The First Americans: Prehistory-1600 A History of US Book 1 [Paperback]

Joy Hakim (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 2007 | Age Level: 10 and up | Grade Level: 5 and up | Series: History of US (Book 1)

Thousands of years--way before Christopher Columbus set sail--wandering tribes of hunters made their way from Asia across the Bering land bridge to North America. They didn't know it, but they had discovered a New World. The First Americans is a fascinating re-creation of pre-Columbian Native American life, and it's an adventure of a lifetime! Hunt seals with the Inuit; harvest corn on a cliff-top mesa; hunt the mighty buffalo; and set sail with Leif Erickson, Columbus, and all the early great explorers--Cabot, Balboa, Ponce de Leon, Cortes, Henry the Navigator, and more--in this brilliantly told story of America before it was America.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"[An] exciting series... Ms. Hakim braids multiple narratives together to bring alive material long dead to children's imaginations."--The New York Times Book Review

"Joy Hakim didn't rewrite history. But she did make it a whole lot more fun to read."--Education Week

"Readers young and old will find themselves amused, amazed, and engrossed by this searching, opinionated survey. In every sense a fresh look at our history." --Kirkus Reviews

"Merits every accolade, starting with the most personal: I couldn't put it down."--Washington Post Book World

"The liveliest, most realistic, most well-received American history series ever written for children."--Los Angeles Times

"A thorough and accurate narrative of our nation's history."--The Philadelphia Inquirer

"I think this is the best American history written for young people that I have ever seen."--David Herbert Donald, Harvard University; Pulitzer prize-winning author of Lincoln

"When master storyteller Joy Hakim wields her pen, you're in for a breathtaking adventure."--Teaching K-8

"An attention to detail and drama alike make these recommended choices for not only readers ages 8-13 but for entire families."--Children's Bookwatch

"Absorbing, real and even fun to read."--Voice of Youth Advocates

"Books of real substance that speak directly to kids."--Jean Fritz, author of Shhh, We're Writing the Constitution

"One of the best nonfiction series of the decade. Impossible to put down."--School Library Journal

About the Author

Joy Hakim is a former newspaper writer and editor and elementary school teacher who holds a bachelor's degree in government from Smith College and a master's degree in education from Goucher College.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 10 and up
  
• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; 3 Revised edition (February 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195327152
• ISBN-13: 978-0195327151
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 7.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #158,911 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I started my career as an author with a ten-volume U.S. history: A History of US, published by Oxford University Press in 1993, and now in a third updated printing. I had no idea the history would end up in ten books, or that it would be so much fun to write.
A History of US has been awarded a bunch of prizes. David McCullough commented, ". . .the idea that history might ever be thought of as a chore has clearly never crossed her mind." In testimony before the Senate Education Committee he called the series "superb." People Magazine described me as "the J.K. Rowling of the history world." (Umm, that would be nice. But the books have sold 5 million copies.)
Mine are narrative history books that attempt to set literary standards. I mean for them to be exciting to read. They're meant for young readers, and their teachers and parents, or for anyone without a deep background in U.S. history. These are books that can be found in bookstores, on Amazon, and in schools. Oxford and Hopkins have done teaching materials for those who want to use the books in academic study.
That series was followed by: Freedom: A History of US (published in 2003), the companion to a 16-part PBS series of the same name that was narrated by Katie Couric, with voices by a host of Hollywood figures, from Tom Hanks to Robin Williams. The videos are available to schools from PBS. And the book spawned a terrific website: (www.pbs.org/wnet/historyofus).

I'm now writing The Story of Science. The first three books are jointly published by Smithsonian Books and the NSTA (National Science Teachers Association). They focus on the quest to understand the universe--from ancient Greece to today's expanding universe. The first volume is Aristotle Leads the Way; the second, Newton at the Center; the third book, Einstein Adds A New Dimension, attempts to explain quantum theory and relativity with black holes and space travel too. Writing in the New York Times, Natalie Angier called the books, "richly informative." Alan Alda raved. These books have won prizes too. Science writer Timothy Ferris said he wished he had them when he was a boy. Educators at Johns Hopkins and NSTA have developing coordinated teaching materials for classroom use (available from NSTA or Amazon).

I'm currently working on two books that put biology into a narrative framework.

Before I began writing books, I was an associate editor, editorial writer, and business writer for The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk's morning paper) and a general reporter and photographer on the staff of The Ledger-Star (Norfolk's afternoon paper. I did a whole lot of freelance writing while raising three kids. And I was an assistant editor of World News, a foreign news service at McGraw-Hill.

Writing and teaching seem to be two faces of the same need to explain things. Which may explain why I've had dual careers--as writer and teacher.

I've taught elementary school (Omaha, NE), high school English (Virginia Beach, VA), special education in a middle school (Syracuse, NY), and English composition and American literature at a community college (Virginia Beach). I initiated and taught a writing course for high school teachers of English through the University of Virginia.

I do a lot of speaking, especially to education groups. For three years I worked with a group of history teachers in Los Angeles under a TAH (Teaching American History) grant. I've spent some of my time in an inner-city school where most of the students speak Spanish at home and reading English doesn't come easily. I'll be speaking at Teachers College, Columbia in the fall of 2009 where reading guru, Lucy Calkins, has called my books the "gold standard" in the field.

As to my schooling: I earned a B.A. from Smith College after high school in Rutland, Vermont. Then I received a M.Ed. and an honorary doctorate from Goucher College. Smith gave me the Smith Medal (2000); the Matrix Foundation, the Edith Workman Award (2003); I've taken graduate courses in journalism and in geography at New York University, child psychology at Johns Hopkins, and courses in American history and science at Brown, Harvard, Cornell, and Cambridge University. My website is: joyhakim.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If only history class would have been this exciting..., January 17, 2008

By 

Deborah L. Nies (Waunakee, WI, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The First Americans: Prehistory-1600 A History of US Book 1 (Paperback)

...I might not have used it for nap-time!

This series - The History of US - covers the history of the people of the United States. It is written in language that 8-12 year olds can easily understand. Difficult words are have accompanying pronunciations and definitions.

My 8 year old daughter and I are reading this series together and out loud. She finds it fascinating and a real page turner. Unlike my history texts (in the 70's) that tended to skip and flit about through time, this series starts at 50,000 BC and goes forward to the present.

Volume #1 covers the Neandertahals & Homo Sapiens, the Indians, Columbus, and the Conquistadors to approximately year 1600.

I think that this would be a good series for teaching history to homeschoolers. We are certainly looking forward to Volume #2. I promise that you - the parent - will also learn quite a bit!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Better than textbooks, June 7, 2009

By 

A. Nielson (Baltimore, MD) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The First Americans: Prehistory-1600 A History of US Book 1 (Paperback)

The information in this series of books is very detailed, well researched, and has a fun approachable tone. My only concern is that it might sometimes border on being too flippant. But the report of history is very balanced and it's always asking the reader questions and letting the reader make conclusions about open ended topics.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a history of us, first book, October 5, 2009

By 

Elena L. Callens - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The First Americans: Prehistory-1600 A History of US Book 1 (Paperback)

My 11 yr. old and I are enjoying this book, and learning a lot from it. It is genereal enough to hold our attention and when we want to find out more on a specific chapter, we can go to the library or online, and get more indepth information. I plan on purchasing the rest in the series.