Through their eyes

Gary Moskowitz

Asked to create a children’s book illustrating a specific

historical event or person from the 20th century, Mikkel Aranas went

out of his way to make a book that younger students would remember.

His pop-up book, “Gods of War,” illustrating the Battle of Britain

during World War II, has images of buildings, airplanes and people

that stand up at the turn of each page.

Mikkel, 16, was one of 68 sophomores in Chris Davis’

English/history/humanities class at Clark Magnet High School who

visited classrooms at Dunsmore Elementary School on Thursday as part

of a class project to teach younger students about history by making

children’s books.

“I kind of waited until the last minute to make it, by mistake,

but they really like it,” Mikkel said.

Clark students rotated between several classrooms, hand-made

children’s books in hand. They read the books then answered

questions.

Topics ranged from stories of German families being reunited after

World War II and Korean families being united at the end of the

Korean War to historical figures like Gandhi.

Vivian Cho and Grace Yi, both 15, talked to Dunsmore students

about the life and times of Eva Peron. Their children’s book was

called “A Lost Love.”

“She was the first woman to have such a strong influence in her

country, and she did so many good deeds,” Vivian said.

Grace added, “It gives them a different learning situation for us

to come here. I think they look up to us a little, so it can make it

significant.”

While second-grader Yung Chung, 8, prefers to read on his own, he

and most of his classmates were anxious for the Clark Magnet students

to arrive.

“I really like to read, especially mystery books, because you

never know what’s going to happen next,” Yung said.