Reddit mentions: The best children 2000s american history books

I'm a big fan of historical fiction. In my mind it serves the same focus as movies based on history--it's an introduction to a time period and may spur someone to learn more about that time period. Even historical fiction that's mostly wrong can do this.

As a kid Johnny Tremain helped to get me started on the American Revolution.

A little later Red Badge of Courage got me intensely interested in the Civil War.

To Kill A Mockingbird is both a novel of the Depression and of the historical Deep South. Not normally regarded as historical fiction, but in a way it is. Steinbeck is probably best known for The Grapes of Wrath (another bit of historical fiction about the Depression), but I think that his book In Dubious Battle tells a more interesting story of how Communism was an important part of labor movements during this time period.

Harry Mazer's The Last Bomber does a pretty good job of telling what it was like for bomber crews and is told from the perspective of a 15 year old boy who runs away to join the Air Force.

Likewise Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls is regarded as a "classic" but most people seem to forget that it's historical fiction about the Spanish Civil War.

I'm sure that Aubrey Martin will get brought up. Love the series, but I actually got into those long after my interest in the Age of Sail. I read Bernard Cornwall's Azincourt recently and found it a fantastic bit of historical fiction that does a pretty good job laying out the basics of Henry V's campaign. I can't speak to the accuracy of his other historical fiction because I haven't read it, but I know that his [Richard Sharpe](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharpe_(novel_series) series (featuring a British soldier during the Napoleonic Wars) is incredibly popular and was turned into a tv series featuring Sean Bean as Sharpe.

Eric Flint's 1632 is a bit of counter-factual fun (what if a mining town from West Virginia was dropped into the middle of the Thirty Years' War), but it helped me get interested in that time period. Of course the later books in the series don't work so well for history since it diverges so much from real events, but I find that a good counter-factual history requires a thorough understanding of the time period you're diverging from. Plus there's a great section in there on Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, a fascinating character in his own right.

There's more, but yeah I absolutely think historical fiction is an important part of teaching about history. History is more than facts and figures, it's the story of our past. What better way to tell that story than actually writing a story?

This is off the top of my head and are just my opinion,but some books from a woman's pov that have really stuck with by are:

For little girls the Flavia de Luce mystery series is really cute and a fun read. Set in the years following WWII, a 12 year old girl solves mysteries in her small English village.

As a teenager I loved the book Witch Child where a girl who is just beginning to realize she is a witch is forced to cross to colonial America with a group of Puritans and must hide what she is. I still love this book but it has more of a teenage heroine: Daphne Du Maurier's Rebecca is about a young insecure woman who becomes the second wife of a rich aristocrat, but as she tries to settle into her new life the memory of the first wife haunts her (shocking twist at the end).

Two creepy social commentary pieces that I love are: The Handmaid's Tale where a women struggles with her role in a dystopian religious extremist society. And The Yellow Wallpaper is an amazing short story told from the pov of a woman (I think in the early to mid 20th century) who is taking a 'rest cure' after having a baby. It will give you chills!

There are probably more but those are just the ones I remember at the moment.

my favourite in the category of "extreme boomer takes in the form of children entertainment" is this

>"Everyone is buzzing about the president's birthday! Especially George Washington's servants, who scurry around the kitchen preparing to make this the best celebration ever. Oh, how George Washington loves his cake! And, oh, how he depends on Hercules, his head chef, to make it for him. Hercules, a slave, takes great pride in baking the president's cake. But this year there is one problem--they are out of sugar."

http://www.amazon.com/Ben-Me-Astonishing-Benjamin-Franklin/dp/0316517305

Ben and Me was a book about Ben Franklin and his fictional mouse buddy, Amos. It is a GREAT book. Amos is a witness to history and whispers great ideas in Ben's ear while chilling in his coonskin cap. Also was a short Disney movie.

Amos is right up there with the Rats of NIMH in my book.

When I was a kid, I believed the book Ben And Me was true. In the story, a mouse named Amos gives Benjamin Franklin all his best invention ideas. At the front of the book, the author says a tiny manuscript was found in a tiny room - written by Amos, it's the story that follows.

My parents nearly got brain damage from banging their heads on the wall trying to convince me that just because it said it was true, that didn't mean it was!

