"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness." — Mark Twain
Lit Trip Library
Due to changes in technology, some Lit Trips are no longer available. Select currently available Google Lit Trips in the GLT Store .
Grades 6–8 Titles
The New York Times bestseller A Long Walk to Water begins as two stories, told in alternating sections, about two eleven-year-olds in Sudan, a girl in 2008 and a boy 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. – Goodreads
A Collaboration with Educator Developer, Maryan Ryan
7th Grade Reading Teacher, Gibbons Middle School, Westborough, MA
A Collaboration with Educator Developer, Jerome Burg
Around the World in 80 Days is the story of the journey of Phileas Fogg and his manservant, Passepartout, and the wager struck at the Reform Club in London. Could Fogg actually circumnavigate the globe in just 80 days?
Educator Developer Piers Casimir-Mrowczynski
Computer Science Teacher, England.
I have spent most of my working life in the IT industry, currently as a teacher of Computer Science, and head of department, at a prep school in England. I love exploring, learning about and applying technology. Google Lit Trips have created the ideal opportunity to apply this passion. Outside of work my interests include family, reading, travel, American Comics culture and comic art of the seventies and eighties."Twelve-year-old Samuel Collier is a lowly commoner on the streets of London. So when he becomes the page of Captain John Smith and boards the Susan Constant, bound for the New World, he can't believe his good fortune. He's heard that gold washes ashore with every tide. But beginning with the stormy journey and his first contact with the native people, he realizes that the New World is nothing like he imagined."
"Wonderful! The students have added a new level of realism to the story of Jamestown by juxtaposing Google Earth with the historical events."
– Elisa Carbone, author of Blood on the River
Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis Bud (like a plant, not short for 'Buddy', as he determinedly tells everyone) is a motherless boy on the run. He's determined to find his father but doesn't really know where to start. The only clue his late mother left him was a bunch of flyers about Herman E Calloway and his famous jazz band, the Dusky Devastators of the Depression! Bud's search for his dad is a tough one but just occasionally he hits a note as high as even the Dusky Devastators can play! A superbly entertaining, prize-winning novel. – Google Books
Educator Developer Dalena Luis
Candidate, M.A. Elementary Education, University of Central FL. When given the opportunity to use GLTs as an instructional tool, I rose to the challenge in creating a lesson plan using the historical fiction novel It's Bud, Not Buddy. This book is age appropriate for upper level elementary and middle school children. In the GLT, I added several teaching resources such as lesson plan ideas, useful websites, and books about children in the Great Depression. It is my hope teachers would use this Google Lit Trip to make social studies lessons meaningful and interactive. As I learn the craft of teaching, I encourage other aspiring teachers that are in undergraduate and graduate programs to use GLTs to expand their teaching toolbox to implement the best pedagogical practices."Based on rare archival material, obscure trial manuscripts, and interviews with relatives of the conspirators and the manhunters, CHASING LINCOLN'S KILLER is a fast-paced thriller about the pursuit and capture of John Wilkes Booth: a wild twelve-day chase through the streets of Washington, D.C., across the swamps of Maryland, and into the forests of Virginia." – Goodreads
Created by Student Christopher K, for Educator Holly Butora5th Grade Reading Teacher, Presbyterian Day School, Memphis, TN. Holly Butora holds a Bachelor's degree in both Early Childhood Education and Elementary Education and a Masters of Art in Elementary Education. When not spending time with her boys at school, Holly loves to spend to time with her husband and daughter. Holly has always loved finding innovative technologies to draw her students into being active learners. Upon discovering Google Lit Trips, she knew instantly that her students would love the challenge of creating their own. For their final reading project of the year, boys selected a book they had read during the year to create a Google Lit Trip. The boys went far beyond Holly's expectations. The boys loved creating the Lit Trips and told Holly that she >had to do this project with her classes again next year."
