American Adventures Books from Brooke-Richards Press

American Adventures: True Stories from America's Past, 1770-1870
American Adventures: True Stories from America's Past Part 2: 1870 to Present
American Heroes: 1735-1900

American Adventures: True Stories from America's Past, 1770-1870 by Morrie Greenberg. This 8½ x 11 size softcover book contain 15 high-interest stories from America's history that are not widely known. They are designed to appeal to those who can't seem to get into the regular texts provided in most secondary history courses. Each short story is preceded by a time line to put it into the correct historical context, and a paragraph to describe what else was happening during the period in which the story takes place. (This is in a box to make it easy to find.) After each story are some suggested writing/journal activities, some vocabulary or comprehension activities, some discussion activities, and some related group activities. Each story also has a black and white illustration. BTH-198. $8.96-D

   Stories are included on the following subjects:

•         Families from Mexico start settlement in California in 1781.

•         George Washington dies at Mt. Vernon in 1799

•         Johnny Appleseed begins distribution of apple seeds in 1800

•         Decatur killed in duel in 1820.

•          Sam Patch drowns in 1829

•         Daughters leave farms to work at Lowell factory in 1830's

•          Elizabeth Blackwell enters medical school in 1847

•         The California Gold Rush begins in 1849

•         The first "orphan train" leaves New York in 1854. 

•         The first camels are brought to the American West. in 1856

•         "Emperor Norton" begins his rule in San Francisco in 1859

•         Thousands are killed and wounded at the Battle of Antietam in September,1862

•         In 1864 the submarine Hunley sets out from Charleston Harbor to sink Northern ship.

•         Nightriders raid Missouri farm, taking mother and baby in 1865

•         The Trans-Continental railroad is completed in 1869.

American Adventures: True Stories from America's Past Part 2: 1870 to Present by Morrie Greenberg.
This has the same format and types of actvities and illustration as the first book, above. BTH-199, $8.96-D

Here are the stories:

•         Abigail Duniway tries to gain suffrage rights for women in Oregon in 1872.

•         An invasion of locusts threatens farm crops in 1974

•         Thousands of settlers rush for land in Oklahoma in 1889.

•         By 1890 almost all of America's buffalo have disappeared.

•         President McKinley is assassinated and Theodore Roosevelt becomes the youngest president in 1901.

•         The Triangle Company factory fire rages in 1911.

•         Pilot Lincoln Beachey attempts daredevil dive off San Francisco Bay in 1815.

•         Ponzi promises huge profits to investors in 1920.

•         Franklin D. Roosevelt becomes President in 1933.

•         German saboteurs land in New York and Florida in 1942.

•         Rosa Parks makes her courageous Civil Rights stand by refusing to move to the back of the bus in 1955.

•         In 1966, Corporal Fernandez acts heroically in battle during the Vietnam war even as citizens protest at home

•         The first astronauts land on the moon in 1969.

•         San Diego police officers make heroic rescues in 1988.

•         The Shuttle Endeavor astronauts repair the Hubble Telescope in space in 1993.

American Heroes: 1735-1900 by Morrie Greenberg. This book has the same format as the two books above, but deals with the people who made American history and some of the issues of history that were meaningful to them. There is a brief introduction to each person before the story where he/she is featured. Each story centers on one important incident in the subject's life. Here are the people covered: Peter Zenger, George Washington, Benjamin Banneker, Dolley Madison, Cyrus McCormick, Charles Goodyear, Dorothea Dix, Robert E. Lee, Clara Barton, Henry Bergh, Chief Joseph, Jacob Riis, John Muir, Charles Steinmetz, and Walter Reed. BTH-200. $8.96-D

American Characters: They Marched to a Different Drummer 1850-1950 by Morrie Greenberg. Brooke-Richards Press, 2007. This 8.5 x 11 size softcover book contains 15 high-interest stories about American historical figures that are not widely known. They are designed to appeal to those who can't seem to get into the regular texts provided in most secondary history courses. Each short story is preceded by a time line to put it into the correct historical context, and short paragraphs to describe what else was happening during the period in which the story takes place. After each story are some suggested writing/journal activities, some vocabulary or comprehension activities, some discussion activities, and some related group activities. Each story also has a black and white illustration. The activities are designed to make students think about and respond to what they have read -- not just parrot it back. People introduced are Laura Bridgman, JOhn Solomon Rarey. George Hull, Elizabeth Custer, Sarah Winchester, Hetty Green, Jim Brady, Nellie Bly, Carry Nation, Barney Oldfield, Ishi, Bessie Coleman, "Shipwreck" Kelly, "Dizzy" Dean, and Korezak Ziolkowski. 32 pages. BTH-5642. $8.96-D