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Further Reading – American History

OPTIONAL ADDITIONAL READING FOR INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN HISTORY (LEVELS 1 AND 2)
GENERAL READING
  • Short Stories of Famous Men in History by James Reynolds — not just American history — Alexander the Great to Douglas MacArthur
  • Little People Who Became Great by Laura Large
  • Stories of Great Americans for Little Americans by Edward Eggleston

Other Resource

  • Ballads of American History with CD by Fred Cooper
YEAR ONE

Term 1 (Explorers and Pioneers)

Christopher Columbus

  • Columbus by Ingri & Edgar D’Aulaire
  • Where Do You Think You Are Going, Christopher Columbus? by Jean Fritz
  • Pedro’s Journal by Pam Conrad (Level 2)
  • He Went With Christopher Columbus by Louise Andrews Kent (Level 2)
  • By Right of Conquest by G. A. Henty (longer read aloud or for older students)

Term 2 (Stories of Virginia)

Virginia

  • A Lion to Guard Us by Clyde Robert Bulla

Pocahontas

  • Pocahontas by Ingri & Edgar D’Aulaire
  • Pocahontas by Brian Doherty
  • Pocahontas and the Strangers by Clyde Robert Bulla

Term 3 (Stories of New England)

  • If You Lived in Colonial Times by Ann McGovern

Pilgrims

  • If You Sailed on the Mayflower by Ann McGovern
  • Squanto, Friend of the Pilgrims by Clyde Robert Bulla
  • The Thanksgiving Story by Alice Dalgliesh
  • Who’s That Stepping on Plymouth Rock? by Jean Fritz
  • The Landing of the Pilgrims [Landmark Book] by James Daugherty (Level 2)

Maine

  • Calico Bush by Rachel Field — young French girl becomes an indentured servant in Maine (Level 2)
  • The Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare (Level 2)

Connecticut

  • The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare (Level 2)
YEAR TWO

Term 1 (Stories of the Middle and Southern Colonies)

Catholic History

  • Mother Seton and the Sisters of Charity [Vision Book Series] by Alma Powers-Waters
  • Priest on Horseback by Eva K. Betz

New York

  • Peter Stuyvesant: Dutch Military Leader by Arthur M. Schlesinger

Pennsylvania

  • The Cabin Faced West by Jean Fritz

Ben Franklin

  • Benjamin Franklin by Ingri & Edgar D’Aulaire
  • Ben Franklin of Old Philadelphia by Margaret Cousins
  • What’s the Big Idea, Ben Franklin? by Jean Fritz
  • Ben and Me by Robert Lawson
  • Poor Richard by James Daughtery (Level 2)

Term 2 (Stories of the French in America; The Struggle for Liberty)

  • Calico Captive by Elizabeth George Speare

Catholic History (Level 2)

  • Kateri Tekakwitha: Mohawk Maid [Vision Book Series] by Evelyn M. Brown
  • Louis Jolliet & Father Jacques Marquette by Daniel E. Harmon
  • Father Marquette and the Great Rivers [Vision Book Series] by August Derleth
  • St. Isaac and the Indians [Vision Book Series] by Milton Lomask

Mississippi (Level 2)

  • La Salle and the Exploration of the Mississippi by Daniel E. Harmon

French and Indian War

  • The Matchlock Gun by Walter Edmonds
  • Madeleine Takes Command by Ethel Brill (great family read aloud, also on audiobook)

Native Americans (Level 2)

  • Om-Kas-Toe by Kenneth Thomasma
  • The Book of Indians by Holling C. Holling
  • Indian Boyhood by Charles Eastman

Boston Tea Party (Level 2 or 3)

  • Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes

Paul Revere

  • And Then What Happened, Paul Revere? by Jean Fritz
  • Mr. Revere and I by Robert Lawson

Term 3 (Stories of the Struggle for Liberty)

  • If You Were There When They Signed the Constitution by Elizabeth Levy
  • Can’t You Make Them Behave, King George? by Jean Fritz
  • Shh! We’re Writing the Constitution by Jean Fritz
  • Will You Sign Here, John Hancock by Jean Fritz
  • Where Was Patrick Henry on the 29th of May? by Jean Fritz
  • Why Don’t You Get a Horse, Sam Adams? by Jean Fritz
  • The Winter at Valley Forge by James Knight
  • Toliver’s Secret by Esther Wood Brady
  • Phoebe the Spy by Judith Berry Griffin

American Revolution (Level 2)

  • The American Revolution [Landmark Book] by Bruce Bliven
  • Guns for General Washington by Seymour Reit
  • John Paul Jones by Norma Jean Lutz
  • Ethan Allen by Virginia Aronson
  • The Reb and the Redcoats by Constance Savery

George Washington

  • George Washington by Ingri & Edgar D’Aulaire
  • Meet George Washington by Joan Heilbroner
  • The Bulletproof George Washington by David Barton (Level 2)
YEAR THREE

Term 1 (Stories of the US Under the Constitution)

  • Carry On Mr. Bowditch by Jean Lee Latham (Level 2)
  • Amos Fortune, Free Man by Elizabeth Yates (Level 2)

Thomas Jefferson

  • Meet Thomas Jefferson by Marvin Barrett

Mexico / Texas

  • Susanna of the Alamo: a True Story by John Jakes
  • The Mexican Story by May McNeer and Lynd Ward — Catholic perspective

Term 2 (Gold Rush; Civil War)

  • Turn Homeward Hannalee by Patricia Beatty

Westward Expansion

  • Moccasin Trail by Eloise Jarvis McGraw
  • Buffalo Bill by Ingri & Edgar D’Aulaire
  • Incredible Journey of Lewis and Clark by Rhoda Blumberg (Level 2)
  • Pioneers Go West [Landmark Book] by George R. Stewart (Level 2)

Gold Rush

  • By The Great Horn Spoon by Sid Fleischman – great read-aloud for all ages

Underground Railroad

  • Freedom Train: The Story of Harriet Tubman by Dorothy Sterling

Abraham Lincoln

  • Abe Lincoln by Ingri & Edgar D’Aulaire
  • Lincoln: a Photobiography by Russell Freedman (Level 2)
  • Abe Lincoln [Landmark Book] by Sterling North

Civil War

  • The Monitor and the Merrimac by Richard Conrad Stein
  • Across Five Aprils by Irene Hunt
  • Behind Rebel Lines by Seymour Reit
  • The Perilous Road by William O. Steele
  • This Hallowed Ground: The Story of the Union Side of the Civil War by Bruce Catton – gives a sense of the political forces behind events, all written in an accessible but engaging style. Out of print.
  • Gettysburg [Landmark Book] by MacKinlay Kantor

Term 3 (Civil War to World War I)

Catholic History

  • Katie, The Young Life of Mother Katharine Drexel by Claire Jordan Mohan
  • Mother Cabrini: Missionary to the World [Vision Book Series] by Frances Parkinson Keyes

World War I

  • World War I by Kent

Other

  • Shades of Gray by Carolyn Reeder
  • Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink
  • Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry by Mildred Taylor
  • The Terrible Wave by Marden Dahlstedt — Johnstown, Pennsylvania flood of 1889
  • Hero Over Here by Kathleen Kudlinski
  • You Want Women to Vote, Lizzie Stanton? by Jean Fritz
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