The First Americans, Third Edition: Prehistory-1600 (A History of US, Book 1) [Hardcover]

Joy Hakim (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 8 and up | Series: History of Us

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

"A big breath of fresh air and the best possible news for the youngsters who get to read them." -- David McCullough, Pulitzer Prize winner and author of John Adams

"An incredible look at who we were when this country began." -- Dr. Sonya Friedman, CNN --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From the Publisher

Climb into your time-and-space capsule-and hang on tight! Trek across Beringia with the hunter-gatherers. Hunt seals with the Inuit; harvest corn on a cliff-top mesa; hunt the mighty buffalo. Sail with Leif Eriksson and Christopher Columbus. Stand with the conquistadors at the gates of a splendid Aztec city. The world of the First Americans in about to change forever. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 8 and up
  
• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; 3 edition (September 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195153197
• ISBN-13: 978-0195153194
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,090,235 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

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The first volume in Joy Hakim's "A History of US", July 29, 2003

By 

Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The First Americans, Third Edition: Prehistory-1600 (A History of US, Book 1) (Paperback)

A History of US is basically an attempt to write a juvenile history of the United States that will speak to a generation of young readers who get most of their information from computers and the Internet. That means Joy Hakim offers up lots of information with lots of illustrations, but it also means been very much aware of the mind set of her readers. When Hakim describes the scope "The First Americans: Prehistory-1600" we get a clear sense of this perspective: "This book begins in the Ice Age with some people who hiked and canoed from Asia to a New Land and, thousands of years later, got called Indians by Christopher Columbus, who didn't know where he was." This first volume begins with the first human beings crossing the land mass that once connected Asia and North America and ends with the defeat of the Spanish Armada, the event that signaled the beginning of the end of Spain's empire in the New World and the start of English colonization of the land that would become the United States.

The volume is basically divided into two main sections. After establishing the value of studying history, Hakim looks at how human beings crossed Beringia to a new continent and how these first Americans became Indians. The first section looks examines the Indians on a regional basis, from the Eskimos of the far north to the Cliff Dwellers of the southwest, as well as from the people of the Northwest coast and the Plains Indians to the Mound Builders and People of the Long House in the East. Chapter 13 is a transitional section that covers how the Vikings came to the New World. The rest of the book is devoted to the European voyagers of exploration to the Americans and the early colonization efforts of the Spanish and French. Consequently Hakim tells the stories of Columbus, Balboa, Magellan, Cortes, Ponce de Leon, and Coronado. The establishment of New Spain and New France is contrasted with the lost English colony of Roanoke.

Throughout the volume there are features on related topics from the Vikings at L'anse Aux Meadows and the first map to include "America," to stories of how the world began and how to ravel by canoe and portage, including excerpts from the writings of explorers Christopher Columbus and John White. The margins are crammed with additional information such as quotations, definitions, names to know, and even some jokes. The volume is illustrated with mostly historic etchings, drawings, and maps, as well as contemporary photographs of ancient sites and artifacts, (accurate) maps of voyages, and quotations from primary and secondary sources. The back of the volume offers a Chronology of Events, a list of More Books to Read, and a series of Maps: Old and New.

The strength of "The First Americans: Prehistory-1600" is that it is written as if it were actually being taught in a classroom. Hakim knows when to stop and explain the material, the same way a teacher would talk to their students about what they were reading. For example, she discusses the various names used to talk about the First Americans, pointing out that not even the Indians are really "native" Americans and then later addresses the question of what would have happened if Columbus had actually found Cathay as he expected. I can see why these volumes would be popular with parents who are home schooling their children, because Hakim is able to assume the role of teacher within the pages of her textbook (besides, I am not sure how many school districts can afford a 10-volume American history textbook or how many years it would take to get students to read them all). She also constantly asks her young readers to imagine themselves as specific people in particular situations to appreciate what it was like to live during these time periods, and I find such role-playing to be another key ingredient of computer life for young students in the 21st century.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars All kids' books should be this good., July 2, 2004

By 

Keith Cumpston (Pittsburgh, PA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The First Americans, Third Edition: Prehistory-1600 (A History of US, Book 1) (Paperback)

I thought my 4-year-old was only half listening as I read "The First Americans" to her sister (age 6). But the other evening at story time, her face lit up and she begged for "history"! I can give it no higher praise.

This volume covers the first 12,000 years--give or take a few millennia--of human life on our continent. Hakim strikes a good balance between outlining the broad sweep of the period, and focusing in on interesting stories, people, and trivia ("fun facts" in my girls' lingo). She doesn't gloss over difficult subjects, such as the massacre of the Aztecs by the Spaniards under Cortés. But she relates these events with balance and sympathy, helping her young readers to understand them from different points of view (in this case the Aztecs; their neighbors who were victims of cruel Aztec rituals; and the Spaniards who wanted Aztec gold, but also were abhorred by Aztec viciousness towards their neighbors). What's more, Hakim openly invites them to think about and even reject her own judgements.

She has sparked many good conversations in our household. For instance, she used the example of Cortés to illustrate some tough ethical questions that philosophers debate to this day. I talked about these questions with my daughters, and helped them to express and refine their own thoughts. Then I invited them to think up some other tough questions. My younger one took the cake with "what is 'is'?". She had offered it in jest, but to her surprise I pulled out "Being and Time", one of several big books on my shelf devoted to that very question. She was amused, but quite pleased.

No doubt you will find something to disagree with in this, as in any good history. When that happens, do what the author suggests: use it as an opportunity to debate her conclusions with your kids, and sharpen their critical skills. For the rest of it, enjoy a great story well-told. I can hardly imagine a better history for this age group.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great history book for homeschooling!, February 28, 2003

By 

Cheryl Chaffee "Yogini" (Venice, FL United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The First Americans, Third Edition: Prehistory-1600 (A History of US, Book 1) (Paperback)

I am currently using the first book in The History of US to teach history to my homeschooled children, ages 9 and 6. Written for children, the books tell a story of being a time and space traveller, and visiting chronologically the stages of development of the Unites States. The first book starts in the Ice Age, with Asians crossing the land bridge, and follows up through Native American tribes, ending with explorers from Europe.

I'd say these books are probably around a 6th grade reading level, and they are fun, interesting, and capture the imagination as well as teach an awful lot about history. The perspective of the books is that no one view of history is correct, and your child is expected to formulate his/her own ideas about what is right and wrong (for example, about forcing "native americans" to live on reservations.)

I highly recommend the first book in the series, and I can hardly wait to finish it up, so we can start in on the next one!