Esperanza Ortega possesses all the treasures a young girl could want: fancy dresses, a beautiful home filled with servants in Aguascalientes, Mexico, and the promise of one day rising to Mama's position and presiding over all of Rancho de las Rosas. Tragedy shatters that dream, forcing Esperanza and Mama to flee to California and settle in a Mexican farm labor camp. There, Esperanza must confront the challenges of hard labor, acceptance by her own people, and economic difficulties brought on by the Great Depression, while learning the value of family and community. – Google Books
A Collaboration with Educator Developer, Sue Corbin
Reading Department Chair, Shaker Heights Middle School, OH; Accreditation Coordinator, Notre Dame College, OH
A Collaboration with Educator Developer, Deanna Jordan
Buckhorn Elementary School, Valrico, FL
A Collaboration with Educator Developer, Jerome Burg
Matilda Cook awakens one morning to hear her best friend has died. It's 1793, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the capital of the United States. Rumors spring up about a mysterious disease and people begin to leave the city in droves. What will Matilda and her family do? They depend on the business their coffee house provides.
This Google Lit Trip travels through modern day Philadelphia exploring the original sites mentioned in the story, Fever 1793. Many of the original buildings are still standing.
Educator Developer Mark Moran
Technology Specialist, Island Creek Elementary School, Fairfax County Public Schools, VA. Mark Moran is a School Based Technology Specialist (SBTS) at Island Creek Elementary School in the Fairfax County Public Schools district. Previously he taught sixth grade for nine years. He maintains a website devoted to Northern Virginia Ecology.In 2000, a suitcase arrived at a children's Holocaust education center in Tokyo, Japan, marked "Hana Brady, May 16, 1931." The center's curator searches for clues to young Hana and her family, whose happy life in a small Czech town was turned upside down by the invasion of the Nazis.
Educator Developer Kevin Amboe
Professional Learning Coordinator for British Columbia Educational Resource Acquisition Consortium, Surrey, BC V3V 0B7. Kevin is passionate about meaningfully integrating technology into the classroom through first good teaching pedagogy and adding technology if appropriate. He has taught in Secondary, Elementary and served as a District Consultant supporting 126 sites. He has a worked towards building understanding and capacity of Information and Media Literacy. In 2007, Kevin was selected to be one of only 50 Canadian Apple Distinguished Educators. He holds a Masters in Educational Leadership. He has served as the President and conference Chair for Computer Using Educators of British Columbia and is a frequent conference presenter. According to Kevin, "It is all about finding the right tool to motivate and engage students so they can learn to their maximum potential. If I can support them in reaching their potential, then I have done my job." Kevin is a popular conference presenter and serves as a founding member of the GLT Global ED Board of Directors.In Hard Gold, by Avi, Early Whittcomb lives a hard life in Wiota in 1858. When his brother runs away to Cherry Creek to pan for gold after an accusation that he robbed a bank, Early finds himself lying to get on a wagon train. He is catapulted into the role of a man as he attempts to find his brother and profit from the gold at Cherry Creek.
Created by Student Jackson M, for Educator Holly Butora5th Grade Reading Teacher, Presbyterian Day School, Memphis, TN. Holly Butora holds a Bachelor's degree in both Early Childhood Education and Elementary Education and a Masters of Art in Elementary Education. When not spending time with her boys at school, Holly loves to spend to time with her husband and daughter. Holly has always loved finding innovative technologies to draw her students into being active learners. Upon discovering Google Lit Trips, she knew instantly that her students would love the challenge of creating their own. For their final reading project of the year, boys selected a book they had read during the year to create a Google Lit Trip. The boys went far beyond Holly's expectations. The boys loved creating the Lit Trips and told Holly that she had to do this project with her classes again next year."
"When Mia's father is arrested in North Korea for spying, she and her brother find themselves on a treacherous journey, trying to escape to China before getting caught and arrested. It's an exciting, action packed story. But, will they make it? What will become of their father?"
