Preface Hello Welcome to The New York Reader I was born in Brooklyn and have lived most of my life in New York so I am excited about sharing with you these stories and poems about my home state Most of the people you will read about lived a long time ago but they were once children just like you History is not a list of names and dates engraved in stone History is the story of people who lived just as we are living today people who were once children just as you are children with hopes and dreams for the future The stories poems riddles and pictures that appear in The New York Reader are fashioned after early primers which were once used to teach reading I hope you will enjoy them and share them with your family and friends Perhaps you will be inspired to write some stories and poems of your own I hope each of you will grow up to love New York as much as I do Your friend Ann E Burg iii
For my mother my first teacher and for the children in the classrooms I visit you teach me too ann To the memory of Judith Anderson extraordinary woman fine artist good friend kate iv
Table of Contents PAGE New York Pledge 1 New York Numbers 2 Manhattan Riddles 4 Hidden State Symbols 8 The Two Row Wampum Belt 11 John Peter Zenger Freedom of the Press 15 Abraham Lincoln’s Beard 19 New York Is a Mosaic Annie’s Gift 25 New York Months 32 Jacob Lawrence the Harlem Renaissance 39 Harlem Tune 44 A Boy Named Teedie 47 A Girl Named Sybil 51 Ode to New York 54 Forever Wild Amendment 56 Soft White Feathers 61 A Snowy Surprise 62 September 11 2001 80 A New York State Timeline 82 I Am a Citizen of New York 86 v
