Kids’ Books Found in the 300s

With a new month, it’s time to start a new series of blog posts! This time we’re going to take a closer look at the Dewey Decimal System. For each class of numbers, I’ll share twelve specific titles for kids that you might find in that class. Before we get started, let me share a little information about the Dewey Decimal System and then we can dig in!

The Dewey Decimal System, created by Melvil Dewey in 1876 was created to organize books based on discipline and subject. The system is broken down into ten classes, each divided into ten divisions, and each of those divided into ten sections. Each subject matter has a three-digit that explains where it belongs with the option to include decimal places to further divide the section. For example, a cookbook is found in:

• 600 – Technology
  • 640 – Home economics and family management
    • 641 – Food and drink
      • 641.5 – Cooking and cookbooks

While the system has been updated through the years, criticism remains as the Dewey Decimal System is extremely Eurocentric and treatment of women, people of color, and other minorities continues to need updates (which can take years). Some public libraries have even abandoned the Dewey Decimal System in favor of other systems that either make more sense for their communities or systems that are better balanced.

We’re into the 300s now! The 300s are all about social sciences including politics, economics, education, and law. But it also includes folk and fairy tales, customs and holidays and more. While some of these topics are at a much higher level than most kids will comprehend, you will find books about saving money, the history of our government, military branches, and factual information about the education system. Here’s an example of how literature is absorbed in the Dewey Decimal System with folk and fairy tales, while being fiction, are still a part of “nonfiction” collection. It’s a fascinating section of materials! Go explore!

The next time you stop at your local public library, swing by the nonfiction section and take a look at what you might find in the 300s! And at home, you can check out LibraryThing’s MDS – you can click on each class and see how things are organized at each level.

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Kid’s Books Found in the 300s

The Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen edited by Noel Daniel

As treasured today as they will undoubtedly be for generations to come, Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tales are cornerstones of our collective consciousness as much as of the Western literary canon. From The Ugly Duckling to The Little Mermaid and The Emperor’s New Clothes, this beautifully-presented collection shares the eternal magic of these stories with a selection of 8 tales, each illustrated with sparkling vintage artwork from the 1840s to the 1980s.

True to the international appeal of the stories, the featured artists hail from Scandinavia to Japan, and include such greats as Kay Nielsen, Josef Paleček, Tom Seidmann-Freud (niece of Sigmund Freud), and the groundbreaking film animator Lotte Reiniger. The collection also features historic and contemporary silhouettes, a presentation of Andersen’s immense legacy, brief historical introductions to each fairy tale, as well as a set of stickers of favorite motifs. A treasure for the whole family, this precious edition inspires and enchants as much as the mystical, magical worlds of Andersen’s imagination.

Grimms’ Fairy Tales by Sandra Dieckmann

From internationally acclaimed creator Sandra Dieckmann comes a captivating collection of Grimms’ fairy tales, accessibly written and illustrated with an eye to inclusivity. Including much-loved stories like “Rapunzel” and “Sleeping Beauty” as well as more obscure gems from the author’s childhood in northern Germany, this splendidly illustrated gift book of twenty tales is poised to charm readers of all ages. Enchanted forests, wild animals, powerful princesses, and brave heroes all reflect a lightly modern take in this Grimms’ collection to be cherished by all.

History Smashers: Earth Day and the Environment by Kate Messner

In April 1970, twenty million people grabbed their rakes, gloves, and recycling bins to celebrate the first Earth Day. Since that environmental kickoff, nature has never been in better shape. RIGHT?

WRONG! The real deal is a bit muddier than that. It’s true that the first Earth Day encouraged people around the globe to clean up their act when it came to the environment. But activists have been working for centuries to save the planet! Native people across the world developed sustainable farming practices, women in eighteenth-century India stood up to protect trees, and amateur scientist Eunice Foote discovered the science behind global warming all the way back in the 1850s!

Join the History Smashers team to bust history’s biggest misconceptions and figure out what in the world really went down before (and after!) the first Earth Day—and how you can join the fight to protect the environment.

The Mona Lisa Vanishes by Nicholas Day, illustrated by Brett Helquist

On a hot August day in Paris, just over a century ago, a desperate guard burst into the office of the director of the Louvre and shouted, La Joconde, c’est partie! The Mona Lisa, she’s gone!

No one knew who was behind the heist. Was it an international gang of thieves? Was it an art-hungry American millionaire? Was it the young Spanish painter Pablo Picasso, who was about to remake the very art of painting?

Travel back to an extraordinary period of revolutionary change: turn-of-the-century Paris. Walk its backstreets. Meet the infamous thieves—and detectives—of the era. And then slip back further in time and follow Leonardo da Vinci, painter of the Mona Lisa, through his dazzling, wondrously weird life. Discover the secret at the heart of the Mona Lisa—the most famous painting in the world should never have existed at all.

