The Adventure of Charlie and His Wheat-Straw Hat: A Memorat

The Adventure of Charlie and His Wheat-Straw Hat: A Memorat

Written by: Berniece T. Hiser
Illustrated by: Mary Szilagyi
Genre: Historical Fiction
Grades: K-3
Awards: None

During the United States Civil War, a seven-year old boy, named Charlie lived by the Appalachian mountain. Charlie desperately wanted a straw hat for him to use on the first day of school, but money was tough since his father and older brothers were off fighting in the war and they were not able to earn any money. Charlie's grandmother said that she would make his straw hat, but he would have to get an armful of wheat straw from their neighbor, Squire McIntosh, who is not too far away. Grandmother told Charlie that all he had to say to their neighbor is "Wheat straw makes good hens' nests," so that the neighbor would not be too curious of what they were going to use the wheat straw for. Before Charlie left, his grandmother reminded him to be careful and not run into any soldiers, especially the Confederate soldiers. Charlie came back with loads of straw, so Charlie and his grandmother soaked the straw and started working on his hat 'til it was late at night. His grandmother finished the hat the next morning and Charlie was incredibly proud of it, that even showed it off to the animals on the farm. Charlie wore his hat on the first day of school, and even almost fought with two older boys at school, just because his hat was homemade. 

One day, Charlie and a group of his friends saw soldiers approaching them. They knew that the soldiers don't hurt children, but Charlie remembered a story about soldiers stealing straw hats. So Charlie ran to a straw pile, scared all of the animals away, and hid his hat in the straw pile, except for one mother sheep. The mother sheep was eating the hay right over where Charlie's hat was buried. The soldiers yelled and even chased after Charlie for scaring all the animals away, for they wanted to eat those animals. Charlie's neighbor, Squire, was thankful for Charlie scaring the soldiers away from his farm and awarded him a ten-dollar gold piece, for all his bravery.

This was a good book to read and it would be good to have in classroom libraries. The book is fit for Kindergartners to third graders. A way to incorporate this book is by sequencing of what events came in what order of the book. This book would also be good to read aloud during a Civil War unit.