Geraldine Brooks, Author
“One Book”
Caleb’s Crossing
Anthony Russo
Additional readings and information
focused on the early history of America
Thank you to “Read Across Rhode Island”
for their bibliography contributions
Books by Geraldine Brooks
Fiction
March
From Louisa May Alcott’s beloved classic Little Women, Geraldine Brooks has animated the
character of the absent father, March, as he leaves behind his family to aid the Union cause
in the Civil War.
People of the Book
A thrilling fictionalization that traces the harrowing journey of the famed Sarajevo
Haggadah, a beautifully illuminated Hebrew manuscript created in fifteenth century
Spain, to the hands of Hanna Heath, an impassioned rare-book expert restoring the
manuscript in 1996 Sarajevo.
Year of Wonders
When an infected bolt of cloth carries plague from London to an isolated village, we follow
the story of the fateful year of 1666 as villagers confront the spread of disease and
superstition.
Nonfiction
Foreign Correspondence: A Pen Pal’s Journey from Down Under to All Over
As a young girl in a working-class neighborhood of Sydney, Australia, Brooks longed to
discover the places where history happens and culture comes from, so she enlisted pen pals
from the Middle East, Europe, and America. Twenty years later Brooks embarked on a
human treasure hunt to fine her pen friends.
Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamid Women
The story of Brooks’ intrepid journey toward an understanding of the women behind the
veils, and of the often contradictory political, religious, and cultural forces that shape their
lives.
Web Resources:
“Eyewitness Accounts of Early American Exploration & Settlement"
American Journeys: http://www.americanjourneys.org/index.asp
Caleb's Crossing and Geraldine Brooks site: http://geraldinebrooks.com/thebooks/calebs-crossing/
"Divining America: Religion in American History" National Humanities
Center: http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/divam.htm
Harvard in the 17th & 18th Centuries: http://hul.harvard.edu/huarc/h1718/
"In Caleb's Footsteps." Martha's Vineyard Magazine by Tiffany Smalley:
http://www.mvmagazine.com/article.php?29669.
Tiffany Smalley, the first Wampanoag to graduate from Harvard since Caleb & Joel,
talks about her Harvard experience.
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"John Harvard's Journal: Commencement 1997." Harvard Magazine:
http://harvardmagazine.com/1997/07/jhj.caleb.html
Harvard memorializes its first Native American graduates including Caleb
Cheeshahteaumuck and Joes Iacoomes.
Martha's Vineyard by Henry Franklin Norton:
http://history.vineyard.net/hfnorton/history.htm
Martha's Vineyard Museum's "Vineyard History Map Project":
http://mvhistorymap.org/studentgallery/9-12/3
Plimoth Plantation Museum: http://www.plimoth.com
One Book One Region: http://onebookoneregion.org
"Religion and the Founding of the American Republic" Library of Congress:
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/religion/
“Wampanoag Glossary” The Boston Children's Museum:
http://www.bostonkids.org/educators/wampanoag/html/glossary.htm
Wampanaak Language Reclamation Project Site: http://wlrp.org
Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head Site: http://www.wampanoagtribe.net
E Books available from Project Gutenberg: http://gutenberg.org
Bradford, William. Bradford's History of 'Plimoth Plantation'
The most important and influential source of information about Plymouth, this
landmark account was written by the colony's governor. It vividly documents the
Pilgrims' first stop in Holland, their harrowing transatlantic crossing, the first harsh
winter in the new land, and the help from Native Americans that saved their lives.
Bradford, William & Edward Winslow. Mourt’s Relation: A journal of the
Pilgrims at Plymouth
Originally printed in 1622, this is the first published account of the coming of the
Pilgrims to the New World to settle Plymouth Plantation.
Campbell, Helen. Anne Bradstreet and Her Time
Cooper, James Fenimore (September 15, 1789 – September 14,
1851). Last of the Mohegans
Tells the tale of Natty Bumppo, a frontier scout, and a Mohican warrior who escort two
sisters through the wilderness to Fort William Henry during the French and Indian
War.
Nonfiction
Alderman, Clifford Lindsey. Colonists for sale: The story of indentured
servants in America
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Examines the origin, working conditions, and eventual fate of indentured servants in
America in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
Berkin, Carol. First generations: women in colonial America
Indian, European and African women of seventeenth and eighteenth-century America
shaped American culture and history.
Brandon, Ruth. Governess: the lives and times of the real Jane Eyres
The rise and fall of the English governess, the domestic heroine who inspired Victorian
literature’s greatest authors.
Bourne, Russell. The Red King’s rebellion: racial politics in New England,
1675-1678
A balanced view of King Phillip’s War, a conflict between New England Indians and
English settlers.
