Common Core Book Connection

 

So often these days, students are coming to the library looking not only for non-fiction reads, but book pairings of a fiction title with a non-fiction title on the same topic. I recently finished reading The Traitor's Wife: The Woman Behind Benedict Arnold and the Plan to Betray America, by Allison Pataki for my book group. (I use the term book group loosely here, since we mostly seem to eat and talk about other topics more than the book at hand, but I digress.) Since I am so far removed from middle school history - I had completely forgotten how controversial a figure Benedict Arnold was. And, I had absolutely no idea that his wife may have been behind his defection to the British army and his betrayal of his country.

While The Traitor's Wife was written for adults, it is a perfect novel for high school students to read. The book is engaging and reads quite quickly, as it is mainly character and dialogue driven. It really gives a fascinating snapshot into a specific time frame of  United States history, especially how different daily life was back then. When I finished the book, I immediately thought it would be perfectly paired with the award winning Steve Sheinkin title, The Notorious Benedict Arnold. Both books are written clearly and crisply, and will hold the attention span of high school students looking for those "common core" titles.

Try displaying these two together in your YA section and send a picture to lisa@suffolknet.org! Let us know - did the books go out? Can you think of any other fiction/non-fiction pairing that would work well together? Comment below by the end of the month to get a surprise sent your way via the system bags!