Books for Irish Potato Famine
CAUTION: I HAVE NOT READ THESE, SO DO NOT JUST HAND THEM OUT TO STUDENTS. READ THEM FOR YOURSELF BEFORE RECOMMENDING THEM TO KIDS.
Kinealy, Christine. This Great Calamity: The Irish Famine1845-52. Boulder, CO: Roberts Rinehart Publishers, 1995. ISBN 1-57098-034-9
This is an academic approach to the history of the famine, so it would be good adult background reading or else for a very advanced student who is fascinated with the history.
Donnelly, Jr., James S. The Great Irish Potato Famine. Phoenix Mill, England: Sutton Publishing, Limited, 2001. ISBN 0-7509-2632-5.
This is another academic book, but it has wonderful pictures from the time period that might interest students.
Percival, John. The Great Famine: Ireland’s Potato Famine 1845-51. New York, NY: Viewer Books. 1995. ISBN 1-57500-002-4.
This book was written to accompany A & E’s television show on the same topic. The text is broken into comfortable-sized pieces for high school students and there are LOTS of good pictures.
Grada, Cormac O. Black ’47 and Beyond: The Great Irish Famine in History, Economy, and Memory. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1999. ISBN obscured.
This is definitely an academic book, with facts, figures, and graphs that might be useful. Probably not an attractive read for kids.
Bartoletti, Susan Campbell. Black Potatoes: The Story of the Great Irish Famine, 1845-1850. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 2001. ISBN obscured
Text is broken up by engravings from the time. Probably high school students would be comfortable with this book.
Lyons, Mary E., editor. Feed the Children First: Irish Memories of the Great Hunger. New York, NY: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2002.
This is a book for younger students (middle school, perhaps high elementary). What is neat is that this has primary sources in it—what people said about the famine. It also has good pictures in it. It would be important to discuss with the students what differences there are between primary and secondary sources.
Http://vassun.vassar.edu/~sttaylor/FAMINE/
Has newspaper articles from this time period about the famine—good primary sources.
www.historyplace.com/worldhistory/famine/
Has lots of information about the famine.