April Morning

April Morning

• Genre: Fiction; young adult historical
• Originally Published: 1961
• Reading Level/Interest: Lexile 1050L; grades 5-9
• Structure/Length: 8 chapters; approx. 208 pages; approx. 4 hours, 42 minutes on audio
• Protagonist/Central Conflict: Fifteen-year-old Adam Cooper cannot wait to join the Revolutionary War. When his father dies on the village green during the Battle of Lexington, Adam must face columns of marching men, testing his resolve.
• Potential Sensitivity Issues: War violence; reference to indigenous people as “Indians”

Howard Fast, Author

• Bio: 1914-2003; prolific American novelist and television writer; wrote first novel, Two Valleys, at 18 while hitchhiking and riding railroads around the country; wrote for Voice of America during World War II; role in the Communist Party USA had him called before the House Committee on Un-American Activities; sent to prison for three months when he refused to disclose other names during his House testimony; ran for Congress on the American Labor Party ticket in 1952; cut ties with the Communist Party in 1956, denouncing Stalin’s dictatorship; moved to California in the 1970s and wrote television scripts for various programs, including How the West Was Won.
• Other Works: My Glorious Brothers (1948); Spartacus (1951); Power (1962); The Hessian (1972); Max (1982); Redemption (1999)

CENTRAL THEMES  connected and noted throughout this Teaching Unit: