Customer Reviews

The Discovery of the Americas: From Prehistory Through the Age of Columbus (The American Story)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

I came across this book by Betsy Maestro "The Discovery of the Americas" and I loved it. The text is simple and the illustrations are great. It is historically accurate as well, a must in my checklist. I didn't realize she also wrote the historical series "You Wouldn't Want to..." They are my favorite!! I recommend all of her books, especially for teachers. This series "The American Story" are great. I just wished they were more but she doesn't have one for the Revolution which would be great.

We read this book as part of our medieval times studies, and it compliments your studies wonderfully, in that it surveys a very broad range of time, but it all focuses on the discovery of the AMericas, from the last Ice Age to the Europeans. It should not be your only reading of the subject, but it helps put history in perspective for your 7-10 year old. There is also a timeline of dates in the back. This book went well with our Story of the World readings.

The students in my classroom enjoyed this book. It gave them a great overview of the content we had been studying. It can be used at the beginning of a unit or as a review.

We Love this book!My 8 year old son really liked this history book that read a bit like a story.It had interesting pictures to accompany the text.I would recommend this book to anyone wanting to learn or share a little history.We want to get the series, and with such reasonable prices, we plan to!

It's nice in that it talks about many other voyages and possible "discoveries of America." Most books kind of start in 1492 like that was the beginning of everything in the Americas.

THIS BOOK IS HORRIBLE IN PORTRAYING THE TRUTH. It only has a few pages that talk about the real discoverers of the Americas (the people who came across the land bridge). It totally ignores the amazing feats they accomplished, the many different cultures that existed here, and the sustainable and advanced way of life. These people were here for AT LEAST 20,000 years, yet this book wants to act like America was born ONLY WHEN some holy European set his foot here and saved the day.

If you're looking for a book that tells the truth about the early Americas, THIS IS NOT YOUR BOOK. It does not accurately convey the early times of the Americas. Native Americas are nearly completely ignored in this book like they don't matter. If you're a teacher like me, this is not your resource if you're looking for books to tell the TRUE story from a non-Eurocentric point of view.

It's books like this why so many children are brainwashed and why there are so many adults who grew up completely ignorant. Do your kids some justice and teach the truth. Even if you don't want to teach about ALL OF THE HUMAN GENOCIDE and complete destruction of culture and way of life to extremely young students, it is still appropriate to teach them ACCURATELY about the Native American people, everything they accomplished, and how their lives were changed upon the arrival of Europeans.