Weird History: A Twisted Tour of America's Bizarre Past

by Matt Lake, Matt Lake

Take a wild and wacky magical history tour! Mark Sceurman and Mark Moran--whose Weird series has sold more than a million copies--show kids the stranger side of America's past. They uncover abandoned places and haunted spaces, dig up ancient mysteries, shine a light on secret societies, and tell some spine-tingling cemetery stories. So, forget presidents, wars, treaties, and other important things; this entertaining compilation gives you America's first (and only) self-proclaimed emperor, Abigail Adams' ghost at the White House, aliens attacking New Jersey, and more!

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Travel

128 pages, Hardcover

First published October 4, 2011

Reviews

[Nikki · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a huge fan of the "Weird" series. Their books are usually about weird history and current attractions in individual states I own some of those, as well as their rare board game they issued at one point. Ideally, my goal is to own the entire series. I was not expecting this one when I came across it, and just had to have it to add to my collection, which of course means it won't be available for adoption in my book box, it is staying forever on my own shelf of books I actually keep after reading.

There are fun sections about people in our history that should have been remembered better but weren't, aliens, who really was our first president of of course many other fun items. Its an easy read with lots of pictures and and easy to read format.

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book before falling asleep every night while on vacation. Super fun book.

[Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

A cute & fun kids book by the "Weird U.S.A" people - lots of ghosts mixed in with historical fact, which is a great combination.

[Christina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love reading creepy stories during spring/early summer. It reminds me of spooky campfire tales. Most shouldn’t be taken too seriously but they make for a fun read. Now onto ‘Haunted Scranton’.

[Emily Mateos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Grade/interest level: Middle School (7th-8th grade)
Reading level: None available
Genre: Information book

Main Characters: No real main characters as it describes various historical figures
Setting: Various
POV: 3rd person narration

This book has no beginning, middle, or end as it is an informational book describing interesting histories of well known historical figures. The book is divided by a table of contents so you can turn to the person of interest. This book has a very unique approach to history. It takes actual historical events and gives you the backstory to them. For example there is a story that tells about how Abraham Lincoln saw to reflections of his face and while one was normal the other was pale and ghostly looking. He also kept having dreams about his own death and finally on the night of his death, he said good bye to his security guard when he always said good night.
I think I would use this book not all at once but by sharing the short stories about the various figures we were studying at that moment. Because it has a table of contents it is easy to find what exactly you are looking for and you can easily pull out information of interest for that particular time. I think this would be a great book to use to tie in with any history because it gives students a glimpse into the unknown or often unheard tales that make up histry.

[Angie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is full of weird snippets of history and I loved it. There is a lot of information in this book on ghosts, bizarre people and places, strange happenings, and just weird things that occurred in America's history; things you aren't told about in history books. All the segments are pretty brief so if you want more information on a topic you are going to have to find it elsewhere. But this book gives you a good overview on a lot of stuff. It is organized very well with nice concise chapters and very readable text. I think kids will find it fascinating. I know there are several things I want to know more about. I loved finding out that both Reagan and Carter saw UFOs, that there's a cat haunting the U.S. Capital, and that George Washington was not our first president (he was our 9th)! I'm definitely going to have to read up on that one!

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a lot of fun. I have been reading weird trivia for years, so a lot of it wasn't completely unknown to me, but there were a couple of tidbits. The irreverent writing had me laugh out loud more than once, so they earned the fourth star. If you have a kid who thinks history is boring, throw this at them and see if something sparks their interest to find out more.

[Abraham Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

weird history book for kids.

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was very intriguing and interesting. I learned quite a few new facts.

[Kelsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tons of great facts and stories that seem to be pretty well researched (although there is a lot of ghost talk, for better or worse). Nice layout.

[Christine Crawford · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun weird facts and legends about American places and people. Written with a sense of humor.