The New-York Historical Society and DiMenna Children’s History Museum celebrate African American history year-round, but we, and most other cultural institutions, pay special homage in February for African American History Month. Why? African American History Month, or Black History Month, started with one man: a historian, author, and teacher named Carter G. Woodson (1875-1950). Dr. Woodson…

    Hello families! The Reading into History book club had a fantastic Book Wrap event for Harlem Summer this past Wednesday. About 50 young historians, parents, teachers, librarians and Myers fans came to discuss the book, ask Mr. Myers questions, and see photographs of Harlem by Camilo Jose Vergara. Mr. Myers brought along his National Ambassador for Young People’s…

Readers, we know you are out there enjoying Harlem Summer, imagining the days of rent parties and bootlegging, and hoping Mark finds a way out of all the trouble he is in. For a second, take a break from the book and check out this short interview with the author, Walter Dean Myers. We guarantee it…

Harlem, the neighborhood where Walter Dean Myer’s book Harlem Summer is set, has an interesting story of its own. Some things I wonder about Harlem are… How did Harlem get its name? How come it is so famous? (People all over the world have heard of it!) So many famous writers, painters and musicians started out in Harlem, and many…

Greetings readers! We had a wonderful Book Wrap for Chains last week. We discussed the book, did a scavenger hunt, and saw Thomas Jefferson’s handwriting up close. It was pretty cool! Now it’s time to announce our August book. Drum roll please…. it’s Harlem Summer by Walter Dean Myers. This is a great book for…

We were so lucky to have Gail Carson Levine visit our first ever Reading Into History book club. She read from her book Dave at Night and she told some cool stories about her dad. He grew up in the Hebrew Orphan Asylum in Harlem. We even got to see pictures of what it looked like back…

Welcome to our first book club post! Reading into History is our new monthly book club for kids 9-12. We are excited to get people talking about history and historical fiction and to connect the books we blog about to the New-York Historical Society’s collection. What is historical fiction and why bother reading it? I…