51 of 51 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Ignite a history-loving fire, August 24, 2006
Jennifer Armstrong and illustrator Roger Roth's new book makes me feel dang near obsolete. Since I got hold of a copy, it has ignited in my seven-year-old a history-loving fire much stronger than anything I've managed to spark in the past couple of years of trying.
The premise of "The American Story" is simple: 400-odd years of U.S. history told through 100 stories (starting with the founding of what became St. Augustine, Florida) spread out over 358 pages. Armstrong mostly sticks to the "true tales" promised on the cover, though she does include the legend of John Henry as well as the commonly told story of the creation of the potato chip, only to dismiss that telling as hooey.
What she doesn't do is stick to the stories readers might expect. There's no Christopher Columbus and no 9/11, as she ends her narrative with an optimistic take on the 2000 election. In between, there's no Gettysburg Address, Black Tuesday, Pearl Harbor, D-Day, March on Washington, Lee Harvey Oswald, or Space Shuttle disaster.
Instead, Armstrong offers a magnificent mish-mash of stories both familiar and obscure. (Nobody in my house had ever heard of Boston's Great Molasses Flood of 1919, but we're glad we have now.) She connects them throughout with often surprising post-story notes glancing backwards or ahead, such as the one tying Jonas Salk's polio vaccine back to Pocahontas' death from smallpox. The ethnic and cultural balance she brings to the proceedings is eye-opening as well.
As big an undertaking as this was for Armstrong (she gets bonus points for writing the first children's book -- as far as I know -- to identify Mark Felt as Deep Throat), Roth had his work cut out for him, too. His illustrations grace every story, and his style manages to be at once sober enough for the serious tales (such as the one about the Johnstown flood) and cartoonish enough for the lighthearted ones (e.g. Ben Franklin's failed attempt to electrocute a turkey).
There's no better taste of what you'll find in this book than the adjacent stories from 1981 and 1982: "Pac-Man Fever" and "The Wall." The former delights in how a nation went bonkers over so simple a game and ushered in a new era of popular entertainment. In the latter, Armstrong offers a breathtaking description of the Vietnam memorial while Roth reflects the text with an equally powerful image spread over two full pages. Like the Wall itself, "The American Story" is a monumental work.
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23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Stretched out on the floor reading for hours, September 3, 2006
I can't think of a better way to introduce young people to history's pleasures and their country's past than to read this engrossing book. History is best when it's not a dry exercise in recounting dates and names but when it becomes a living art that tells us something about the past and about ourselves, about what it means to be human in a way that we recognize as part of our own lives. Armstrong's narratives, drawn from all periods of American history, are full of facts, yes, but it is what the author does with these realities that lifts this book to the level of art. This brilliant writer has the ability to bring to life stories as familiar as that of Benjamin Franklin and as little known as the invention of the potato chip (what's more American that that?) with a narrative verve and sense of detail that makes history exciting for children and really kindles their imaginations.
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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Trivia, November 9, 2006
I got this as a gift for a 7-year old, but I read some of the stories to test out the book. Great for all ages. A lot of "I didn't know that". Good idea to learn history by learning important events such as the Great Chicago Fire, the hunt for fossils, the Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald and even a story about the real Johnny Appleseed. A very good gift for a student.
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