Special Collections
Detroit Public Schools Community District Curriculum 2024: Grade 7
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A Long Walk to Water
by Linda Sue ParkA Long Walk to Water begins as two stories, told in alternating sections, about a girl in Sudan in 2008 and a boy in Sudan in 1985.
The girl, Nya, is fetching water from a pond that is two hours' walk from her home: she makes two trips to the pond every day. The boy, Salva, becomes one of the "lost boys" of Sudan, refugees who cover the African continent on foot as they search for their families and for a safe place to stay. Enduring every hardship from loneliness to attack by armed rebels to contact with killer lions and crocodiles, Salva is a survivor, and his story goes on to intersect with Nya's in an astonishing and moving way.
Based on the life of Salva Dut, who, after emigrating to America in 1996, began a project to dig water wells in Sudan.
Jane Addams Children’s Book Award Winner
Patient Zero
by Marilee PetersEngrossing true stories of the pioneers of epidemiology who risked their lives to find the source of deadly diseases. Throughout history, more people have died in disease epidemics than in wars or other disasters. The courageous, trail-blazing defenders against these diseases faced a terrifying personal gamble. Often they were ignored, laughed at, or even fired from their jobs. But they kept hunting for answers, putting the pieces of the epidemic puzzle together. As they looked for clues to the origin of a disease, scientists searched for the unknown “patient zero”—the first person to have contracted it. Patient Zero brilliantly brings to life the main characters and events to tell the gripping tale of how each of seven diseases spread. The result is spine-chilling as Peters follows the scientists who solved the intricate mystery of the killer epidemics. Patient Zero reminds us that millions of people owe their lives to the work of these pioneer epidemiologists, work that continues to this day.
One Last Word
by Nikki GrimesEach poem is paired with one-of-a-kind art from today's most exciting African American illustrators--including Pat Cummings, Brian Pinkney, Sean Qualls, James Ransome, Javaka Steptoe, and many more--to create an emotional and thought-provoking book with timely themes for today's readers.
myWorld Interactive: World History, Early Ages, Active Journal
by Prentice-Hall StaffNIMAC-sourced textbook
Brothers in Hope
by Mary WilliamsEight-year-old Garang is tending cattle far from his family's home in southern Sudan when war comes to his village. Frightened but unharmed, he returns to find everything has been destroyed. Soon Garang meets up with other boys whose villages have been attacked. Before long they become a moving band of thousands, walking hundreds of miles seeking safety--first in Ethiopia and then in Kenya. Along the way the boys face numerous hardships and dangers, but their faith and mutual support help keep the hope of finding a new home alive in their hearts. Based on heartbreaking yet inspirational true events in the lives of the Lost Boys of Sudan, Brothers in Hope is a story of remarkable and enduring courage, and an amazing testament to the unyielding power of the human spirit.