Brief Description: Short non-fiction stories of well-known and obscure people and events from American history
Geographical Setting: Alabama, Alaska, Boston, Brooklyn Bridge, California, Caribbean Islands, Central America, Chicago, Columbia River, Cuba, Ellis Island, Erie Canal, Florida, Illinois, Iwo Jima, Jamestown, Johnstown, Kennewick, Little Bighorn Battlefield, Massachusetts, Montana, Montgomery, Mount Saint Helens, New Mexico, New York, North America, Panama, Panama Canal, Pennsylvania, Plymouth, Roanoke, Salem, San Francisco, St. Augustine, Sutters Mill, United States, Valley Forge, Virginia, Washington, Washington DC
Historical Era: 16th Century, 17th Century, 18th Century, 19th Century, 20th Century
Date Range: 1565-2000
Keywords: 2000 Contested Election, abolition, Abraham Lincoln, African American Slavery, Al Capone, Alexander Graham Bell, American Civil War, Anne Sullivan, Apollo 11 moon landing, art and artists, atomic bomb, authors and literature, Babe Ruth, Balto, Battle of Little Bighorn, Benjamin Banneker, Benjamin Franklin, Billy Jean King vs. Bobby Riggs, Bobby Fischer, Brooklyn Bridge, Brown v. Board of Education, California Gold Rush, Carry Nation, Charles Lindbergh, civil disobedience, Civil Rights Movement, condors, Cuban missile crisis, Custer, dinosaurs, dogs, Donner Party, Dorothea Lange, Dr. Jonas Salk, Dr. Martin Luther King, Dust Bowl, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Earl Warren, Ellis Island, Elvis Presley, Emancipation Proclamation, ENIAC computer, Enrico Caruso, Enrico Fermi, Erie Canal, Fidel Castro, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Frederick Douglass, George Washington, giant redwoods, Gold Rush, Great Chicago Fire, Great Depression, Great Molasses Flood, Harry Houdini, Helen Keller, Henry Box Brown, Henry David Thoreau, Hubble Space Telescope, Iditarod Trail, interstate highway system, Iroquois, Iwo Jima, James Audubon, John F. Kennedy, John Henry, Johnny Appleseed, Johnstown flood, Jr., Kennewick Man, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Lewis and Clark, Lizzie Borden, locusts, Manhattan Project, Marian Anderson, Mark Twain, Marlon Brando, Maya Lin Vietnam Memorial, Moby Dick origin story, Mohawk, Montgomery bus boycott, Mount Saint Helens volcano eruption, Muhammad Ali, Native Americans, Natural History, Navajo code talkers, New Deal, newsies, O.K. Corral, oil gusher, P.T. Barnum, Panama Canal, Paul Revere, Pennsylvania steel, polio vaccine, Powhattan, prohibition, Pueblo Revolt, Richard Nixon, Roanoke, Rosa Parks, Sacagawea, Salem witch trials, San Francisco earthquake, Scopes Monkey Trial, sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald freighter, Sitting Bull, Sojourner Truth, Spanish American War, Spirit of St. Louis, St. Valentine's Day Massacre, Statue of Liberty, STEM, Sutter's Mill, teddy bear, Thaddeus Low, The War of the Worlds, Theodore Roosevelt, Theory of Evolution, Thomas Edison, Thurgood Marshall, too many!, transcontinental railroad, Typhoid Mary Mallon, Uncle Sam, Union balloon corps, USS Maine, Verendryes brothers, Watergate, whaling, Wilbur and Orville Wright brothers, women's suffrage, World War I
Original Publication: 2006
Suitable for Grades: 4-7th
Target Audience: Middle Grade
Librarian's Review
This collection of one hundred chronologically ordered stories starts and ends in Florida, with the 1565 founding of St. Augustine to the contested presidential election of 2000. Each story, charmingly illustrated by Roger Roth, is two to four pages long and stands on its own. A handful of stories are connected in some way to other stories. This is not a comprehensive presentation of American history, but rather the author’s own “patchwork quilt of history.”
Some of the stories are already well known, but the most interesting stories here tell of more obscure people and events, such as where the phrase “Uncle Sam” comes from, how bananas were introduced to North America, how Henry “Box” Brown got his nickname, or what inspired Herman Melville’s story about a giant whale. This would be a great book for a parent or grandparent to read aloud to young history enthusiasts.