American history

Book Review: Major Events in American History by Megan DuVarney Forbes

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50 important events that shaped American history for kids 8 to 12

Learning about US history can help us understand why things are the way they are today—and how we can make them better. From the founding of the city of Cahokia and the formation of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy to the modern Black Lives Matter movement, this kid-friendly journey takes young learners through nearly 1000 years of American history, one key event at a time.

Go beyond other American history books with:

  • 50 key events—Kids will learn about Indigenous peoples, colonial life, the rise of the United States on the world stage, amazing inventions, and more.
  • History revealed—This book helps young readers gain more perspective on events with direct quotes from people who actually lived through them.
  • Ways to learn more—Each of these defining moments comes with suggestions for other books to read or museums to visit.

Help children discover America’s incredible legacy with this top choice in kids’ history books.

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My Review

I chose to read this book after receiving a free e-copy from Callisto Publisher’s Club. All opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased.

This book is divided into sections: Early America (1050-1600), Colonial America (1600-1763), American Revolution (1963-1787), National Expansion (1803-1857), Civil War and Reconstruction (1860-1877), Industrial America (1876-1896), Progressive Era (1903-1930), The Great Depression and World War II (1929-1945), Post-War America (1945-1991), America in the 21st Century (2001-present). There’s a lot of history contained in these sections, and I’m sure it was a daunting task to decide which 50 events to include.

After the table of contents is a brief summary of each time period. I learned a lot about early America that I didn’t know. Did you know that 1000 years ago there was a city of about 20,000 people in North America near where St. Louis is now? At the end of each section is “Explore More” which lists museums, books, etc., where more information can be found about that time period.

While there are a lot of interesting facts in this book, it is not “just the facts.” The book is swayed by the author’s beliefs. In books for adults that wouldn’t bother me as much, but children are impressionable and children’s nonfiction books should be straightforward without the author’s viewpoint.

About the Author

Megan DuVarney Forbes is a historian and middle school teacher in Southern California. She received her master’s degree in US history from California State University, Fullerton, where she specialized in the history of the US Virgin Islands. Megan is a frequent presenter on empowering students in their own identities through social justice, history, and literature. She loves to share ideas with other educators around the world on YouTube and Instagram and through her blog, Too Cool for Middle School. She loves to read, design, and spend time with her husband and five-year-old son. She is currently enjoying her 10th year of teaching middle school history and English. You can follow her on Instagram @TooCoolForMiddleSchool.

Book Review: The History of the Constitution by Lisa Trusiani

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Discover the history of the Constitution―an introduction for kids ages 6 to 9

On September 17, 1787, 39 delegates signed the Constitution of the United States into law. These four pages of rules would define how the United States government worked and serve as the foundation for all the rights that we enjoy today. This colorfully illustrated story takes kids on a journey through the writing of the Constitution, how it was amended with the Bill of Rights, and the ways it still shapes life in the United States.

This exploration of the constitution for kids features:

  • A visual timeline―Kids will easily understand important details of the Constitution’s history with a timeline that covers everything from the writing of the first draft to how it has influenced modern Supreme Court rulings.
  • Core curriculum―This book teaches kids about the Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How behind the Constitution, then tests their knowledge with a quick quiz after they finish.
  • Lasting changes―Kids will explore thought-provoking questions that help them better understand how the Constitution protects them and their rights.

Introduce kids to the Constitution with this history book for early readers.

Amazon

My Review

I chose to read this book after receiving a free e-copy from Callisto Publisher’s Club. All opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased.

This introduction of the Constitution for new readers has a lot of good information. It starts with the colonies, the Revolutionary War, and the Articles of Confederation. It explains that after the Revolutionary War was won that the Constitution was needed to make the national government stronger and the state governments weaker so that they would actually be united.

The delegates at the Constitutional Convention got a lot done in just three months. They had to make compromises, such as the issue of slavery which was already a hot issue. They also came up with the three branches of government that we still have today. The Bill of Rights is also explained.

There are some extras in The History of the Constitution that will encourage children to learn. Some of the words are bold which means they are in the glossary in the back. There are also timelines and graphics called “Who,” “Where,” and “When.” Occasionally there’s an arrow with “Jump in the Think Tank” suggestions, which encourage children to think about what they might do in a given situation. There’s a quiz at the end as well as additional Think Tank questions.

There is a lot to learn about the Constitution and how it was made, and this book is a good start to learning about its history.

About the Author

Lisa Trusiani has written hundreds of comics stories and nonfiction books for children. Her work has received the iParenting Media HOT Award, National Parenting Center Award, NAPPA Parenting Publishing GOLD Award, several Parents’ Choice Awards, and the Lupine Honors Award from the Maine Library Association. She is happiest writing for children and spending time with her family and friends. Lisa feels completely at home in her birthplace, the great state of Maine; her father’s ancestral village, San Polo dei Cavalieri, Italy; and her heart space, Maplewood, New Jersey.

About the Illustrator

Isabella Grott was born in 1985 in Rovereto, a small town in northern Italy. As a child, she loved to draw and play outside with Perla, her beautiful German Shepherd. She studied at Nemo Academy of Digital Arts in the city of Florence, where she currently lives with her cat, Miss Marple. She works digitally but also with traditional tools, such as pencils, watercolors, and crayons. Isabella loves traveling, watching movies, and reading—a lot! In fact, if she hadn’t become an illustrator, today she would certainly be a librarian!

Guest Post: The Research Process by Andrew Joyce

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Andrew Joyce has written guest posts for me in the past and he always does a wonderful job. I’m hoping to be able to find the time to read his books at some point since I can already tell I like his writing style. 

 

My name is Andrew Joyce and I write books for a living. I would like to thank Dawn for allowing me to be here today to promote my latest, Yellow Hair, which documents the injustices done to the Sioux Nation from their first treaty with the United States in 1805 through Wounded Knee in 1890. Every death, murder, battle, and outrage I write about actually took place. The historical figures that play a role in my fact-based tale of fiction were real people and I use their real names. Yellow Hair is an epic tale of adventure, family, love, and hate that spans most of the 19th century.

Now that the commercial is out of the way, we can get down to what I really came here to talk about: the research that goes into writing an historical novel or an action/adventure novel that uses an historical event as a backdrop.

I want to say that I learned the hard way how important proper research is. But it wasn’t really that hard of a lesson. In my first book, which takes place in the last half of the 19th century, I made two mistakes. I had the date of an event off by one year and I had my hero loading the wrong caliber cartridge into his Winchester rifle. I would have gone blissfully throughout life not knowing how I had erred if not for my astute fans. Both mistakes were quickly pointed out to me in reviews of the book. One guy said he would have given me five stars if not for the wrong caliber bullet mistake. I had to settle for only four stars. Lesson learned!

Before I get into telling you about the year-long research I did for Yellow Hair, I’d like to tell you how I researched my second and third books and describe what that research entailed.

My second book was a western and the protagonist was a woman. The research took about three months. I had to know everything from women’s undergarments of the late 19th century to prison conditions for women in those days. (I sent my heroine to jail.) That kind of research was easy. Thank God for the internet. But then I had to do some real research. Molly (my protagonist) built up her cattle ranch to one of the largest in Montana, but she and her neighbors had nowhere to sell their beef. So Molly decided to drive her and her neighbors’ cattle to Abilene where she could get a good price. She put together the second largest herd on record (12,000 head) and took off for Abilene.

That’s when I had to really go to work. I wanted my readers to taste the dust on the trail. I wanted them to feel the cold water at river crossing. I wanted them to know about the dangers of the trail, from rustlers to Indians to cattle stampedes.

