Would you ever run off to join the army, leaving your family behind? That's what nine-year-old John Lincoln Clem does in 1861. Determined to fight for his country, Johnny sneaks onto a train filled with men from the 3rd Ohio Union Regiment. Taken in by the older soldiers, Johnny becomes a drummer boy, and later, takes up his own musket. As the war rages on, Johnny experiences the brutalities of battle as well as the rampant illness and gnawing hunger in between. But the most dangerous part of Johnny’s journey is yet to come. Based on a True Story books are exciting historical fiction about real children who lived through extraordinary times in American History. This title has Common Core connections.
What would you do if your country was counting on you to deliver a message? That's sixteen-year-old Sybil Ludington’s urgent mission. In 1777, Sybil and her family believe the American colonies should be free from British control. Sybil’s father leads a regiment of New York militiamen, and everyone in the family is dedicated to the Patriot cause. Using spy tactics and codes, the Ludingtons gather intelligence, hoping to stay one step ahead of their enemies. When British troops raid nearby Danbury, Connecticut, Sybil gallops through the night to call out her father's men. But the journey is dangerous for a girl who’s all alone. With obstacles at every turn, will she make it in time to stop the British? Based on a True Story books are exciting historical fiction about real children who lived through extraordinary times in American History. This title has Common Core connections.
This beautifully illustrated children’s book explores how Walt Whitman was affected by the Civil War and inspired by President Lincoln. O Captain, My Captain tells the story of one of America’s greatest poets and how he was inspired by one of America’s greatest presidents. Whitman and Lincoln shared the national stage in Washington, DC, during the Civil War. Though the two men never met, Whitman would often see Lincoln’s carriage on the road. The president was never far from the poet’s mind, and Lincoln’s “grace under pressure” was something Whitman returned to again and again in his poetry. Whitman witnessed Lincoln’s second inauguration and mourned along with America as Lincoln’s funeral train wound its way across the landscape to his final resting place. The book includes the poem “O Captain! My Captain!” and an excerpt from “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d,” as well as brief bios of Lincoln and Whitman, a timeline of Civil War events, endnotes, and a bibliography.
'Listen, Leaf,' Pritchard said, 'the hash is neither here nor there. You're in a lot more trouble than possession of a bit of dope. You've got big problems, man... big problems.' He looked at me with something akin to sympathy. 'How did you get into such a fix?' I'd been asking myself the same question. Operation Julie in 1977 remains Britain's biggest ever drugs bust. The work of eleven police forces, it resulted in the break-up of one of the largest LSD co-operatives in the world, the arrest of 120 people and, according to reports, the seizure of six million trips' worth of LSD crystal, valued at £100 million. Overnight, the price of a tab went from £1 to £5. This is the first insider account of how it felt to be caught up in - and by - Operation Julie.
“Nothing short of a masterpiece.” —NPR Books A New York Times Bestseller and a Washington Post Notable Book of the Year In the most ambitious one-volume American history in decades, award-winning historian Jill Lepore offers a magisterial account of the origins and rise of a divided nation. Widely hailed for its “sweeping, sobering account of the American past” (New York Times Book Review), Jill Lepore’s one-volume history of America places truth itself—a devotion to facts, proof, and evidence—at the center of the nation’s history. The American experiment rests on three ideas—“these truths,” Jefferson called them—political equality, natural rights, and the sovereignty of the people. But has the nation, and democracy itself, delivered on that promise? These Truths tells this uniquely American story, beginning in 1492, asking whether the course of events over more than five centuries has proven the nation’s truths, or belied them. To answer that question, Lepore wrestles with the state of American politics, the legacy of slavery, the persistence of inequality, and the nature of technological change. “A nation born in contradiction… will fight, forever, over the meaning of its history,” Lepore writes, but engaging in that struggle by studying the past is part of the work of citizenship. With These Truths, Lepore has produced a book that will shape our view of American history for decades to come.
When we hear the term “child soldiers,” most Americans imagine innocent victims roped into bloody conflicts in distant war-torn lands like Sudan and Sierra Leone. Yet our own history is filled with examples of children involved in warfare—from adolescent prisoner of war Andrew Jackson to Civil War drummer boys—who were once viewed as symbols of national pride rather than signs of human degradation. In this daring new study, anthropologist David M. Rosen investigates why our cultural perception of the child soldier has changed so radically over the past two centuries. Child Soldiers in the Western Imagination reveals how Western conceptions of childhood as a uniquely vulnerable and innocent state are a relatively recent invention. Furthermore, Rosen offers an illuminating history of how human rights organizations drew upon these sentiments to create the very term “child soldier,” which they presented as the embodiment of war’s human cost. Filled with shocking historical accounts and facts—and revealing the reasons why one cannot spell “infantry” without “infant”—Child Soldiers in the Western Imagination seeks to shake us out of our pervasive historical amnesia. It challenges us to stop looking at child soldiers through a biased set of idealized assumptions about childhood, so that we can better address the realities of adolescents and pre-adolescents in combat. Presenting informative facts while examining fictional representations of the child soldier in popular culture, this book is both eye-opening and thought-provoking.
