Use these links to supplement and complement students’ reading of the work and to increase their overall enjoyment of literature. Challenge them to discern parallel themes, engage through visual and aural stimuli, and delve deeper into the thematic possibilities presented by the title.

Recommended Texts for Pairing

“The sugar that saturates the American diet has a barbaric history as the ‘white gold’ that fueled slavery” by Khalil Gibran Mohammad

• feature article produced as a part of The New York Times Magazine’s 1619 Project
• Compare and contrast how Sugar Changed the World and this feature treat the same topics.
• Ask students to consider whether Mohammad’s approach to history also conveys the ideas that History is Complex and Personal and that Positivity Can Come from Negativity.

Flesh and Blood So Cheap: The Triangle Fire and Its Legacy by Albert Marrin

• a nonfiction young adult book about the fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory
• Compare and contrast with the treatment of history, exploitation, and commerce in Sugar Changed the World.
• Ask students to consider whether Marrin’s approach to history also conveys the ideas that History is Complex and Personal and that Positivity Can Come from Negativity.

Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson