The American Story: 100 True Tales from American History

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Both of my daughters (ages 9 and 12) very much like this book and read it frequently. It is medium-large in size (368 pages) and contains many engaging stories from American history. It is well written and the story selection is good. They love to read it in the car, at bed time, and other times of the day for a quick read. Since the book is broken into many short stories, the book is easy to browse when one's curiosity necessitates.We own both Jennifer Armstrong's "The American Stories: 100 True Tales from American History" - this book - and William Bennett's "Children's Book of America" and we easily prefer Armstrong's "The American Story." "The American Story: 100 True Tales from American History" is over three times larger than Bennett's book, and I did not like some of the content in Bennett's book. I asked my bright nine-year-old child why she likes "The American Story" more and she said, "It has more stories. It doesn't explain too many details. It just tells you."To adults the stories can seem too basic and the writing too simple. However, the excellent writing is what makes the stories so readable for children. Give it to a child and watch that child become engaged. Set it by a bedside and it will be read. Along the way, your child will learn some of the most interesting stories in American history.So I would recommend "The American Story" to readers age 7 to 13, depending on the child's reading level. A bright 13 might find the writing style too basic. For learning historical facts, my older daughter, who reads at a tenth-grade level, told me that she also likes "Don't Know Much About American History" by Kenneth Davis and "The Making of America" by Robert Johnson (with a foreward by First Lady Laura Bush).Every child should have a great collection of books, and this book belongs in that collection.

It's a large colorful book with 100 stories from our nation's history. The stories are short and easy to read aloud. There is a definite anti-religion slant. People who preach Christianity are always (from what I've read so far, maybe 25 stories) presented in a bad, or uneducated way. There is plenty of room given to say, Spanish missionaries who forced Pueblo people to work for them (obviously bad and should be remembered), but no room given to how Christian beliefs helped start our nation or write our laws. The Temperance Movement is portrayed as a silly idea led by crazy women who professed God but "didn't need him." Jonathan Edwards was "allowed to scare and harangue" people for 13 years, the Bible is portrayed as contradictory and outdated during the Scopes Trial story, etc. Some stories are too mature for my young children (8 and under) - The Donner Party, Lizzie Borden, Cannibalism from the whale ship Essex. On the plus side, if you pre-read and self-edit, there are some good stories like Henry "Box" Brown's escape from slavery or the first dinosaur find in America. (But we have found great picture books with these same stories.) We are returning this book in favor of a better one. It's not a history book so much as a collection of stories about our nation, a fun idea, but there are better options available.

I bought this and "A Child's First Book of American History" to read aloud to my son during summer break this year. This is his favorite, hands down. The stories are short and interesting, but factual. He greatly preferred this one, to the extent we dropped the other book from our reading rotation.

I hoped to use this book as a read aloud with second grade age students. I think the writing is a bit over their heads. It seems more appropriate for maybe 4th-6th graders. I found the stories interesting, but found a mistake in one of them. The story about Helen Keller says that she was blind and deaf from birth. This is incorrect; she became blind and deaf after suffering from a high fever when she was around 19 months old. Many of the stories seem to focus on the grotesque and outrageous, but I guess that's what kids like to hear. Some parents might not approve of their children being given this information. Overall, I liked the book and would use it with older children.

Highly recommend. I've been reading this to my 10 year old every night, and we are always delighted by the stories. She begs for more. The short stories are engrossing and range from funny to sad. So pleased that she is learning some history in this fun way, and I am too! We have not been reading in chronological order, but skipping around. I do think it would have been better to read in chrono order but I let my daughter take the lead. Hopefully she'll read sections again as she grows, and it will all fall into place later. Right now I am just pleased that she is enjoying history so much. This should be an excellent supplement to her classwork this coming year as she studies US history. Wonderful gift for a curious young person.

This is another one of those books that, after checking it out from the library, I knew I *had* to have my own copy. My whole family loves it! We read it together, and then map out where each of the events takes place (US Geography!). The stories are short, interesting, well written, entertaining, and informative.Occasionally I think the author left out an important event in American history, but not too often. For the most part I am surprised at how many things I am learning about our country and its idiosyncrasies, while the children keeping begging for more; "One more chapter Mom, please?!"!

Beautiful watercolor illustrations paired with mid-level elementary school text that tells interesting stories about American history. I wanted something not political and more factual. For the most part, this book sticks to that criteria, though there are some perspectives that I would have preferred from a different angle. But overall a great introduction to American history.

I bought this book for my Grandchildren who are ages 6 and 8 and are moving to the US.The short stories give a broad overview to the timeline of American history. Lovely illustrations.A previous review remarked on graphic detail of cannibalism on the story of the Donner Party. It is in fact a two line foot note at the end, and is on no way graphic.