The first book I ever read cover to cover in one day was a Dear America novel called Standing in the Light. It's told from the point of view of a teenage girl who was abducted by natives along with her brother and this is pretty much what happened. Without giving any spoilers (in case any of you have young daughters who love to read), they both learn a little empathy and begin to see the "savages" in a new light and think critically about their Puritan culture and the way whites treated the Native Americans. Good read.

This was my favorite book when I was young. I read it many, many times, along with this one

Uh, if I win...is erotica okay? The third part to a series I've been reading comes out tomorrow. If that's okay, let me know and I'll post the link.

Get those kids some books! But not smutty ones! Those are for grown ups.

Allan W Eckert has a lot of great books. Some historical fiction, but very accurate from what I've heard. Not only about Native Americans themselves, but also of the frontiersmen who interacted with them. Being from SW Ohio, the subjects about which he writes are very close close to where I live, which adds another layer of interest.

A few of my favorites are:

Blue Jacket: War Chief of the Shawnee https://www.amazon.com/dp/1931672202/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_VRCDCb25ES80X

A Sorrow in Our Heart: The Life of Tecumseh https://www.amazon.com/dp/055356174X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_WSCDCb0REGDMA

The Frontiersmen: A Narrative https://www.amazon.com/dp/0945084919/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_OTCDCbV1AJ3VN

Wow, this is real Amazon sells it. Maybe Steve should host it for the book club?

It bothers me that Ben and Me is more recognized as a Disney cartoon than the fucking amazing book it is. Of course, I haven't read it since I was maybe 5, so I'm going off of childhood recollections.

Probably more like "not luxurious."

Like George Washington.

yep! This is the one I remembered:
https://www.amazon.com/Indian-Captive-Story-Mary-Jemison/dp/0064461629

Could you be thinking of The Ransom of Mercy Carter? I remember reading this around the same age and my copy had a different cover, but this one does feature a body of water: https://www.amazon.com/Ransom-Mercy-Carter-Caroline-Cooney/dp/0385740468/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_t_0/137-1266025-8480011?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=ZTWTFV5NHQPVSC00GGRB

ayy lmao #1 best selling children's book

btw books meant for kids between ages 7-10 should not contain stuff that they can barely comprehend, like just how horrible slavery was back in the day.

Possibly this?

huh I was about to guess you were talking about this one

that book description

It was this book

Is it Indian Captive: The Story of Mary Jemison?

http://www.amazon.com/Indian-Captive-Story-Mary-Jemison/dp/0064461629

I've always thought that. There's a historical fiction called Night Raiders Along the Cape. Its about the Revolutionary War but the kid lives on Naushon.

http://www.amazon.com/Night-Raiders-Along-Cape-Mysteries/dp/1881889858

No, the mouse is in the book and it predates Disney! Ben and Me

Witch Child?

http://www.amazon.com/Witch-Child-Celia-Rees/dp/0763642282

The witch of blackbird pond?

Hey, I'm just as mad about the 40billion LNG facility. We absolutely shouldn't be building at either. It's hypocritical as hell and I hope Horgan and the NDP gets called out for it, hard.

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It's sad that Albertans are the ones "taking the hit", but the reality is that they've build their entire economy around the industry that's causing the problem. That's something that's been going on in Alberta for decades, organized by fossil fuel companies that KNEW that this was going to happen, but didn't care what effect it would have on Albertans when this was all going to come crashing down. They were looking out for themselves and their bank accounts, and they've had a great few decades milking Alberta of it's wealth and setting them up for failure.

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Don't be mad at BC. Don't be mad at other Canadians trying to get our country to meet it's climate commitments and responsibilities. Be mad at folks like oil lobbyist Bruce Carson, and the folks at the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, and other big oil lobbyists who caused this problem for Alberta.

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If you're interested in seeing how brutally the oil industry has fucked up the prosperity of Albertans, and drained the province of it's wealth and set it up for failure, check out:

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Oil's Deep State by the former Alberta Liberal leader Kevin Taft
After the Sands by Gordon Laxer, founder of the Parkland Institute in Alberta
The Big Stall by Donald Gutstein, SFU Professor, teaching issues of news media and propaganda analysis