Primary versus Secondary Sources
Primary sources are objects original documents created at the time of an event:
Manuscripts and speeches
Objects: art, buildings, clothing, photographs
Secondary sources are documents written by people who get their information from primary sources of information:
Films explaining past events
Books about the past
Sometimes secondary sources include excerpts from primary sources.
Nonfiction Books that include Primary Sources
Tunnell, Michael O. Candy Bomber: The Story of the Berlin Airlift’s ‘Chocolate Pilot’. Watertown, MA: Charlesbridge, 2009.
Picture Books that include Primary Sources
Hopkinson, Deborah. Keep On! The Story of Matthew Henson, Co-discoverer of the North Pole. Atlanta: Peachtree, 2009.
McDonnell, Patrick. Me…Jane. Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 2011.
Sis, Peter. Tibet: Through the Red Box. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1998.
The author describes his father’s journey to Tibet during the 1950s and shares pages from his father’s diary.
Yaccarino, Dan. The Fantastic Undersea Life of Jacques Cousteau. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2009.