Cope, Amy. People of the First Light
Story of five Wampanoags as their world shatters around them. When the Europeans
arrive on the shores of Massachusetts in the early seventeenth century, memories of
past visits are brought to the surface and no one wants these intruders to land.
Dresser, Thomas. Wampanoag Tribe of Martha's Vineyard: Colonization to
Recognition
Thomas Dresser captures the spirit of the tribe, tracing its survival through to
recognition by the federal government in 1987, nearly 25 years ago.
Hall, David D. A reforming people: Puritanism and the transformation of
public life in New England by
A revelatory account of the aspirations and accomplishments of the people who
founded the New England colonies, comparing the reforms they enacted with those
attempted in England during the period of the English Revolution.
Hauptman, Lawrence M. & James D. Wherry. The Pequots in southern New
England: The fall and rise of an American Indian Nation
Jennings, Francis. The invasion of America: Indians, Colonialism and the
Cant of Conquest.
Lange, Karen E. 1607: A new look at Jamestown
Compelling new theories, a National Geographic period map, and stunning
reenactment photography take us back to Jamestown in 1607, where the course of our
country's history changed forever.
Lepore, Jill. The name of war: King Philips war and the origins of American
identity
King Philip's War, the excruciating racial war--colonists against Indians--that
erupted in New England in 1675, was, in proportion to population, the bloodiest in
American history. Some even argued that the massacres and outrages on both sides
were too horrific to "deserve the name of a war."
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Mancall, Peter C. American encounters: natives and newcomers from
European contact to Indian removal, 1500-1850
Essays on the Native American experience from European contact through the
Removal Era including gender relations, slavery and captivity, and the effects of
Christianity on the course of native history.
Mandell, Daniel R. King Philip's War, The conflict over New England
Describes the war between the Native Americans and the New England colonists that
took place from 1675 to 1676, discussing the events that led to it, what happened
during it, and its results for both groups.
Philbrick, Nathaniel. Mayflower: a story of courage, community, and war
The startling story of the Plymouth Colony--from the flight to religious freedom to
the war that ravaged New England.
Richter, Daniel K. Facing East from Indian country: a Native history of early
America
Focusing on the period between the 15th and 18th centuries, the author shows that
Native American communities adapted to the many stresses introduced by the arrival
of the Europeans and were active participants in creating a new way of life on the
continent.
Weinstein-Farson, Laura. The Wampanoag
Examines the history, changing fortunes, and current situation of the Wampanoag
Indians.
Biographies
Anne Bradstreet: the tenth muse, by Elizabeth Wade White.
Anne Hutchinson by Louise Chipley Slavicek (Young Adult).
Introduces the life of Anne Hutchinson, the Puritan woman who faced persecution in
sixteenth-century Massachusetts because of her efforts to express her religious beliefs
freely.
Anne Hutchinson, Puritan Protester by Darlene R. Stille (Young Adult).
American Jezebel: the uncommon life of Anne Hutchinson by Eve
LaPlante
LaPlante, an 11th-generation granddaughter of Hutchinson, provides a fast-paced
and elegant account of Hutchinson's life and work, including the reasons that
Hutchinson's teachings threatened the fabric of Puritan theology.
King Philip: Indian leader by Dennis Brindell Fradin (Elementary)
Recounts the story of the Wampanoag Indian leader who led an uprising against the
New England colonists.
King Philip and the war with the Colonists by Robert Cwiklik (Elementary)
Examines the life and fortunes of the Wampanoag Indian leader who led an uprising
against the New England colonists in the seventeenth century.
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Mistress Bradstreet: The untold life of America's First Poet by Charlotte
Gordon.
Squanto by Feenie Ziner (Young Adult)
A biography of the Wampanoag Indian who, after living in England and Spain,
returned to New England in 1619 and befriended the Pilgrims when they settled in
Plymouth.
Fiction
Avant, Joan Tavares. People of the first light
Joan Tavares Avant, an elder Wampanoag, has chronicled the history with an
emphasis on tribal sovereignty and self-determination.
Gunning, Sally. Bound
Held by the terms of her indentured servitude all her life, Alice Cole finds herself torn
between her new master and a life-long friend, a situation that forces her to run away
to Boston, where she learns a new trade at the side of compassionate friends.
Gunning, Sally. The rebellion of Jane Clarke
On the eve of the Revolutionary War, a young woman is caught between tradition
and independence, family and conscience, loyalty and love.
Gunning, Sally. The widow's war
Married for twenty years to Edward Berry, Lyddie is used to the trials of being a
whaler's wife in the Cape Cod village of Satucket, Massachusetts.
Hopkins, John. The pirate Prince of Carlomagno
Sold into slavery in the West Indies, a young Native American boy from the
Wampanoag tribe yearns for freedom and a chance to return to his beloved New
England home.
