Loads of quirky, cool, and astonishing historical facts, including famous Americans, American firsts, the U.S. government, and forgotten ideas and plans.
This was a very weird book about odd facts from United States history. a lot of these facts were very suprising and i knew almost none of these. great book abd would recommend
Some of these I knew, but there are a lot more strange things I didn't--very interesting. Some of them could have used a little more explanation, but still good.
I considered simply not noting this book since it didn't take long to read and was so disappointing. But then I decided that might help someone considering purchasing this for their library or school. Don't waste your money. This is a wonderful book for very young Jeopardy wannabes but this is not much good otherwise. It has factoids with absolutely no explanation beyond a few sentences in the book. An example: p14. "In 1911, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives tried to pass a law to abolish the U.S Senate." No more info is given. There is a reference at the end to a website and a comment assuring "parents, Teachers and Librarians" that they keep this site up to date and encourage your readers to use it. This book has everything I dislike about poorly taught history. It thinks it is given fascinating info but there is no context. I suppose kids are supposed to know that the US Senate was apparently extremely unpopular at one point. Well, HOW was it unpopular? Was it a power fight between the representatives and the senators? Or was there a scandal going on at the time? Or something else? I realize that the idea is to intrigue the kids into reading more. My reaction was irritation. You mean I have to go to a commercial website to look up the info and then, since I'm a fairly sophisticated reader, unlike the primary to grade 4 kids who are likely reading this book, I would have to go elsewhere to verify the info. It wasn't that fascinating a tidbit that I'm willing to do more research. And I'm an adult who really enjoys history. It is assumed that I will naturally simply believe the info. Isn't that part of what the newest fad in education, Common Core, is trying to prevent? I could go on and on but you get my basic point by now I hope. I'm not real happy with the publisher, Child's World. They have done vastly better quality in the past. I hope this doesn't represent a change in how they produce their books. Emphatically not recommended.
Over forty facts pertaining to U. S. history, loosely grouped by topic, are presented in this compact (32 pp), colorful book. The large and bold colored fonts and lively color illustrations will appeal to intermediate readers. There are facts about presidents, American symbols, and events. Some are well-known, while others are unfamiliar and quirky. All in all, it is a good browsing book; young readers will come away knowing some facts about U. S. history, however trivial they may be. Librarians, purchase at your discretion. This title is one of the “Weird-but-true Facts” series. The other titles may be worthwhile as well.