Title: Imogene's Last Stand
Author: Candace Fleming
Illustrator: Nancy Carpenter
Genre: Historical Fiction
Major Awards: N/A
Age Group: 7-10 years old
Imogene and her family live in a tiny town called Liddleville, the town was so small it wasn't even on the map. Every since Imogene was a baby she loved history so much so that her first words were "four score and seven years ago". Imogene is in charge of the Liddleville Historic Society that hasn't been well taken care of in the past, but where others see a mess, Imogene sees promise and a purpose and cleans of the place very nicely to show the rest of the town. Much to her surprise, when Imogene goes outside, she sees that a sign has been posted stating that the building of the Historic Society is being torn down to create a shoelace factory. Imogene tries to go to the mayor, but the major still wants to tear down the society, because he believes the shoelace factory will help to get their town on the map. Imogene refused to give up and everyday she goes into the town to protest and when the day approaches that it is time for the building to be torn down Imogene finds a letter from George Washington that may just be the miracle she was hoping for, so she immediately sends an email to the town historian. In order to buy more time, Imogene locks herself up in front of the Historic Society in an effort to give herself more time and save the Historic Society from being bulldozed. Right as the mayor comes to tell her to give up her protest the Liddleville Historian Professor Pastmasters and the President of the United States came to declare the the Historic Society a national landmark. Imogene was able to save the Historic Society and now everyone in town wanted to visit the museum.
Imogene's Last Stand is an adorable book that would be an excellent addition to any 3rd-5th grade classroom library. Not only does the book tell a beautiful story about how a little girls perseverance saved a part of her towns history , it also has social studies woven through each page of the book. The end pages of the story themselves are filled with what are called "Imogene Tripp's Historical Tidbits," that give historical context to the quotes that are mentioned in the book. During the book, since Imogene has a passion for history she often quotes several influential people from history. The idea of remembering quotes from famous people in history is such and interesting idea; because often in history we are taught to focus more on dates and events. I believe this book would make a wonderful read aloud in a social studies class. The book could lead into a lesson about influential people in history, and an activity where students could pick an influential person from history and a quote of theirs and analyse the quote talking about who the person was, what was the quote talking about, and why were they important. I think this would be a fun and interesting way for students to learn about history, by using quotes that connects to Imogene Tripp.
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