Not-So-Common Cents by Sarah Wassner Flynn

In this book you’ll discover exactly what money is, along with:

• How society went from bartering to using bucks
• Basics of saving (including some brilliant hacks), investing, and interest
• What “credit” really means
• Inventive ways to get your ideas flowing and money growing
• What the stock market is, and how money moves around the world today
• Ins and outs of cryptocurrency and other “new” money
• The importance of giving back―one of the best things a fiscally responsible global citizen can do
• Why being smart with money = a big step toward independence

The Poison Eaters: Fighting Danger and Fraud in our Food and Drugs by Gail Jarrow

In 1900, products often weren’t safe because unregulated, unethical companies added these and other chemicals to trick consumers into buying spoiled food or harmful medicines. Chemist Harvey Washington Wiley recognized these dangers and began a relentless thirty-year campaign to ensure that consumers could purchase safe food and drugs, eventually leading to the creation of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, a US governmental organization that now has a key role in addressing the COVID-19/Coronavirus pandemic gripping the world today. Acclaimed nonfiction and Sibert Honor winning author Gail Jarrow uncovers this intriguing history in her trademark style that makes the past enthrallingly relevant for today’s young readers.

Presidential Elections and Other Cool Facts by Syl Sobel

Presidential Elections and Other Cool Facts is an easy-to-read guide that explains the step-by-step process of how a president gets elected in the United States. It uses simple language to answer complex questions like: Who can run? Who can vote? What is the electoral college? and is packed with fascinating facts about previous presidents, notable candidates, and remarkable elections in history.

Perfect for classrooms, homeschool, and curious young readers, this book features:

• Simple, kid-friendly language
• Clear explanations of complex questions
• Illustrations that help bring the text to life
• Additional resources like a glossary, index, and more!

Spies by David Long, illustrated by Terri Po

A single spy can save thousands upon thousands of lives…

From Harry Ree, teacher turned saboteur, to Margery Booth, the spy who sang for Hitler, to Scotch Lass, Britain’s smallest ever agent, discover twenty-seven of the most courageous and daring spies…

For as long as there have been secrets to keep, there have been spies, the world over, trying to uncover this classified information. Spying goes on all the time, and everywhere, but some of the most astonishing exploits occur during wartime.

The stories in this beautiful collection unpick some of the most astonishing missions undertaken during World War Two – actions that helped to save many lives. Amazingly, many of these tales had to remain a deadly secret at the time and are little known even to this day.

Stealing Little Moon: The Legacy of the American Indian Boarding Schools by Dan SaSuWeh Jones

Little Moon There Are No Stars Tonight was four years old when armed federal agents showed up at her home and took her from her family. Under the authority of the government, she was sent away to a boarding school specifically created to strip her of her Ponca culture and teach her the ways of white society. Little Moon was one of thousands of Indigenous children forced to attend these schools across America and give up everything they’d ever known: family, friends, toys, clothing, food, customs, even their language. She would be the first of four generations of her family who would go to the Chilocco Indian Agricultural School.

Dan SaSuWeh Jones chronicles his family’s time at Chilocco–starting with his grandmother Little Moon’s arrival when the school first opened and ending with him working on the maintenance crew when the school shut down nearly one hundred years later. Together with the voices of students from other schools, both those who died and those who survived, Dan brings to light the lasting legacy of the boarding school era.

Part American history, part family history, Stealing Little Moon is a powerful look at the miseducation and the mistreatment of Indigenous kids, while celebrating their strength, resiliency, and courage–and the ultimate failure of the United States government to erase them.

Tales from the Arabian Nights by Donna Jo Napoli

Classic stories and dazzling illustrations of princesses, kings, sailors, and genies come to life in a stunning retelling of the Arabian folk tales from One Thousand and One Nights and other collections, including those of Aladdin, Sinbad the Sailor, and Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. The magical storytelling of award-winning author Donna Jo Napoli dramatizes these timeless tals and ignites children’s imaginations.

Told and Retold: Around the World with Aesop’s Fables by Holly Berry

The world is connected, and so are our stories. In this picture book, stunningly illustrated with Holly Berry’s hand-carved wood cuts, we’re introduced to short versions of Aesop’s Fables as they’re told in various corners of the globe.
 
The stories included are:

• The Heron (USA, New England marsh)
• The Lion and the Mouse (African plains)
• The Ants and the Grasshopper (China) 
• The Tortoise and the Hare (USA, southwestern desert)
• The Fox and the Grapes (Israel)
• The Bear and the Bees (Andes Mountains)
• The Crow and the Pitcher (Greece)
• The Two Goats (Swiss Alps) 
• The Wolf and the Crane (Siberia) 

What Is Juneteenth? by Kirsti Jewel

On June 19, 1865, a group of enslaved men, women, and children in Texas gathered around a Union solder and listened as he read the most remarkable words they would ever hear. They were no longer enslaved: they were free. The inhumane practice of forced labor with no pay was now illegal in all of the United States. This news was cause for celebration, so the group of people jumped in excitement, danced, and wept tears of joy. They did not know it at the time, but their joyous celebration of freedom would become a holiday–Juneteenth–that is observed each year by more and more Americans.