Wrapping your head around centuries of American history can make you dizzy. You need to know about the land (828,000 acres from the Louisiana Purchase alone), the people (from the earliest American Indian peoples to the immigrants of the last few centuries), and the high stakes (from a risky revolution to an international space race). How can all these dates and details make more sense? Infographics! The charts, maps, and illustrations in this book tell a visual story to help you better understand key concepts about our country's history. Crack open this book to explore mind-boggling questions such as: • What can we learn about America's earliest peoples based on what they left behind? • Why did people come to the United States? • How did American inventions change the world? The answers will help you see straight!

Bestselling author Katherine Applegate presents Home of the Brave, a beautifully wrought middle grade novel about an immigrant's journey from hardship to hope. Kek comes from Africa. In America he sees snow for the first time, and feels its sting. He's never walked on ice, and he falls. He wonders if the people in this new place will be like the winter – cold and unkind. In Africa, Kek lived with his mother, father, and brother. But only he and his mother have survived, and now she's missing. Kek is on his own. Slowly, he makes friends: a girl who is in foster care; an old woman who owns a rundown farm, and a cow whose name means "family" in Kek's native language. As Kek awaits word of his mother's fate, he weathers the tough Minnesota winter by finding warmth in his new friendships, strength in his memories, and belief in his new country. Home of the Brave is a 2008 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.

Learn how the United States ended up fighting for twenty years in a remote country on the other side of the world.The Vietnam War was as much a part of the tumultuous Sixties as Flower Power and the Civil Rights Movement. Five US presidents were convinced that American troops could end a war in the small, divided country of Vietnam and stop Communism from spreading in Southeast Asia. But they were wrong, and the result was the death of 58,000 American troops. Presenting all sides of a complicated and tragic chapter in recent history, Jim O'Connor explains why the US got involved, what the human cost was, and how defeat in Vietnam left a lasting scar on America.

Learn about the events which lead up to the Revolutionary War, the decisive battles, and the personalities involved on both sides.Even before the first glorious ring of the Liberty Bell, America was a land of freedom and promise. The Cornerstones of Freedom series explores what inspires people from all over the world to start life anew here, endure the economic and social upheavals, and defend the land and rights that are unique to the United States of America.

It’s 1863, and the Civil War has torn apart the United States. For two years, the Confederacy and the Union have battled over slavery and states’ rights. Will you: Fight for the Union at the Battle of Gettysburg? OR Serve with Stonewall Jackson as a Confederate soldier at the Battle of Chancellorsville? OR Try to survive the siege of Vicksburg, Mississippi, as a civilian?