Howe, Katherine. The physic book of Deliverance Dane
The story travels seamlessly between the witch trials in the 1690s and a modern
woman’s story of mystery and discovery.
Kent, Kathleen. The heretic’s daughter
The story of Martha’s courageous defiance during the hysteria surrounding the witch
trials and her ultimate death, as told by the daughter who survived.
Kent, Kathleen. The wolves of Andover
In coastal Massachusetts in 1673, wolves still lurked in the shadows, and farmers
toiled to keep the forest at bay. Martha Allen is sent to such a farm to help her cousin.
Mills, Daniel. Revenants: A dream of New England by
The year is 1689. Situated on the northern boundary of the Massachusetts Bay
colony, the town of Cold Marsh is a place of secrets, a village characterized by
repression and guilt. Two of the town's young women have vanished and the country
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seethes with rumors of witchcraft and devilry. Even their God has abandoned them.
When a third young woman disappears, the men of the village determine to leave the
safety of the village and enter the other world of the woods in search of her.
Morrison, Toni. A mercy
In the 1680s the slave trade was still in its infancy. In the Americas, virulent
religious and class divisions, prejudice and oppression were rife, providing the fertile
soil in which slavery and race hatred were planted and took root.
Parker, Michael. Watery part of the world
In this fiction based on historical fact, Parker weaves a tale of adventure and longing
as he charts one hundred and fifty years in the life and death of an island and its
inhabitants— the descendants of Theodosia Burr Alston and those of the freed man
whose family would be forever tethered to hers.
Pattison, Eliot. Bone rattler: a mystery of colonial America
Perilous encounters on both sides of the French and Indian War lead to an intricate
plot a masterful evocation of the time, including sensitive depictions of the effects of
the European war on Native Americans.
Seton, Anya. The Winthrop Woman
Elizabeth Fones, a niece of John Winthrop, a Puritan founder and governor of
Massachusetts Bay Colony. She is both sensual and intelligent and has a brief
encounter with Anne Hutchinson.
Settle, Mary Lee. I, Roger Williams
Roger Williams was the most compelling figure in colonial America. Plucked from
obscurity to clerk for the celebrated English jurist Sir Edward Coke, Williams had a
ringside seat on the brutal politics of Jacobean London.
Intermediate to Young Adult
Nonfiction
Bjornlund, Lydia. Women of Colonial America
Lydia Bjornlund examines the role of colonial women in the home, the workplace, and
as slaves and servants, and discusses the part they played as activists and as leaders
of the church and the community.
Coddon, Karin S. Colonial America
The diversity of life in the original thirteen colonies is revealed in primary documents
from the period.
DeKeyser, Stacey. The Wampanoag
Describes the history, traditions, and beliefs of the Wampanoag, who were one of the
first native peoples to encounter the Pilgrims during the seventeenth century.
Nardo, Don. Daily life in Colonial America
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Presents an introduction to life in colonial America, discussing family and home
life, occupations, education, recreation, medicine, and laws.
Studelska, Jana Voekle. Women of Colonial America
Describes what daily life was like in colonial America for women in the home, in the
workplace, and as slaves and servants.
Fiction
Collins, Pat Lowery. Daughter of winter
In the mid-nineteenth-century shipbuilding town of Essex, Massachusetts, twelveyear-old Addie learns a startling secret about her past when she escapes servitude by
running away to live in the snowy woods and meets an elderly Wampanoag woman.
Clapp, Patricia. Constance: a story of early Plymouth
The journal of a young girl tells of her daily life, hardships, romances and marriage
during the first years of the Pilgrim settlement at Plymouth.
Dorris, Michael. Guests
Moss and Trouble, an Algonquin boy and girl, struggle with the problems of growing
up in the Massachusetts area during the time of the first Thanksgiving.
Fleischman, Paul. Saturnalia
Apprenticed to a printer in 1681 Boston, young Weetasket, renamed William, yearns
to return to his Indian tribe and the companionship and love of his twin brother,
Cancasset.
Forrester, Sandra. Wheel of the moon by
In England, 1627, newly orphaned Pen Downing leaves her country village for
London, where she is abducted and sent to Virginia to work as an indentured servant.
Jacobs, Paul Samuel. James Printer: a novel of rebellion
Learning bookmaking in his father's print shop in 1674, young Bartholomew Green
is placed under the tutelage of James, a Nipmuck Indian and skilled printer, and
James must choose sides when war erupts between the Boston settlers and the local
tribes.
Koller, Jackie. The primrose way
A recent arrival to the New World in 1633, sixteen-year-old Rebekah, a missionary's
daughter, befriends a Native American woman and begins to question whether these
"savages" need saving after all.
