Books In the Middle Podcast
Looking for booktalks for middle school students? Look no farther than this podcast. Browse through the many titles in all different genres for just the right title to get your students inspired, excited and racing to the library for a copy of the book. Looking for written reviews for more titles? Check out the blog Booksinthemiddle.Wordpress.com to expand your own library and give students more options. New episodes typically release every Monday, however during the summer months, they will release every other week or so. Enjoy!
Books In the Middle Podcast
Port Chicago 50 by Steve Sheinkin (Nonfiction)
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Tasha Squires
Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights By Steve Sheinkin
During WWII, the navy as well as all the armed forces were segregated. Black sailors were allowed to enlist, however, they couldn’t serve on ships other than as cooks and attendants of that sort. So any who were in the Navy ended up doing menial labor jobs. However, there was another job that blacks were put to work doing at Port Chicago in California. This involved loading the ammunition aboard the naval ships. Only black sailors were given this task, with white officers supervising them. No training in how to handle these explosives was given to the sailors. It seemed an explosion was only a matter of time...and it was.
Recommended for grades 7 and up.