Mar. 27, 2008

The History of Our United States

I am not a fan of history textbooks per se, but this text by ABeka Books is an outstanding example of what a history book should be. The copy I have is an hardbound edition from 1981. I purchased it at a used book sale for $1.00.  Prior to this I had a well loved soft bound edition. This book spans a large time range, which usually is why I don't like history texts, too many tidbits about too many people and not enough in depth writing and knowledge. However, this book has excellent writing and covers its topics quite well in spite of the limited number of pages. One of the very best points about this book is that it gives you a desire to learn more about the events and people written about within its pages. For example, after reading about hornbooks on page 106, we "just had to" research hornbooks more and make one of our own out of cardboard and wax paper. Although this book is intended for grade 4, we have read this through it in its entirety several times and referred to it again and again. I intend to have our 17 yr. old read through it one last time before he is finished with schooling to give a good review of American history. This is another plus of this book - the writing is interesting for ALL ages. An older student or adult does NOT feel like they are reading a children's book. I believe every household needs a copy.   Nearly every used curriculum sale has at least one copy for sale and the older editions are nearly always very CHEAP - people just don't realize what a treasure they are! ~Penni

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