This is how I learned about all those things and more. First of all, I found old movies that were authentic in nature. I watched them to get a feel for the trail. Then I read books by great authors who had written about cattle drives to soak up even more of the atmosphere of a cattle drive. That was all well and good, but it still did not put me in the long days of breathing dust and being always fearful of a stampede.

That’s when I went looking for diaries written by real cowboys while they were on the trail. After that, I found obscure self-published books written by those cowboys. Then it was onto newspaper articles written at the time about large cattle drives. That’s how I had Molly herd the second largest cattle drive. I discovered that the largest was 15,000 head, driven from Texas to California in 1882.

My next book took place in the Yukon during the Klondike Gold Rush of 1897. Here new elements were added such as wolves and the extreme weather as adversaries. Dogsledding was also involved. I have seen snow only three times in my life and I have never dogsledded. I knew even less about wolves. I had to learn about those things. I had no idea what it was like to travel across a wilderness on a dogsled at seventy degrees below zero. I also had to acquire knowledge about the dogs themselves, especially the lead dog. I learned about all that by doing the same things I did for my second book. The old diaries were the most helpful. As to the gold rush, there was plenty of material in the form of self-published books by some of the participants. Some were never even published, but I found copies of them in the archives of universities and historical societies. Again, newspaper stories printed at the time were very useful. Concerning wolves . . . I read everything I could get my hands on about wolves—their habits, the pack hierarchy, the alpha male, and the different jobs or tasks the males and females have while hunting.

1yellowhair-800-cover-reveal-and-promotionalNow we come to Yellow Hair. As I mentioned above, the book is about the Sioux Nation from 1805 to 1890. I had to know both points of view, the white man’s and the Sioux’s. Getting to know the whites’ take on things was easy. There are many, many books (non-fiction) that were written at the time. I even found a book written by Custer detailing his strategy for wiping out the Sioux entirely. That was hard reading. And, again, there were universities and historical societies whose archives were a great help.

As to the Sioux’s point of view, there are a few books that were dictated to newspapermen years later by the Indians that took part in the various battles that I weave into my story. I found a lot of material from Native American participants of the Little Big Horn, written twenty to thirty years after the fact.

But I wanted to immerse myself in the Sioux culture and I wanted to give them dignity by using their language wherever possible. I also wanted to introduce them by their Sioux names. So, I had to learn the Lakota language. And that wasn’t easy. There is a consortium that will teach you, but they wanted only serious students. You have to know a smattering of the language before they will even deign to let you in. I had to take a test to prove that I knew some Lakota. I failed the first time and had to go back to my Lakota dictionary and do some more studying. I got in on my second try.

I’m running out of space, so I reckon I’ll wrap it up. I hope I’ve given you a little insight into the research process. It’s time-consuming and sometimes frustrating. But it is also a blast. Every new discovery is like finding the motherlode.

I’d like to sign off with another commercial. The three books I alluded to above are:

I would like to thank Dawn once again for having me over and you good folks for tuning in.

Andrew Joyce

 

About the Author

 

andrew-llAndrew Joyce left high school at seventeen to hitchhike throughout the US, Canada, and Mexico. He wouldn’t return from his journey until decades later when he decided to become a writer. Joyce has written five books, including a two-volume collection of one hundred and fifty short stories comprised of his hitching adventures called BEDTIME STORIES FOR GROWN-UPS (as yet unpublished), and his latest novel, YELLOW HAIR. He now lives aboard a boat in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, with his dog, Danny, where he is busy working on his next book, tentatively entitled, MICK REILLY.

 

Links

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Barnes & Noble

iTunes

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Smashwords

http://andrewjoyce76.com

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Guest Post: Andrew Joyce’s latest book, Yellow Hair

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Andrew Joyce has written guest posts for me in the past and he always does a wonderful job. I’m hoping to be able to find the time to read his books at some point since I can already tell I like his writing style. Here’s his latest:

 

My name is Andrew Joyce and I write books for a living. Dawn has been kind enough to allow me a little space on her blog to talk about my latest, Yellow Hair.

