If You Lived At The Time Of The Civil War [Paperback]

Kay Moore (Author), Anni Matsick (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 7 and up | Grade Level: 2 and up | Series: If You.

If you lived at the time of the Civil War
--Would you have seen a battle?
--Did you continue to go to school?
--Was it hard to get food?

This book tells you what it was like to live at the time of the Civil War from 1861 to 1865.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 7 and up
  
• Paperback: 64 pages
• Publisher: Scholastic Paperbacks; Updated edition (September 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0590454226
• ISBN-13: 978-0590454223
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 9 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #61,212 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #14 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Children's Books > People & Places > Social Science > Customs, Traditions, Anthropology
  • #43 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Children's Books > People & Places > Social Science > General
  • #58 in Books > Children's Books > Science, Nature & How It Works > Social Science

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

45 of 54 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Don't Waste Your Money, May 1, 2006

By 

LivingBooks - See all my reviews

This review is from: If You Lived At The Time Of The Civil War (Paperback)

on this book, unless you wish to follow the mindless politically correct rewritten version of history that you find pretty much everywhere these days. I am a teacher, a historian, and a woman whose ancestors fought proudly for the Union Army. That said, I recognize this book for what it is. If you're really looking for something historically accurate, then you would better spend your money on books which detail - even for this age group - the War Between the States in much more realistic and honest terms. They are out there. Though I'm not quite as passionate as some of the reviewers below, I agree with their sentiment entirely. This book is simply fluff with almost no historical value - actually, it's worse than that, because it does perpetuate false stereotypes. It's especially bad because it's done in the guise of educational fiction. Shame on Scholastic.

101 of 128 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Shameful Bigotry, May 9, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: If You Lived At The Time Of The Civil War (Paperback)

I generally have a high regard for Scholastic publications, but I am amazed that such narrow-minded bigotry and prejudice actually made it through to publication. I am so glad I previewed this book before sharing it with my children. I would no sooner read this to them than I would read them a book about "nice little Pilgrims and mean old Indians."

Current historians generally have a more enlightened interpretation of South's position in the Civil War, but Moore chooses to perpetuate the old stereotype of the evil slave owners versus the knights in shining armor of the north. Any cursory reading of the facts will tell you that this is wrong.

Though slavery was, no doubt, an issue in the war, it was not foremost, initially, and it was highlighted by the federal administration only when it became politically and strategically advantageous to highlight it. Any current reading of a Lincoln biography will tell you why he signed the Emancipation Proclamation, and why he waited so long to do it.

Comments such as, "[During the war] Southern women and children had to provide for themselves, something they were not used to doing," are littered throughout the pages of this book. Besides being grossly insulting, they are blatant misrepresentations of history, and of truth.

Most Southerners, in fact, did NOT own slaves. Many were very much against slavery. And yet on every page devoted to "explaining" the Southern perspective, the story of the South is told exclusively through their position as a slave-owning population. Southerners are portrayed as uneducated hillbillies. Even the pictures perpetuate this....illustrations of northern children look like modern day preppies; the white southern children are illustrated as ragged and dirty.

Moore does mention at the end that, "The South was treated like a hated enemy." Apparently, in some corners, they still are.

26 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars From a Yankee Teacher, October 5, 2008

By 

Megan Deperro (NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: If You Lived At The Time Of The Civil War (Paperback)

This is 1 Yankee who really knows her history! I am teacher in NY state and when I took a look at this book in the library, I wasn't too pleased. Rhode Island had more slaves than any other state! Next, the South did not want to secede b/c they wanted to keep slaves, but because they thought they were being taxed unfairly. Northerners didn't give a damn about slaves, and some Northerners kept slaves as well.
Lincoln even used the issue of enslavement to gain popularity for the Union to make the Confederate states look bad. "If I could save the nation by freeing all the slaves I would do it, and if I could save the nation without freeing any slave I would do it" ~ Abraham Lincoln