History For Kids

In September 2012, on a chilly morning, a Russian kid named Yevgeny Zhenya and his dogs were walking to school, when an awful smell made them stop. The 11-year-old wanted to find out what smelled so bad, and with the help of his furry friends, he went to explore the land. They stumbled upon a giant pair of heels that were covered in an immense pile of snow! What could such a giant thing be?

Walt Whitman was a great American poet, but many people did not get him when he was alive. His family was like most other families, but his friends were different from most other people living then. He was a teacher and reporter, and then he worked for the government. When he was a young man, he was very serious, but when he was older he liked to play around and have fun. Walt Whitman wrote many poems about America, and his most famous work was Leaves of Grass. It was a lot of poems that took him many years to finish.

This book is the story of how poet Emily Dickinson lived her life.

In many ways, Charles Lindbergh represented the best and worst of America during the first half of the 20th century. Lindbergh became famous for being an aviation pioneer whose solo flight across the Atlantic captured the imagination of an entire world, yet he was an isolationist who wanted to keep American freedoms safe for Americans and no one else. History for Kids: An Illustrated Biography of Charles Lindbergh for Children chronicles the amazing life and career of Lindbergh, his greatest highs and most notorious lows, and everything in between.

Patton was a fascinating, complicated, and controversial man whose life story ranges between genius, folly, and tragedy, with absolute determination the one constant theme. History for Kids: An Illustrated Biography of George Patton for Children profiles the amazing life and career of the American war hero, while also examining his personality and analyzing his lasting legacy.

There was little about the childhood of Phoebe Ann Mosey that indicated that she would grow up to become Annie Oakley, one of the best sharpshooters the world has ever seen and an icon of the West. By the time she had died, Annie had become so well known for her marksmanship that other important aspects of her life were largely overlooked, including her philanthropy and her training and encouragement of women. History for Kids: An Illustrated Biography of Annie Oakley chronicles all the aspects of the famous female sharpshooter’s life.

The mere mention of his name, Tutankhamun, brings to mind visions of gold and splendor and thoughts of a majestic kingdom, but the reality of this young king is something quite different. His fame has less to do with his position in history and nearly everything to do with the discovery of his tomb by Howard Carter in 1922. There are many questions and mysteries still surrounding this famous king of Egypt. Who was Tutankhamun?

During the early 20th century, groundbreaking technology revolutionized transportation both on the ground and in the sky, with new motors making automobiles and airplanes a reality in the 1910s. Around that same time, the feminist movement was underway in the United States, spearheaded by women seeking the right to vote, lobbying for the temperance movement, and trying to make their voices heard. It was at that crossroads that flight pioneer Amelia Earhart found herself in 1919.

Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) was one of the most famous Romans in his day, and posterity has been even kinder to him. Cicero was a legend in his own time for his oratory abilities, but he was also one of Rome’s most prodigious writers and political philosophers. History for Kids: An Illustrated Biography of Cicero for Children chronicles the life, work, and legacy of the famous Roman politician and philosopher.

Marco Polo (1254-1324) is an instantly recognizable name, and he is known for his travels, but it's safe to say that his influence and importance has been greatly overlooked in the nearly 700 years since he died. Born in Venice, Marco Polo was in a fortuitous position to participate in the Mediterranean trade, but he was still a young man when he went on the journey that would make him famous and greatly inspire the Age of Exploration.

Over the last 2,000 years, ambitious men have dreamed of forging vast empires and attaining eternal glory in battle, but of all the conquerors who took steps toward such dreams, none were ever as successful as antiquity’s first great conqueror. History for Kids: The Illustrated Life of Alexander the Great provides an entertaining look at the facts and myths surrounding one of history’s most famous men and conquerors, while exploring the lasting legacy he left.

John Adams has become one of the more popular presidents in history relatively recently, but it was not always so. For most of his life he was seen as a bit of an outsider, different from his fellow first presidents in his temperament, birth, life, and politics. Adams and his son were the only presidents out of the first seven who were born north of the Mason Dixon line, and he was not an easy man to understand or work with.

It would be an understatement to say that pop culture's perception of piracy and pirates has been primarily influenced by Captain Edward Teach, known to the world as Blackbeard, the most famous pirate of all time. An English pirate who terrorized the high seas near the Carolinas in the early 18th century, a period often referred to as the Golden Age of Piracy, Blackbeard was the gold standard.

In Charles River Editors' History for Kids series, your children can learn about history's most important people and events in an easy, entertaining, and educational way. The concise but comprehensive book will keep your kid's attention all the way to the end.

Today, Alexander Graham Bell is remembered almost solely for one of the few things he didn't have in his laboratory: the telephone. Long hailed as the inventor of the telephone, that accomplishment has nevertheless overshadowed a long and legendary scientific career that saw Bell contribute to a vast number of fields, ranging from geology to aeronautics. Bell also had the misfortune of being outshined by his contemporary Thomas Edison, who invented the incandescent light bulb and has gone down in history as America's greatest inventor.

In the 19th century, one of the surest ways to rise to prominence in American society was to be a war hero, like Andrew Jackson and William Henry Harrison. But few would have predicted such a destiny for Hiram Ulysses Grant, who had been a career soldier with little experience in combat and a failed businessman when the Civil War broke out in 1861. However, while all eyes were fixed on the Eastern Theater at places like Manassas, Richmond, the Shenandoah Valley, and Antietam, Grant went about a steady rise up the ranks through a series of successes in the West.

Teddy Roosevelt is remembered for being an explorer, hunter, author, soldier, president, and safari adventurer, all of which combine into one unique reputation. Roosevelt is often portrayed more as a quintessential man’s man, to the point that the legend obscures the actual man. History for Kids: The Illustrated Life of Theodore Roosevelt covers the amazing and various facets of Roosevelt’s life and career, while also looking at his personal life and assessing his ongoing legacy.

The Founding Fathers have become so revered by Americans in the last 200 years that the "Father of the Constitution" himself is often overlooked among the rest of the pantheon. Today James Madison's legacy mostly pales in comparison to the likes of George Washington, Ben Franklin, and his closest colleague, Thomas Jefferson, but Madison's list of important accomplishments is monumental. A lifelong statesman, Madison was the youngest delegate at the Continental Congress from 1780-83, and at 36 he was one of the youngest men who headed to Philadelphia for the Constitutional Convention in 1787. Despite his age, he was the Convention's most influential thinker, and the man most responsible for the final draft of the US Constitution. Along with Alexander Hamilton and John Jay, Madison was one of the most persuasive advocates for ratifying the Constitution, authoring some of the most famous Federalist Papers, and he drafted the Bill of Rights that was later added to the Constitution.

Harriet Tubman is one of the most famous women in American history, and from an early age, every American learns of her contributions to abolition and the Underground Railroad. The woman who became known as the Moses of her people personally led more than 13 expeditions to free slaves in the South, and she was so integral in helping escaped slaves achieve freedom that her name is practically synonymous with the Underground Railroad today.

The most seminal event of the last millennium might also be its most controversial. As schoolchildren have been taught for over 500 years, “In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.” In October of that year, the Italian Christopher Columbus immortalized himself by landing in the New World and beginning the process of European settlement in the Americas for Spain, bringing the Age of Exploration to a new hemisphere with him.

Thomas Edison holds a unique legacy in the United States, but there's no denying that his inventions have benefited the world as a whole. Known as "The Wizard of Menlo Park", every American knows that their nation's most prolific inventor harnessed the power of electricity to create the first light bulb. But that was just one of over 1,000 patents Edison would establish during his life, as he not only dreamed up new devices but also revolutionized the way materials were mass produced.