Yellow Hair documents the injustices done to the Sioux Nation from their first treaty with the United States in 1805 through Wounded Knee in 1890. Every death, murder, battle, and outrage depicted actually took place—from the first to the last. The historical figures that play a role in my story were real people and I used their real names. I conjured up my protagonist only to weave together the various events conveyed in my fact-based tale of fiction. Yellow Hair is an epic tale of adventure, family, love, and hate that spans most of the 19th century. It is American history.

1yellowhair-800-cover-reveal-and-promotionalThe inspiration for the book came to me when I was reading a short article and it made reference to the Great Sioux Uprising of 1862. It also mentioned that the outcome involved the largest mass execution in the history of the United States. That piqued my interest.

When I started my research into the incident, one thing led to another and before I knew it, I was documenting the entire history of the Sioux, who are also known as the Dakota, vis-à-vis the relationship between them and the United States.

Because the book exists only because I read the phrase, “the largest mass execution in the history of the United States,” I’ll tell you a little about that. What follows is an extremely abbreviated version of events.

The Dakota signed their first treaty with the United States in 1805 when they sold a small portion of their land to the Americans for the purpose of building forts. It was right after the Louisiana Purchase and President Jefferson wanted a presence in the West. At the time, “the West” was anything on the western side of the Mississippi River.

In the treaty of 1805, the Dakota sold 100,000 acres to the Americans. The agreed-upon price was $2.00 per acre. But when the treaty came up before the Senate for ratification, the amount was changed to two cents per acre. That was to be a precursor for all future treaties with the Americans. There were subsequent treaties in 1815, 1825, 1832, 1837, and 1851, and basically the same thing happened with all those treaties.

In 1837, the Americans wanted an additional five million acres of Dakota land. Knowing it would be a hard sell after the way they failed to live up to the letter or spirit of the previous treaties, the government brought twenty-six Dakota chiefs to Washington to show them the might and majesty that was The United States of America.

The government proposed paying one million dollars for the acreage in installments over a twenty-year period. Part of the payment was to be in the form of farm equipment, medicine, and livestock. Intimidated, the Indians signed the treaty and went home. The United States immediately laid claim to the lands—the first payment did not arrive for a year.

The significance of the 1837 treaty lies in the fact that it was the first time “traders” were allowed to lay claim to the Indians’ payments without any proof that money was owed . . . and without consulting the Indians. Monies were subtracted from the imbursements and paid directly to the traders.

By 1851, the Americans wanted to purchase all of the Dakota’s remaining lands—twenty-five million acres. The Sioux did not want to sell, but were forced to do so with threats that the army could be sent in to take the land from them at the point of a gun if they refused the American’s offer.

“If we sell our land, where will we live?” asked the Dakota chief.

“We will set aside land for the Dakota only. It is called a reservation and it will be along both banks of the Minnesota River, twenty miles wide, ten on each side and seventy miles long. It will be yours until the grasses no longer grow,” answered the Commissioner of Indian Affairs.

The Dakota were offered six cents an acre for land that was worth at least a dollar an acre. The payment would be stretched out over a twenty year period and was to be made in the form of gold coins. One year later, in 1852, the Americans took half the reservation, the seventy miles on the north side of the river. The Dakota were now reduced from a nation of fierce, independent people to a people dependent on hand-outs from the ones who stole not only their land, but also their dignity.

The Dakota were forced to buy their food from the traders who ran trading posts at the Indian Agency the U.S. Government had set up on the reservation. All year long the Dakota would charge what they needed. When the yearly payment for their land arrived, the traders would take what they said was owed them. Subsequently, there was very little gold left for the Dakota.

By 1862, the Dakota were starving. That year’s payment was months late in arriving because of the Civil War. The traders were afraid that because of the war there would be no payment that year and cut off the Dakota’s credit. The Indian Agent had the power to force the traders to release some of the food stocks, but refused when asked to do so by the Dakota.

