United States

Happy Birthday, Dear Beany

Book cover: 'Happy Birthday, Dear Beany'
Author(s): 
Lenora Mattingly Weber

Beany is delighted when she hears that her dear childhood friend Miggs Carmody has moved back to Denver, but when they meet up again there is a strange wall between them. Is it because Miggs' family has become very wealthy? There is a scene in which a boyfriend shakes Beany and hurts her. It might be important to talk to your daughter about this scene and how wrong the boyfriend is no matter what Beany's faults in the situation were.

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.

Past Suspicion

Book cover: Past Suspicion
Author(s): 
Therese Heckenkamp

ISBN # 1-59286-802-9

After the death of her mother, a young woman, Robin, must travel from her home in California to a small town in Wisconsin to live with an uncle she never knew existed. She is angry and determined to escape as soon as she turns eighteen, which will be very soon. Almost immediately upon her arrival mysterious things begin to happen. She moves into the room her mother lived in as a young woman and learns a lot about her mother by going through her things. Evidently her mother kept many other secrets, besides having a brother, from her.

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.

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.

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.

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