KidVid: Learn More African-American History with Lincoln and Douglass: An American Friendship
When my daughter was about six years old, she turned to me and said, “Mommy, remember the Civil War?” I explained that I was very young at the time and not too much of it was fought in New Jersey. To be fair to me and my daughter, let it be noted that she was actually referring to a family trip to Gettysburg.
Our children, though, sometimes seem to think that if we’re old enough to remember the day a Kennedy was shot, or the day the Challenger exploded, or the day the Berlin Wall came down, we must have been around an awfully long time. (Don’t be encouraged because you’re not old enough to remember those events…when your kids are old enough to ask questions they’ll think you must have hunted woolly mammoths if you’re old enough to remember the day Michael Jackson died.)
When we take history out of the classroom, it becomes stories, and stories are much more interesting than lessons and assigned reading. I don’t remember being particularly thrilled with American History in high school (in fact, I came within a zillionth of a grade point of not graduating because of it), but afterwards I couldn’t learn enough about the Civil and Viet Nam Wars. The difference was in the type of learning I did—in high school it was dates and facts (that I actually wasn’t learning), later I was investigating the stories of people, which were much more relevant to me.
Of course, even when we develop an interest in specific historic periods or events, we don’t generally try to expand that knowledge to include all historic periods and events. So when our children ask if the Declaration of Independence has always been in Washington or how the Pilgrims of Plimoth survived, we don’t always have the answers.
Nikki Giovanni wrote Lincoln and Douglass: An American Friendship, and it was illustrated by Bryan Collier. Danny Glover narrates the tale of this historic friendship on Scholastic Storybook Treasures’ February 1 release, Lincoln and Douglass: An American Friendship…and more stories to celebrate U.S. history. Recommended for ages 4-9, it is appropriate for children up to a few years older and adults who have forgotten their history and need a painless brush-up (now when someone asks me about those two gentlemen, I can reply, “Lincoln and Frederick Douglass or Stephen Douglas?”)
There are three other stories on this DVD: John, Paul, George, & Ben (in which you will also find Tom), written and illustrated by Lane Smith and cheerfully narrated by James Earl Jones; The Journey of the One and Only Declaration of Independence by Judith St. George, illustrated by Will Hillenbrand, narrated by Jeff Brooks; and The Pilgrims of Plimoth written and illustrated by Marcia Sewall.
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