McDonald, Megan. Shadows in the glasshouse
While working as an indentured servant for a Jamestown glassmaker in 1621,
twelve-year-old Merry uncovers a case of sabotage.
Poetry
Adler, David A. Remember Betsy Floss: and other colonial American riddles
How did Betsy Ross like her work? Sew, sew.'' This is one of the 60 riddles in Adler's
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new book. The humor revolves around Colonial America, the Revolutionary War, and
well-known persons of that time.
Hensley Jeannine, editor. The Works of Anne Bradstreet
Anne Bradstreet was one of our earliest feminists and the first true poet in the
American colonies.
Spotted Crow Mann, Larry. Tales from the Whispering Basket
Short stories and poetry by Nipmuc Tribal member, Larry Spotted Crow Mann.
DVDs
American Experience: we shall remain, Episode 1 "After the Mayflower"
(PBS).
Before 1776: Life in the American colonies.
Colonization of North America.
The Last of the Mohegans
BBC adaptation of the James Fenimore Cooper novel, this eight-part series set amidst
the French and Indian War follows the story of frontier scout Hawkeye and his efforts
to lead the two daughters of a British commander to safety.
U.S. History form 1620-1809: Birth of a new nation.
We still live here by Anne Makepeace
The Wampanoag nation of southeastern Massachusetts revives their native tongue, a
language that was silenced for more than 100 years.
Young Readers
Arquette, Mary F. The children of the morning light: Wampanoag Tales as
told by Manitonquat
A collection of traditional stories that describe the creation of the world and the early
history of the Wampanoag Indians in southeastern Massachusetts.
Gray-Kanatiiosh, Barbara A. Wampanoag
An introduction to the history, social structure, customs, and present life of the
Wampanoag Indians.
Harness, Cheryl. Our colonial year
In free-verse compositions, harness focuses on children’s chores and pastimes.
Levy, Janey. The Wampanoag of Massachusetts and Rhode Island
After surviving many hardships and conflicts, communities of Wampanoag peoples
still inhabit the lands of their ancient ancestors.
Medicine Story. The Children of the Morning Light: Wampanoag tales
A collection of eleven tales that explore the cultural traditions and history of the
Wampanoag.
Samuel, Charlie. Medicine in colonial America
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Learn about Native American medicine and medicine in colonial times.
Sateren, Shelley Swanson. Going to school in colonial America
Discusses the school life of children who lived in the 13 colonies, including lessons,
books, teachers, examinations, and special days.
Sewell, Marcia. People of the breaking day
Waters, Kate. Samuel Eaton’s day: a day in the life of a Pilgrim boy.
A poetic evocation of the lifestyle and traditional beliefs of the Wampanoag Indians.
Told from the point of view of a seven year old Pilgrim boy, this photo-essay chronicles
his first day doing a man’s work, harvesting rye.
Waters, Kate. Tapenum’s day: a Wampanoag Indian boy in pilgrim times.
By following a boy through his day, readers learn how the Wampanoag Indians lived
in the 1600s.
Scholarly Works & Librarian’s Reference
Burton, J. (John). Lectures on female education and manners
Jaskoski, Helen, editor. Early Native American Writing: New Critical Essays
(Cambridge Studies in American Literature and Culture)
A collection of critical essays discussing the works of American Indian authors who
wrote between 1630 and 1940 and produced some of the earliest literature in North
American history.
Phelps, Mrs. Lincoln. The female student: or, lectures to young ladies on
female education.
Reed Digital Collections –“Indian Converts Bibliography”:
http://cdm.reed.edu/cdm4/indianconverts/bibliography.php
Rosenmeier, Rosamond. Anne Bradstreet, Revisited
Provides in-depth analysis of the life, works, career, and critical importance of Anne
Bradstreet.
Szasz, Margaret Connell. Indian Education in the American Colonies, 16071787
Armed with Bible and primer, missionaries and teachers in colonial America sought,
in their words, “to Christianize and civilize the native heathen.” Both the attempts to
transform Indians via schooling and the Indians' reaction to such efforts are closely
studied for the first time in Indian Education in the American Colonies, 1607–1783.
William Apess Bibliography – “Washington State University's Donna
Campbell, Associate Professor”:
http://public.wsu.edu/~campbelld/amlit/apessbib.htm
Wollstonecraft, Mary. A vindication of the rights of woman
Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) published A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
in 1792. Her radical prescription was for girls to be educated alongside boys and to
the same standard.
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Meet Geraldine Brooks
September 18th, 2012
For more information
Check www.onebookoneregion.org
Or call 860.441.6750
Made possible by a grant from the
Connecticut Humanities Council
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