Grade 5: On the Silk Road

Examines the factors influencing human migration from the earliest people in Africa in search of homelands up to the modern era of forced migration due to war and poverty.

From a celebrated documentary artist, twelve portraits from the front lines of migration form an intimate record of why people leave behind the places they call home. It is an unusual feeling to walk into a place that everyone is leaving . . . Resisting his own urge to walk away, award-winning artist George Butler took his sketchbook and made, over the course of a decade, a series of remarkable pen-and-ink and watercolor portraits in war zones, refugee camps, and on the move. While he worked, his subjects--migrants and refugees in the Middle East, Europe, Africa, and Asia--shared their stories. Theirs are the human stories behind the headlines that tell of fleeing poverty, disaster, and war, and of venturing into the unknown in search of jobs, education, and security. Whether sketching by the hospital bed of a ten-year-old Syrian boy who survived an airstrike, drawing the doll of a little Palestinian girl with big questions, or talking with a Masai herdsman forced to abandon his rural Kenyan home for the Kibera slums, George Butler turns reflective art and sensitive reportage into an eloquent cry for understanding and empathy. Taken together and elegantly packaged, his beautiful portraits form a moving testament to our shared humanity--and the universal urge for safety and a better life.

About 200,000 years ago, humans arose as a species on the continent of Africa. How did they get to the rest of the world? When did they leave, why, and what did they use for transportation? Whether by bamboo raft or Boeing 747, whether to escape political persecution or because of climate change, migration is a recurring pattern throughout the human history of the world. InHuman Migration: Investigate the Global Journey of Humankind, readers ages 12 to 15 retrace the paths taken by our ancestors, starting with the very first steps away from African soil. Understanding who has migrated, from where, when, and why helps us understand the shared history of humans across the world and the future that links us together. Kids discover how archaeologists, paleoanthropologists, linguists, and geneticists piece together different parts of the puzzle of ancient migration. Open-ended, inquiry-based activities and links to primary sources help readers draw inferences and analyze how these human journeys have changed where and how people live.Human Migration takes readers on a journey from our common ancestry to our shared future on an increasingly fragile planet.

"Presents a global look at the reasons people move from one country to another, the effects that immigrants and refugees have on the economy, and their contributions to multicultural societies"--Provided by publisher.