History comes alive for kids like no textbook can in this epic account of the American Civil War that's perfect for history buffs and reluctant readers! From courageous cavalry rides deep into enemy territory to harrowing covert missions undertaken by spies and soldiers, the events of the American Civil War were filled with daring figures and amazing feats. This exhilarating overview covers the biggest battles as well as captivating lesser-known moments to entertain kids with unbelievable (and totally true) tales of one of America's most fascinating conflicts. History buff, Civil War reenactor, and popular blogger Ben Thompson uses his extensive knowledge and vivid storytelling style to bring the Civil War to life in this first book in a thrilling new series featuring incredible people, events, and civilizations. Get ready to learn just how awesome history can be!
Winner of the Grateful American Book Prize This moving story of two young Union soldiers “joins other great middle grade novels about the Civil War”—an “excellent” read “for all fans of historical fiction who enjoy a hint of romance.” (School Library Journal) Leander and Polly are two teenage Union soldiers who carry deep, dangerous secrets . . . Leander is underage when he enlists; Polly follows her father into war, disguised as his son. Soon, the war proves life changing for both as they survive incredible odds. Leander struggles to be accepted as a man and loses his arm. Polly mourns the death of her father, endures Andersonville Prison, and narrowly escapes the Sultana steamboat disaster. As the lives of these young, brave soldiers intersect, each finds a wealth of courage and learns about the importance of loyalty, family, and love. Like a River is a lyrical atmospheric first novel told in two voices. Readers will be transported to the homes, waterways, camps, hospitals, and prisons of the Civil–War era. They will also see themselves in the universal themes of dealing with parents, friendships, bullying, failure, and young love.
Everyone has heard of Gettysburg, but for sheer ferocity of fighting, it is tough to match the horrendous stories of what happened in the fight for Tennessee in the battles of Stones River and Chickamauga. This is the story of two very different armies, and their equally different commanders. The Unions Army of the Cumberland, led by the charismatic, but highly excitable William Starke Rosecrans faced off against the Confederate Army of Tennessee, and their hot-tempered and irascible commander; Braxton Bragg., and neither side was willing to back off. As 1862 ends, and the birth of a new year of the war looms on the horizon, an end to the bloodletting is nowhere in sight. It was a year that had just seen the April horrific fight at Shiloh, the incredible ineptness of McClellan in the Peninsula /Seven Days Campaign, the September bloodbath known as Antietam, and President Lincolns launch of a huge gamble in the Emancipation Proclamation, all followed by the near disaster for the Union at Fredericksburg. It would be followed by a year that would see death, destruction, and a level of ferocity in warfare on a scale never before seen on the American continent. Of all the major battles of the Civil War, Stones River had the highest percentage of casualties on both sides. Although the battle itself was inconclusive, the Union Army's repulse of two Confederate attacks and the subsequent Confederate withdrawal were a much-needed boost to Union morale after the defeat at the Battle of Fredericksburg, and it dashed Confederate aspirations for control of Middle Tennessee. Names such as the Dragons Teeth, Slaughter Pen, the Round Forest, and the Orphans Brigade would enter the American lexicon. The battle was very important to Union morale, as evidenced by Abraham Lincoln's letter to General Rosecrans: "You gave us a hard-earned victory, which had there been a defeat instead, the nation could scarcely have lived over." The Confederate threat to Kentucky and Middle Tennessee had been nullified, and Nashville was secure as a major Union supply base for the rest of the war. The two armies would come back after a spring and summer 1863 series of moves and counter-moves after Stones River, and it would culminate later in September, 18-20, 1863 in the Battle of Chickamauga. The fight marked the end of a Union offensive in southeastern Tennessee and northwestern Georgia called the Chickamauga Campaign. The battle was the most significant Union defeat in the Western Theater of the American Civil War and involved the second-highest number of casualties in the war following the Battle of Gettysburg. Names such as Snodgrass Hill, The Rock of Chickamauga, and Horseshoe Ridge would join with other famous American fight names such as the Hornets Nest and Bloody Lane. It was the first major battle of the war that was fought in Georgia, and would be the last major victory for the Confederacy in the West.This is the story of individuals, men like Rosecrans and Bragg, but also of George Thomas, who will demonstrate his rock-like steadiness in strife and the fiery combative leadership of a Philip Sheridan. It is the story of the compassion and care for his men of a John Breckinridge, and the steadfast resoluteness of a Mary Walker to prove that a woman can be as capable as any man as a doctor on a battlefield. It is the stories of Ben Helm, Lincolns brother-in-law, Hans Christian Heg, the towering leader of Norwegian descent, the hard-fighting Nathan Bedford Forrest and Roger Hanson. It is the story of Richard Kirkland, the Angel of Maryes Heights and Fredericksburg fame, of John Lincoln Clem, the young drummer-boy-turned infantryman, of John Wilder and his hot firing and hard fighting dragoons, and the two Jefferson Daviss, Daniel Harvey Hill, John Bell Hood, Leonidas Polk, and James Pete Longstreet.
