The American Story: 100 True Tales from American History

by Jennifer Armstrong

Book Overview

American history comes alive in these 100 true stories that define our country. This magnificent treasury tells the story of America through 100 true tales. Some are tales of triumph--the midnight ride of Paul Revere, the Wright brothers taking to the air, Neil Armstrong's first steps on the moon. Some are tales of tragedy--the fate of the Donner Party, the great fire in Chicago, the eruption of Mount Saint Helens. There are stories of inventors and...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0375812563
• ISBN13: 9780375812569
• Release Date: August 2006
• Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 3.57 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 9.3" x 10.9"
• Age Range: 8 to 12 years
• Grade Range: Grades 3 to 7

Customer Reviews

An Attempt to spin history more than a Top in motion

The book is filled with errors and poor research. What is worse, the 'author' does NOT attempt to present history but attempts to spin it for some odd political correctness theory. When I buy a book on history, for myself or for younger relatives, I want facts...NOT opinions based upon what the 'writer' determines I or others SHOULD be feeling. Save your money. This scribbler is NOT up to the standards that are demanded to write a book on history. Buy something by the late and great Historian David McCullough and read it your kids. THIS book is a bad joke

Engaging. This is the Best Book for this Type of Book

Both of my daughters (ages 9 and 12) very much like this book and read it frequently. It is medium-large in size (368 pages) and contains many engaging stories from American history. It is well written and the story selection is good. They love to read it in the car, at bed time, and other times of the day for a quick read. Since the book is broken into many short stories, the book is easy to browse when one's curiosity necessitates. We own both Jennifer Armstrong's "The American Stories: 100 True Tales from American History" - this book - and William Bennett's "Children's Book of America" and we easily prefer Armstrong's "The American Story." "The American Story: 100 True Tales from American History" is over three times larger than Bennett's book, and I did not like some of the content in Bennett's book. I asked my bright nine-year-old child why she likes "The American Story" more and she said, "It has more stories. It doesn't explain too many details. It just tells you." To adults the stories can seem too basic and the writing too simple. However, the excellent writing is what makes the stories so readable for children. Give it to a child and watch that child become engaged. Set it by a bedside and it will be read. Along the way, your child will learn some of the most interesting stories in American history. So I would recommend "The American Story" to readers age 7 to 13, depending on the child's reading level. A bright 13 might find the writing style too basic. For learning historical facts, my older daughter, who reads at a tenth-grade level, told me that she also likes "Don't Know Much About American History" by Kenneth Davis and "The Making of America" by Robert Johnson (with a foreward by First Lady Laura Bush). Every child should have a great collection of books, and this book belongs in that collection.

Beautifully written!

I can see a teacher using this in the classroom as an engaging way to introduce a new unit! The stories are told beautifully, and keep your attention. I love the note at the end in which the author tells you what happened, historically, after the story ended. The illustrations are beautiful, as well, and really add to the story. The basic events the stories are about should be well-known to most kids and adults, BUT Armstrong focuses on some of the sub-events and people that you might not be as familiar with, and that's what really kept my attention! I love that it spans from the 1500s to 2001, as well. My 12 year old daughter read this book for hours when we got it, and history isn't normally a big subject for her! Highly recommended!

Great Trivia

I got this as a gift for a 7-year old, but I read some of the stories to test out the book. Great for all ages. A lot of "I didn't know that". Good idea to learn history by learning important events such as the Great Chicago Fire, the hunt for fossils, the Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald and even a story about the real Johnny Appleseed. A very good gift for a student.

Stretched out on the floor reading for hours

I can't think of a better way to introduce young people to history's pleasures and their country's past than to read this engrossing book. History is best when it's not a dry exercise in recounting dates and names but when it becomes a living art that tells us something about the past and about ourselves, about what it means to be human in a way that we recognize as part of our own lives. Armstrong's narratives, drawn from all periods of American history, are full of facts, yes, but it is what the author does with these realities that lifts this book to the level of art. This brilliant writer has the ability to bring to life stories as familiar as that of Benjamin Franklin and as little known as the invention of the potato chip (what's more American that that?) with a narrative verve and sense of detail that makes history exciting for children and really kindles their imaginations.

Ignite a history-loving fire

Jennifer Armstrong and illustrator Roger Roth's new book makes me feel dang near obsolete. Since I got hold of a copy, it has ignited in my seven-year-old a history-loving fire much stronger than anything I've managed to spark in the past couple of years of trying. The premise of "The American Story" is simple: 400-odd years of U.S. history told through 100 stories (starting with the founding of what became St. Augustine, Florida) spread out over 358 pages. Armstrong mostly sticks to the "true tales" promised on the cover, though she does include the legend of John Henry as well as the commonly told story of the creation of the potato chip, only to dismiss that telling as hooey. What she doesn't do is stick to the stories readers might expect. There's no Christopher Columbus and no 9/11, as she ends her narrative with an optimistic take on the 2000 election. In between, there's no Gettysburg Address, Black Tuesday, Pearl Harbor, D-Day, March on Washington, Lee Harvey Oswald, or Space Shuttle disaster. Instead, Armstrong offers a magnificent mish-mash of stories both familiar and obscure. (Nobody in my house had ever heard of Boston's Great Molasses Flood of 1919, but we're glad we have now.) She connects them throughout with often surprising post-story notes glancing backwards or ahead, such as the one tying Jonas Salk's polio vaccine back to Pocahontas' death from smallpox. The ethnic and cultural balance she brings to the proceedings is eye-opening as well. As big an undertaking as this was for Armstrong (she gets bonus points for writing the first children's book -- as far as I know -- to identify Mark Felt as Deep Throat), Roth had his work cut out for him, too. His illustrations grace every story, and his style manages to be at once sober enough for the serious tales (such as the one about the Johnstown flood) and cartoonish enough for the lighthearted ones (e.g. Ben Franklin's failed attempt to electrocute a turkey). There's no better taste of what you'll find in this book than the adjacent stories from 1981 and 1982: "Pac-Man Fever" and "The Wall." The former delights in how a nation went bonkers over so simple a game and ushered in a new era of popular entertainment. In the latter, Armstrong offers a breathtaking description of the Vietnam memorial while Roth reflects the text with an equally powerful image spread over two full pages. Like the Wall itself, "The American Story" is a monumental work.