• A Junior Library Guild Fall 2017 Selection • Bank Street College of Education, The Best Children's Books of the Year, 2018 Edition • NCSS/CBC Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People 2018 • International Literacy Association Teachers' Choice
Author Developer Anne Sibly O'Brien
Anne Sibley O'Brien ( AnneSibleyOBrien.com ), is a children's book writer and illustrator who has published 38 books featuring diverse children and cultures. Her experience of being raised bilingual and bicultural in South Korea as the daughter of medical workers was the catalyst for a lifelong fascination with and passion for human difference. In the Shadow of the Sun is her only novel to date (though others may be coming). Read more about the background and creation of the book at http://www.intheshadowofthesunbook.com/ In addition to creating books, she has spent her adult life exploring issues of race, culture, representation, and inclusion, including two projects she confounded, I'm Your Neighbor Books ( imyourneighborbooks.org ) and the Diverse BookFinder ( DiverseBookFinder.org ). She lives on an island in Maine."An inspiring look at the fight for the vote. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was leading a fight to win blacks the right to vote. Ground zero for the movement became Selma, Alabama. Award-winning author Elizabeth Partridge leads you straight into the chaotic, passionate, and deadly three months of protests that culminated in the landmark march from Selma to Montgomery in 1965. Focusing on the courageous children who faced terrifying violence in order to march alongside King, this is an inspiring look at their fight for the vote." – Goodreads
Author Developer Elizabeth Partridge
Elizabeth Partridge is the author of more than a dozen books. She has been a National Book Award finalist, an ALA Michael L. Printz Award runner-up, and twice a Boston Globe–Horn Book Award runner-up. She has won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the SCBWI Golden Kite Award, and the Jane Addams Children's Book Award. Partridge is on the faculty of the Vermont College of Fine Arts in the MFA in Writing for Children & Young Adults. She chaired the National Book Award Committee for Young People's Literature in 2007 and has served on the Los Angeles Times Book Prize Committee and the SCBWI Golden Kite Award committee. http://www.elizabethpartridge.comA Collaboration with Educator Developer, Jerome Burg
Google Lit Trips Founder, Retired High School English Teacher.
Jerome Burg spent 38 years as a high-school English teacher.
M.A. in Education, specializing in Educational Technology. He is a popular conference and workshop presenter, is both an Apple Distinguished Educator and Google Certified Teacher; co-author of Bookmapping: Lit Trips and Beyond. See Developer Bio and GLT Global ED for more information. The classic story of one family torn apart by the Revolutionary War. All his life, Tim Meeker has looked up to his brother Sam. Sam's smart and brave -- and is now a part of the American Revolution. Not everyone in town wants to be a part of the rebellion. Most are supporters of the British -- including Tim and Sam's father.
Educator Developer Carol LaRow
Professional Development Consultant. Carol, an award-winning educator, taught for 33 years in the Niskayuna Central School District in upstate New York. She is now a recognized educational technology consultant presenting at national and statewide conferences and offering professional development for school districts. She is a Google Apps Certified Trainer, and the Google Apps For Education Regional Leader-Eastern States. she is a Smithsonian Laureate, an Apple Distinguished Educator, and a WNYT Educator of Excellence. She has developed and published educational technology materials for Google, Adobe, Apple Computer, The International Society for Technology in Education, and the National Educational Technology Standards.https://sites.google.com/view/carollarow/home
"Percy Jackson is about to be kicked out of boarding school...again. And that's the least of his troubles. Lately, mythological monsters and the gods of Mount Olympus seem to be walking straight out of the pages of Percy's Greek mythology textbook and into his life. And worse, he's angered a few of them." – Google Books
Educator Developer Jerome Burg
Google Lit Trips Founder, Retired High School English Teacher. Jerome Burg spent 38 years as a high-school English teacher. M.A. in Education, specializing in Educational Technology. He is a popular conference and workshop presenter, is both an Apple Distinguished Educator and Google Certified Teacher; co-author of Bookmapping: Lit Trips and Beyond. He currently serves on Google's Google Earth Education Expert advisory board.Ned is a wizard with a computer. The king of the remote control. He adores snakes, lizards, and skinks, but people are less appealing. Less reliable. Ned is . . . Remote Man. What will it take to peel away his protective layer of indifference? How about a mother on the edge? A wild cousin from the Northern Territory? A sudden extended trip to the States? A goofy new neighbor? Nope, it'll take a snake. Or two–one an endangered Australian python, and the other a smuggler who sells wild animals to the highest bidder. When Ned discovers what this animal poacher is doing, his anger forces him into action. Now Remote Man is more like a superhero or super sleuth–tracking down clues and enlisting the help of some Web-wise teens. Can five kids on four continents linked only by the Internet manage to foil a very real-world criminal? – Goodreads