After they had eaten their ponies and dogs, and their babies cried out in the night from hunger, the Dakota went to war against the United States of America.

They attacked the agency first and liberated the food stock from the warehouse, killing many white people who lived there. Then bands of braves set out to loot the farms in the surrounding countryside.

Many whites were killed in the ensuing weeks. However, not all of the Dakota went to war. Many stayed on the reservation and did not pick up arms against their white neighbors. Some saved the lives of white settlers. Still, over 700 hundred whites lost their lives before the rebellion was put down.

When the dust settled, all of the Dakota—including women and children, and those people who had saved settlers’ lives—were made prisoners of war.

Three hundred and ninety-six men were singled out to stand trial before a military commission. They were each tried separately in trials that lasted only minutes. In the end, three hundred and three men were sentenced to death.

Even though he was occupied with the war, President Lincoln got involved. He reviewed all three hundred and three cases and pardoned all but thirty-eight of the prisoners.

On a gray and overcast December morning in 1862, the scaffold stood high. Thirty-eight nooses hung from its crossbeams. The mechanism for springing the thirty-eight trap doors had been tested and retested until it worked perfectly. At exactly noon, a signal was given, a lever pulled, and the largest mass execution to ever take place in the United States of America became part of our history.

 

About the Author

 

andrew-llAndrew Joyce left high school at seventeen to hitchhike throughout the US, Canada, and Mexico. He wouldn’t return from his journey until decades later when he decided to become a writer. Joyce has written five books, including a two-volume collection of one hundred and fifty short stories comprised of his hitching adventures called BEDTIME STORIES FOR GROWN-UPS (as yet unpublished), and his latest novel, YELLOW HAIR. He now lives aboard a boat in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, with his dog, Danny, where he is busy working on his next book, tentatively entitled, MICK REILLY.

 

Links

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

iTunes

Kobo

Smashwords

http://andrewjoyce76.com

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Book Review: Among the Mohegans by Howard Root

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17944593Title: Among the Mohegans: A Puritan’s Tale of Passage

Author: Howard Root

Genre: Historical Fiction

Publication Date: May 17, 2013

Description (from Goodreads):

As the youngest son of a tenant farmer in England’s Puritan heartland, twenty-year-old Jonathan Smythe foresees himself trapped forever in a life of servitude to his older brother. Anxious to temporarily escape his worries, Jonathan heads on a secret poaching trip with a friend that quickly turns disastrous when the men are captured by Lord Kingley’s thugs. After his friend is mercilessly killed, Jonathan vows revenge and later bludgeons the thugs’ leader to death. With a murder decree hanging over his head, Jonathan has no choice but to flee England.

Following his father’s plan, Jonathan travels to Barbados and begins a life of indentured servitude on his uncle’s tobacco plantation. Jonathan arrives committed to five years of hard work that begins at sunrise and is motivated by the overseer’s whip. Driven by dreams of owning fertile land without slaves, Jonathan fulfills his duty and embarks on a dangerous journey to the English colonies. But little does he know that his pilgrimage to a new life will be more demanding than he ever imagined, involving desperate battles and massacres with Native Americans after he finally reaches the Bay Colony. When Jonathan befriends Running Wolf, a Mohegan ally, he may finally find passage to his true passions and self.

In this compelling tale, a young Puritan man must face raw challenges that test his faith and life in a new world as he searches for his destiny.

Review:

I received a free copy of this book for an honest review.

I have always liked historical fiction, especially when it’s about the U.S. when it was the “New World” and Among the Mohegans didn’t disappoint me.

The story is well told and full of 17th century history. About 2/3 of the way through the book, I was thinking that although it was a good story, the characters were just characters and I wasn’t truly invested in them. That changed in the last third of the book and it went from a good book to a great book.

If you like early American historical fiction, I definitely recommend Among the Mohegans.

Available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.