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In Times Past
an eBook on CD
by Carol Hurst and Rebecca Otis

Integrating US History with Literature in Grades 3-8.

Enliven your US History curriculum!

Teach US History using great kids books.

More Info

Miss Rumphius

by Cooney, Barbara. (Puffin, 1985 ISBN 0-14-050539-3) Picture Book. 32 pages. Grades 2+.
This book was reviewed by Carol Otis Hurst in Teaching K-8 Magazine.

Review

This beautiful picture book tells of the life of the author's great aunt Alice, now called The Lupine Lady. When she was little, Alice told her grandfather that she wanted to do as he did: go to far away places and live in a house by the sea. He told her that she must also do something to make the world more beautiful.

She accomplishes all she set out to do: traveling to tropical islands, climbing mountains before she hurts her back falling from a camel and decides to live by the sea. Her need to make the world more beautiful is a source of consternation to her.

Her solution of spreading lupine seeds wherever she walks is at first inadvertent - birds and the wind disperse lupine seeds from some she had planted in her garden before her bad back forced her into a semi-invalided life. When she sees new plants growing on nearby hillsides and cliffs, she spreads the seed herself after she feels better.

The illustrations are exquisite. They have the appearance of watercolors but were accomplished with acrylics and colored pencil. Several pages show a vast expanse of sea, marsh and land. Colors fade into the mist and just the right look of misty mornings by the sea is created.

Related Books

The Tiny Seed by Carle, Eric. (Little Simon, 2009 ISBN . Order Info.) Picture Book. Grades PreK-2.
We follow a seed from birth to flower to seed again. It's fall and the seeds are being blown along by the wind. Obstacles abound, but one seed is able to grow to maturity where it faces more perils. This classic, first published in 1970, is a great introduction to the life-cycle of flowering plants but also a beautiful philosophical look at life.

Related Areas of Carol Hurst's Children's Literature Site

• Barbara Cooney featured author article