Kids Books - History

I love this book

Have you witnessed JFK's assassination or even seen the video on YouTube? Well what if you could see it happen in your mind from just reading a book? The book I read was The President Has Been Shot by James L. Swanson published in 2013, with the genre being nonfiction. I have not always been a big fan of non-fiction, but after reading this book it has shown me as a reader that non-fiction can be just as interesting as fiction. I give this book 5 stars for detailed information and the quality of the details. While reading the book I never felt that there was a part that did not have much detail. The author had to have spent a lot of time finding little but specific facts. The book is mainly about John F Kennedy's assassination, but also his early life of how he became President and the aftermath and chaos from the presidents death. A very interesting feature about the book is that it explains what Lee Harvey Oswald,(JKF's assassin) did to prepare the assassination attempt. The book has exact details because in just one example states,"The third bullet sliced through John Kennedy's thatch of thick reddish-brown hair. It cut a neat hole through his scalp and perforated his skull. The velocity, the pressure, and the physics of death did the rest. The right rear side of the president's skull blew out -exploded really-tearing open his scalp, and spewing skull fragments, blood, and brains several feet into the air where it hung for a few seconds, suspended in a pink cloud."(Swanson 113.) All though this is a disturbing example there is very extreme details which make the book very accurate and more interesting to read because at times like this you feel like you did or are witnessing JFK's assassination. Another example in the book states,"She pressed her cheek against his still warm face. She kissed his body. Then she removed her wedding ring and slipped it onto one of his fingers." This information and the details given are so precise because the author of the book knows every single small fact about the assassination and the aftermath. Some of the information doesn't even matter but it shows how absolutely nothing was left out of the book. The type of reader who would like this book is someone who is interested in American history or if they would like to learn about JFK.

A memoir of a child soldier in Sierra Leone, A long way gone, by Ishmael Beah, will take you on an expedition through survival and the suffering of many people. A struggle that everyone faced but couldn’t do anything about it, it was an impossible cause. A miraculously delivery. In the telling of his story, he takes a position to view the war as an innocent child. As an innocent child he makes the reader view the story from the perspective he did. The reader will experience an understanding of the war, the suffering of many losses, and the minds of the young and elderly. This all began during the beginning of the civil war, which spreaded out fairly quick though small villages, destroying families, and small tribes which then became a bloodbath. It was a commotion and was just violent matters that couldn’t be adjusted. At the age of 10 Beah couldn’t believe what was happening, his imagination at that age didn’t have the capacity to grasp what had taken away the happiness of the refuges. Beah had to then realize that the war was real. Because of the loss of many people from the war that became so intense, the government was shortlisted and needed to recruit people. Beah was recruited at the age of 13 and was forced into combat against the rebels. In the period he was enlisted for about three years Beah was forced to take drugs in order to turn him into a master killer. Beah faced many things many don’t face at the age of 13. He faced death everyday and suffered the loss of many of his friends and family members. At the age of 13 Beah lost his innocence. You could say that it wasn’t his fault because he tells you what he wanted to live and the way he really did. He would have preferred it to be a dream and not his life story. He wrote about the line between reality and dreams but throughout days that line became to disappear. Beah Spent weeks with just a little or no sleep at all. He was just attacking village to village. For people like us we can usually wake up and forget about the dream we have or we can wake up and just keep that memory but Beah couldn’t do that, although he would really want to just wake up he can’t, that memory, that life he is really living it. Besides the violence and the killing Beah wants to know who he really is. He wants to know where he came from, his heritage, and his traditions. In telling the story of his survival, Beah weeps in his childhood memories. It makes his realize how important traditions, heritage, elders, family and especially the way he grew up. These memories just stayed as memories because he had lost his innocence fairly young. These memories were no longer available until he received rehabilitation, he then accepts himself and gives readers hope. Throughout this story, Beah’s message is very clear: he witnesses many losses, many destruction of different villages, including his own. He not only sees destruction but he sees life before war. He experiences many difficulties throughout this period. Beah watched his whole life turn upside down. The people he loved were tremendously hurt. Adults and Elders from different families, different villages were hurt as well. Many people were scared not only of the rebels but even their own family, they couldn’t trust anyone. People were afraid because no one could be themselves anymore. On different occasions Beah watched kids destroy families and villages. Children killed adults and set villages on fire. Older people were not respected, they no longer were able to give their opinion. Traditions were lost and everything was just about war now. No one cared about the values of anyone, everything was just violence and killing. Eventually Beah went to New York and was removed from the society he got so traumatized in. He was then removed from drugs and violence. He then slowly goes back into civilian life. A bit after he meets his new family, his new mother his foster mother. He faces new challenges like living with new family, new people in his life, ad a totally new civilization. He goes to school to finish high school and is faced with people who judged him for his past life. Although these challenges he still was curious about his violent past and wanted to know more about it. He couldn’t though, no one could tell him anything because they didn’t know either. In the end Beah’s leaves readers with hope as well as a feeling of encouragement. He wants people to feel a responsibility for their own society. But, he has transformed everyone. He inspired people to take action against the use of children, and take action against war.

This book honestly moved my heart. Hamilton had a rough life, but he soared above all of it and became victorious in the end of the revolution. He was a respected man, and his family, honor, and knowledge meant everything to him. Alexander was an intelligent individual: He graduated law school, he became a lawyer, he was George Washington's right hand man, and he was the first head of the Treasury Department. I am inspired by him to do the best I can in school, and I always remind myself that if he could be that successful in life, then so could I.

Its a great book. In some parts its a bit hard to read though. I like the challenge that it gives.

love it

Imagine what it’s like being on a 10 month trial for murder. This is how Lizzie Borden felt during the many months of being on trial of being suspected of killing her father and stepmother. This book is called the Borden Murders, by Sarah Miller, story about thrills and anticipation. Our protagonist, yet antagonist, Lizzie Borden, is believed to be a murderer of killing Andrew Borden and Abby borden. Our character is facing a long trial. A long, boring, but serious subject trial. At the same time, her sister is facing trial as well because she is another suspect believed to kill the parents. The weapon that Lizzie possibly used was known as the “Hoo-Doo” hatchet. It had made 40 fatal blows to Abby and 41 to Andrew by whoever had been handling the hatchet. Things take a good turn (for a little while) around the end when she is pleaded as innocent. But was it true? Was Lizzie really innocent? Because if she was truly innocent, why would she burn a dress with her parent’s blood on it? The world may just never know. Since they did not have fingerprint scanners back in those days. They wanted to just know the truth. All of this stuff happening in the city of fall river, massachusetts, in the late 1800s to early 1900s. Not something I would call fun to be in. It’s weird yet interesting how back in these days, portugese people were always watched as they were not trusted. She was not the only one suspected, as Emma borden as well, was suspected of killing abby and andrew. I would really recommend this book to anybody who really enjoys history, murder stories, or scary stories or horror stories or people who just enjoy massachusetts and it’s history. It gives you thrills and might learn things in reading in it. From 1-10 I would give it a 9.5 because some stuff I couldn’t understand some stuff it was saying, but other than that it was AWESOME!

This is an excellent book it's about a group of scientists that are building an atomic bomb in world war 2 but they are being spied by the soviets and they are racing the germans what will happen read the book to find out.

Very good!! I love resarching 9/11!

WOW this is a good book about a boy named Athur and he becomes king I recommend this book to ALL of you he becomes king by pulling a sword out of a stone and their is this wizard called Merlien he is so cool and names Athur king.