazing Inventions that Debuted at World’s Fairs

7 Amazing Inventions that Debuted at World’s Fairs

by Dawn Raffel In 1898, a mysterious European named Dr. Martin Couney introduced Americans to a new machine at the Omaha World’s Fair. This life-saving invention was the infant incubator. Visitors to the midway could pay to see it in use—with live babies inside it! The story of the proprietor was so bizarre that I spent four years researching him for my new nonfiction book, The Strange Case of Dr. Couney. By 1903, Martin Couney had set up shop on…

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Genealogy Research: Tips for Tackling Old Records

Genealogy Research: Tips for Tackling Old Records

by: Lauren Jonik Sometime in 1866, a fourteen year old girl named Elizabeth boarded a ship alone. Her parents had passed away and her step-mother decided to send her to America from their native land that later would be called Germany. That summer had brought the Austro-Prussian War, which lasted for about seven weeks and elicited changes of those in power and of territorial boundaries—as so often happened in Europe whenever a war broke out. Perhaps, Elizabeth’s stepmother felt that…

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Seven Real-Life Vixens of Historical Fiction

Seven Real-Life Vixens of Historical Fiction

By: Jenni L. Walsh On this day in history, May 23rd, American outlaws Bonnie and Clyde, after twenty-seven months on the run, went down together in a hail of bullets. In that moment, Bonnie Parker’s name and story became one for the ages, and also my novel, Side by Side, and its prequel Becoming Bonnie. Who else were historical fiction’s vixens? These 7 novels feature women who broke the rules, created mysteries, incited scandal, and more.   Wu Zetian The…

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