All American History Student Reader Volume 2

by Celeste W. Rakes

Like Volume 1 in this series, All American History Volume II is designed to be engaging and is written in a comfortable style. Containing hundreds of pictures and dozens of maps, it is a complete year's curriculum for grades 6-12 when used with the Student Activity Book and Teacher's Guide. It is also adaptable for younger students.

Genres: History

Hardcover

Published January 1, 2008

Reviews

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a textbook, this is maybe one of the better ones, with relatively unbiased views of modern American history, well-ordered chapters, and lots of good photos and illustrations. But as a book to read aloud to students in order to engage them, I feel like this volume was a fail. The text does not flow easily, there are not enough primary sources or first-person viewpoints, and we found ourselves running to the web to complete what we felt was important information that was left out. (For example, there was a third astronaut on the Apollo 11 mission to the moon and his name was Michael Collins.) Maybe as a homeschooler I am more critical, or more lazy, than this particular text allows. We did enjoy the chapters that featured each individual president, and the length of most of the chapters worked for our purposes, so I am glad that we finished the volume series: It wasn't a total waste of our time. But next time I teach U.S. History, I'll be looking for something else to use.