I've just updated A HISTORY OF US to include some new stories, especially those on people who haven't had their full story told, like Native Americans and African Americans. I've been astounded by some of what I've learned, I think you will be too.
My husband and I live most of the year in Colorado. I grew up in Rutland, Vermont and graduated from Rutland High School. I earned a bachelor's degree in government at Smith College, a master's degree in education from Goucher College, as well as an honorary doctorate from Goucher.
I've been a teacher: in Syracuse, New York; Omaha, Nebraska; and Virginia Beach, Virginia. And I've taught in elementary school, middle school, high school, and in a community college.
I've also been a newspaper woman: a general reporter, a business reporter, and an associate editor and editorial writer at Norfolk's Virginian-Pilot.
This is the 6th book in the series that serves to show the journey of our history and it's people. It seems to fascinate and hold the attention of middle graders more so then I had anticipated. This may serve as a glance or broad overview without any burdensome weight or bore of history texts. Therefore, I'd only recommend it as such. It is an overview without delving into different matters too deeply. This is why it may resonate well for those beginning the study of American History an may wake an interest and desire to delve deeper into the materials. (That would be my hope for those I am reading it with :) )
This is an account of the American Civil War. It could also be called an Abraham Lincoln love-fest. If Ms. Hakim had anything negative to say about him, it was lost in all the accolades and pro-North sentiments. As an Illinois Yankee, I wasn't too bothered by that. But I did recall that there are other viewpoints out there and that Mr. Lincoln is hardly without fault. (Fortunately my daughter's curriculum makes the effort to present the opposing viewpoint. Sometimes to the point where I have to question their bias.) Overall, the book is as enjoyable and informative as the rest of the History of US series--an excellent introduction to American History.
I love to use these books as a broad overview to provide opportunity for my students to dig deeper into the subject using various sources. They are fun to read and connect well with middle school students by focusing on people and personal stories.
Ms. Hakim does a great job of giving a balanced account of the war (while slavery was terrible, the North was not blameless), without focusing too much on the individual battles.
This book really shows just the cultural and political importance of the civil war, one of the darkest times in our nation’s history. It shows both sides perfectly and reminds readers that even though slavery is horrible, the north still had racial prejudices. Awesome book, I highly recommend!
Like the rest of this series a good overview/review. Always some things to learn For example, I didn't know that Sam Houston lost his seat in the Senate because he spoke out against slavery.
The civil war was a sad part of our history. The truth is, the US was fighting against itself and there is no easy way to teach it to our kids. However, this book makes it easy and understandable.
This book presents the civil war with a lot of facts and some details. The details are all easy for the kids to understand and ask questions as we go along.
I love that this book includes some pictures to help the kids along. The illustrations are great and not to detailed like some of the other books we have read. A great addition to any homeschool curriculum.
I received this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are mine and were in no way influenced by outside sources. I am a professional blogger at Little Lady Plays
All wars are horrible, and the US Civil War was certainly one of the worst. Can people not learn that war is NEVER the answer? That there are many more humane, reasonable, and intelligent ways to solve conflicts without incurring the huge amounts of life, property, and resources that are destroyed during armed conflicts. We always reach some kind of resolution, treaty, and peace plan afterwards. Why not strive to achieve these things before fighting?
This is my favorite series on American History for my kids for homeschool. We don't always read the entire book, but this one we did for a four week study on The Civil War. The full color illustrations and photographs from the time period are what make this series the best I've used. My kids always hang on every word!
Amazing book on the Civil War! I loved everything about this kid history book. It's the only textbook I cried over that the tears weren't because of gratitude. Excellent, excellent book. Can't wait to read the others!
Without the sidebars, photographs and charts with explanations, the kindle version of these books suffer greatly. It's a shame they decided to lop off over half the information in favor of an easy format. Will buy print versions in the future.
I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Joy Hakim's favorite president is Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln takes on nearly god-like features in this book. I like Lincoln. I admire Lincoln. Lincoln is one of my favorite presidents. But even I know that Lincoln was human and had his flaws.
I honestly was worried this was going to be a dry history book but was pleasantly surprised that it is not. I think it is a great book covering the Civil War for upper elementary to middle school aged students.
Continuing our dive into the Civil War. I appreciate Hakim trying to take all the complexity of both sides and not wish it away without swamping younger audiences.
So one of the problems of doing our own school is that there is so much cool stuff to study and I have to choose what we're going to cover. This is one of the best, concise books of Civil War history I have ever seen! It has 30 chapters, I could have done two chapters a week for a 15 week semester and had an entire semester class on the Civil War all by itself. This book plus a couple of books from the library would have given me enough material for an entire year studying the Civil War. If you ever find it in your library, or hey, it's not that expensive, read it! It will help you understand so much more of what was going on, you'll have faces to put with names, and a profound appreciation for how our country got to be where it is.
Middle-school history focusing on the Civil War. I still find her way of jumping around a bit disjointing but I think the presentation of the material worked better for this one than previous ones. It allowed the horror of the war to be told but she broke it up with other information to keep it from being overwhelming for the intended age group. There was a lot more information on the Generals and who they were both before and during the war which I think is good to show that none of these people were evil although the things that happen during a war certainly are but that they each thought they were trying to do the right thing for their side. I found it to be fairly balanced over all with lots of good information.