By Susan Provost Beller
Although limiting out-of-home activities during the pandemic is causing challenging setbacks for many, it is also providing a window of opportunity for children to learn about their family, current and past. In fact, we now have an opportunity for parents and grandparents to share stories—if only via Zoom–about their younger years, for families to examine together how their life choices and family traditions connect them to the past and to one another.
And that’s where Susan Provost Beller’s new book, Roots for Kids: Finding Your Family Stories comes in. It lays out a fun way—through family stories and related activities—for children to discover their family history.
As Susan Beller writes in Roots for Kids: Finding Your Family Stories, “Begin with a story, and then keep adding the stories of the people who came before. Suddenly you have a genealogy!” Suddenly children have a novel and fun way to learn about themselves and their family history through the collection of family stories.
Every family has its own stories—stories that define who you are, that help you touch the past and make your ancestors come to life. This book helps children of all ages find those stories, using many stories of the author’s own family as examples.
In the process, children will also examine their ancestors’ nationalities, their family’s food traditions, and the origin of their surnames and given names. They will pick up skills essential to genealogy research: how to ask questions, construct timelines, create family group sheets, and organize information.
Each beautifully illustrated chapter ends with an activity related to the subject of that chapter. Younger children will have fun doing these activities with their parents, while older children can work on them on their own.
Roots for Kids: Finding Your Family Stories celebrates all the wonderful stories and family traditions that make you who you are and that tie your family, past and present, together.
Get your children’s copy today here!
About the Author
Susan Provost Beller is the author of 29 books about history for young readers, but her first love has always been genealogy, and she has enjoyed doing family history research for almost 50 years. In her non-genealogy books, she is always looking for the stories of the people she writes about, the same way she does researching her own family. Writing has given her the opportunity to visit many schools and libraries and share with her readers the stories of history and her “traveling museum” of artifacts from the past that she brings for students to handle. She also worked for many years as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Vermont, teaching teachers how to better utilize historic resources such as primary sources and historic sites to make history more interesting for their students. She lives with her husband in Easton, Pennsylvania. Since he shares her love of history, she is always looking for new historic sites for them to visit. Most of all, she treasures the time she gets to spend with her seven grandchildren and their parents. She can be reached through her website at www.susanprovostbeller.com.