Educator Developer Rod Murray
RetiredInstructional Technology Resource Teacher, Peel District School Board Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. Rod Murray has taught in Saskatchewan and Ontario, Canada, as well as Victoria, Australia. "I've been an Instructional Technology Coach and presently am the Lead Technology Instructor for ETFO/AQ, the online teacher training arm of the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario. I also do part time work training on Apple devices. I consider myself passionate about mentoring learners to create empowering connections through formal and informal learning networks."When husband-and-wife team Marc Aronson and Marina Budhos realized that both their family histories involved the sugar industry, they took it as a challenge...The story builds on what many young scholars already know and adds many details. For example, slavery in the United States is a typical school lesson, but the authors disclose that the other 96 percent of enslaved Africans worked in the sugar industry in other parts of the world." – 2010 Best for Teens: Sugar Changed the World
A Collaboration with the Authors, Marc Aronson & Marina Budhos
Marc Aronson earned his doctorate in US history at NYU and has built his career as an award-winning editor and author of nonfiction for children and teenagers. He was the first recipient of the Sibert medal from the American Library Association for excellence in nonfiction (for readers through 8th grade), Sir Walter Ralegh and the Quest for El Dorado. He edited the 10th Sibert medalist, and has written and edited several YALSA Nonfiction prize finalists, such as Witch-Hunt, Mysteries of the Salem Witch Trials . A frequent speaker at schools and to professionals around the country, he currently teaches full time in the Rutgers University MLIS program. See marcaronson.com
and
sugarchangedtheworld.com, for his recent books and projects.Marina Budhos is an Associate Professor of Creative Writing and English at William Paterson University. She has published both fiction and nonfiction for adults and teenagers, including the award-winning Ask Me No Questions, and most recently, Tell Us We're Home.
A Collaboration with Educator Developer, Jerome Burg
Google Lit Trips Founder, Retired High School English Teacher. Jerome Burg spent 38 years as a high-school English teacher. M.A. in Education, specializing in Educational Technology. He is a popular conference and workshop presenter, is both an Apple Distinguished Educator and Google Certified Teacher; co-author of Bookmapping: Lit Trips and Beyond. See Developer Bio and GLT Global ED for more information.The wonderful wordplay of J. Patrick Lewis breathes new life into the speeches of Lincoln, the letters of Grant and Lee, and the moving human drama of our country's Civil War. Lewis' poignant poetry gives young readers a vivid insight into the brutal conflict that tore America apart. The author draws on primary-source books and articles to inspire each poem, bringing the ordinary and extraordinary voices of the Civil War to light.– Goodreads
Educator Developer Stacy Elizabeth Holcomb
Media Specialist, Mauldin High School, Mauldin, SC. Prior to working as a Media Specialist, Stacy taught High School English. She holds a Master's Degree in Library and Information Science and is Nationally Board Certified in Adolescent/Young Adult Literature."This >Google Lit Trip is my attempt to plot the locations of Civil War battles referenced in Lewis' work and to reflect the emotional journey J. Patrick Lewis captures so eloquently in poetic verse. By utilizing Google Earth, literature can be experienced in a format that appeals to a variety of students' learning styles. Google Lit Trips enable each student to make cross-curricular connections, such as the comprehension and analysis of literature along with acquiring new learning in Geography and History." http://edtechapps.blogspot.com/
Carmen got the jeans at a thrift shop. They didn't look all that great: they were worn, dirty, and speckled with bleach. On the night before she and her friends part for the summer . . . Nobody knows why, but the pants fit everyone perfectly. Over a few bags of cheese puffs, they decide to form a sisterhood and take the vow of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. The next morning, they say good-bye. The journey of the pants, and the most memorable summer of their lives, begins. – Goodreads
Student Contributors Jessica A and Taneh T, for Educator Diane MainMilpitas Christian School, San Jose, CA. Since the development of this first student-created Lit Trip, Diane Main has become the Director of Learning, Innovation and Design, at The Harker School, San Jose, CA
Jessie Bollier often played his fife to earn a few pennies at the New Orleans docks. One afternoon a sailor asked him to pipe a tune, and that evening Jessie was kidnapped by "The Moonlight," a slave ship, where a hateful duty awaited him. He was to play music so the slaves could "dance" to keep their muscles strong, their bodies profitable. Jessie was sickened by the business of trading rum and tobacco for blacks, then selling the African survivors as slaves. But to the men of the ship, a "slave dancer" was necessary to ensure their share of the profit. After four months of fear, calculated torture, and hazardous sailing with a degraded crew, Jessie was to face a final horror that would stay with him for the rest of his life.
