The King’s Letter, the Captains Flag, and other stories

Click for order information and the teacher’s guide.

The King’s Letter, the Captains Flag and other stories is a 96-page reading booklet for 5th grade classrooms. It contains 16 non-fiction stories (written by Bill Carey) about Tennessee, from about 1850 to the present time.

“These stories are fantastic,” says Pamela Arnold, a fifth grade teacher at H.G. Hill Middle School in Nashville. “I like the language and the explanations. They are an easy read, and I’m going to create some lessons around these.”

Features stories on:

* The Battle of Shiloh

* Heroic nuns who gave their lives for others during the Memphis Yellow Fever Epidemic

* How Wilma Rudolph overcame polio to become a great athlete

* Ida Wells and her remarkable lawsuit against the railroad

* Andrew Johnson — the president and the loyal tailor

* Captain William Driver — the man who gave the American flag the nickname “Old Glory”

* How a Tennessee groundhog help created a railroad, an industry, a beautiful college and a big city in Alabama

* Tennessee’s brave Medal of Honor recipients from World War II

* Cornelia Fort

* How Lewis Wickes Hine changed Tennessee (and the world!) with his camera

Also including stories on Piggly Wiggly, Tennessee geography, the Dixie Highway, Morris Frank, the Grand Ole Opry and (of course) Elvis Presley and President Nixon!

Also contains a four-page glossary, a complete index and a free on-line teacher guide here.

Each story has a Lexile measure of between 740 and 890, after direct quotes from primary sources cited in the story are removed.

Click for ordering information and for the teacher’s guide.