United States

The Mitchells: Five for Victory

Book cover: 'The Mitchells: Five for Victory'
Author(s): 
Hilda Van Stockum
This is a charming and thoughtful story of an American family of five children during World War II (based on Hilda Van Stockum's own family) whose father is away at war. The family is very real with plenty of worries and troubles...but they manage to find joy with each other. For independent reading, it could be one your children's first full-length chapter books.Wit and wisdom make it a can't miss for adults as well (a perfect read-aloud). This has been a favorite with our family (for children as young as four or five) for many years.

The American Revolution for Kids

Book cover: The American Revolution for Kids, A History with 21 Activities
Author(s): 
Janis Herbert

What is history? A story. In The American Revolution for Kids, Janis Herbert has given us a well written, high interest story. Her style of writing is lively and interesting as wells as fair and impartial – giving us a fair and balanced picture of an emotionally turbulent time. This book offers a good overview of the time period (suitable for putting together a unit study on the time period) or interesting reading for its own sake.

Our Pioneers and Patriots

Book cover: Our Pioneers and Patriots
Author(s): 
Most Rev. Philip J. Furlong

Our Pioneers and Patriots begins with a review of Viking exploration and continues through the history of the United States to the time of President Roosevelt and the New Deal. The text is direct and factual, focusing on key people and events. Read straight through, this book would bore most children; however, when read a page or two at a time the presentation style is interesting and easily understood. Fr. Furlong has a unique way of digesting complex information into a few short sentences.

A Students' Guide to U.S. History

Book cover: A Students' Guide to U.S. History
Author(s): 
Wilfred M. McClay

In A Students' Guide to U.S. History, author Wilfred M. McClay challenges the mind of the reader to think wider, deeper and higher about the study of American history. After explaining the purpose behind this book, he elaborates on what the study of history mistakenly is thought to be, before he realigns the reader's mind to what it should be. Taking a philosophical turn of mind, he dares the reader to search for truth; to do otherwise would be folly.

The Wolfling

Book cover: The Wolfling, A Documentary Novel of the Eighteen-Seventies
Author(s): 
Sterling North
Illustrator(s): 
John Schoenherr

Wolfling is the follow up to Sterling North's Newbery Honor book Rascal. The two are loosely related in that they both take place in the wilderness of Wisconsin. Rascal is largely an autobiography of North's unusual childhood in Wisconsin in the early part of the 20th century while Wolfling takes place in the time that North's father was a boy soon after the Civil War. It is based on the letters that he sent North about his childhood.

Brave Buffalo Fighter

Book cover: Brave Buffalo Fighter
Author(s): 
John D. Fitzgerald

This story is told in the style of a journal written by a ten year old girl who travels by wagon train with her parents and her twelve year old brother from St. Joseph, Missouri to Fort Laramie (Wyoming) in 1860. The author relates a very detailed account of how life was lived on a highly organized wagon train (and some comparisons with one that was slopped together and suffered great difficulties from it). We also see the growth of character in the family (particularly the mother) who must accustom themselves to hard labor and ignoring their previous station in society.

From Sea to Shining Sea

Book cover: From Sea to Shining Sea - The Story of America
Author(s): 
Christopher Zehnder

We just finished a great history year, my two middle-schoolers and I. We tackled American History and used as our textbook Catholic School Textbook Project's From Sea to Shining Sea. I divide our school year into four quarters, so we had exactly five chapters per quarter. Every Wednesday afternoon we sat down in the sunny, bright living room and I would begin reading a chapter aloud. My two middle-schoolers would then each a take turn reading and we would have the chapter read in just over an hour.

Giant of the Western Trail

Book cover: 'Giant of the Western Trail'
Author(s): 
Rev. Michael McHugh, S.J.

Pierre-Jean De Smet (1801-1873) was a beloved missionary in the American West who brought the Gospels and the Catholic Faith to many Indians as well as fighting for peace and justice for the Indians and those suffering from the Civil War. A substantial figure in American history, many may remember from the Little House Books that the city in South Dakota that the Ingalls settled in was named after this renowned priest.

Downright Dencey

Book cover: Downright Dencey
Author(s): 
Caroline Dale Snedeker

This charming story, a Newbery Honor Book for 1928, has just been reprinted by Bethlehem Books. Set on the Island of Nantucket, off of Cape Cod in Massachusetts in the 1810s and 1820s, the story follows the Coffyn family in the largely Quaker community of Nantucket, and especially their daughter Dionis "Dencey". Dencey is a young girl from a proper Quaker family with a temper and a heart of gold. She befriends an outcast boy and teaches him to read in order to make up for hurting him in a fit of temper.

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