– Goodreads
Educator Developer Eva LaMar
Program Development Specialist, Springfield Middle School, Springfield, OR. Eva is the school-based staff development specialist and a seasoned grades 3-8 teacher with an emphasis in English as a Second Language and Gifted Education. Eva's many contributions to educational technology include her being a Member of the Board of Directors member for the ISTE 1 to 1-SIG group, a Co-Director of The Geo-Literacy Project, a Co-Chairperson of "Day in the Life of a One-to-One Learning Environment," a Senior Trainer- Intel Teach to the Future, an Apple Distinguished Educator, Educational Consultant for The George Lucas Educational Foundation and PBS and a Macromedia/Adobe Educational Leader.aken away from her mother by a ruthless slave trader, all Julilly has left is the dream of freedom. Every day that she spends huddled in the slave trader's wagon travelling south or working on the brutal new plantation, she thinks about the land where it is possible to be free, a land she and her friend Liza may reach someday. So when workers from the Underground Railroad offer to help the two girls escape, they are ready. But the slave catchers and their dogs will soon be after them .... – Goodreads
Educator Developer Kevin Amboe
Professional Learning Coordinator for British Columbia Educational Resource Acquisition Consortium, Surrey, BC V3V 0B7. Kevin is passionate about meaningfully integrating technology into the classroom through first good teaching pedagogy and adding technology if appropriate. He has taught in Secondary, Elementary and served as a District Consultant supporting 126 sites. He has a worked towards building understanding and capacity of Information and Media Literacy. In 2007, Kevin was selected to be one of only 50 Canadian Apple Distinguished Educators. He holds a Masters in Educational Leadership. He has served as the President and conference Chair for Computer Using Educators of British Columbia and is a frequent conference presenter. According to Kevin, "It is all about finding the right tool to motivate and engage students so they can learn to their maximum potential. If I can support them in reaching their potential, then I have done my job." Kevin is a popular conference presenter and serves as a founding member of the GLT Global ED Board of Directors."Until the Last Spike, The Journal of Sean Sullivan, is about a fictional character named Sean Sullivan and his journey working on the Transcontinental Railroad. It's August 1867 and Sean has just arrived from Chicago, planning to work with his father on the Transcontinental Railroad... Sean discovers the rough and rowdy world of the towns that seem to sprout up from nowhere along the railroad's path over the prairie...Through Sean's eyes, the history of this era and the magnitude of his and his fellow workers' achievements come alive." – Goodreads
Educator Developer Cathy Maher
Instructional Technology Integrator, Chesterfield Tech Ctr/Hull, Midlothian, VA. Cathy Maher is the Instructional Technology Integrator at Chesterfield Tech Center at Hull in Midlothian, Virginia. She enjoys sharing her expertise beyond her school district at several Google Apps for Education technology conferences. Her teaching endorsements include Visual Arts, Computer Science, and as a Reading Specialist. She holds a post-baccalaureate certificate in Instructions Technology in Education and a Master's Degree as a Literacy and Culture Major.A humorous yet compelling tale about being a part of a family, growing up, and learning what it means to be African American in 1963. The story begins in Flint, Michigan and takes the family on a journey to Birmingham, Alabama and back to Flint. While in Birmingham, in a strange turn of events, the family finds itself intertwined in one of the most famous events of the Civil Rights Movement.
Educator Developer Heather McKissick
English at Shenango High School, New Castle; and Adjunct Faculty, Westminster College, PA. As a child, Heather always enjoyed reading and history. When she became an educator, she wanted to find a way to incorporate and convey these two passions into her classroom. Since first reading The Watsons go to Birmingham – 1963, Heather has been enamored by this book and the work of Christopher Paul Curtis. After a colleague mentioned Google Lit Trips, she instantly decided to create her own lit trip to use in the classroom. Heather recently taught her first graduate course as adjunct faculty at Westminster College. She has a Bachelor's degree in Elementary Education and Music as well as a Masters in Reading In her spare time, Heather loves to sing at local venues and spend time with her husband, twins and daughter.Newberry Award winning novel about the journey of 13 year old Salamanca Tree Hiddle traveling across the country with her grandparents. There are stories within stories in this fascinating story.– Goodreads