Learning American History through picture books sounded so great to me, and I was determined to make it happen this year. Now that we’ve done it, I am so pleased with the way it turned out and how much we loved it!
I was never a good history student growing up. Textbooks felt boring and not relatable. The information didn’t stick with me, and I didn’t enjoy it. Boy, did that change once I started teaching it to my own kids in our homeschool! It’s become one of my favorite subjects.
There’s something about a good picture book that just grabs you in to the story. Reading them together with my kids is engaging and memorable. With American History as our focus for the year, I was itching to focus more on picture books and LESS on a textbook.
I worked really hard to put this list together for my kids (ages 9, 7, 4, and 3). To be clear this list covers Viking explorers through the Treaty of Paris (1783). I know for a fact that there may be some gaps as we can not cover Every. Single. Detail…but can a textbook? No matter what curriculum you use, the information is going to be delivered in a unique way.
This was our unique way of learning history this year, and we learned so much. Most importantly, we had fun doing it. It never felt like school. My hope in sharing this list with you is that it can provide that same feeling for you and your family. I pray it allows you to enjoy simply learning history together with your kids.
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Want to Make it Even Easier?
I have created a complete curriculum of these books, based on the way we completed them in our own home. It includes all of the details of how we read them and what activities or videos we completed alongside them. If you would rather take the planning out and follow a step-by-step guide to completing this, than this is the curriculum for you!
See a complete look-through of this curriculum on my YouTube channel HERE.
It will break down a schedule for you, explain all the details of narration and writing, provide discussion questions, and it contains the links to all of the resources I mention below. You can check it out HERE.
Prepping for the List
Before I jump into the list, I want to share how I came up with it. This took some time and studying on my part, but it was worth it.
TruthQuest history is where I started. This was recommended to me by another homeschooling mom, and it’s basically a gigantic book list. Now, when I say gigantic, I mean GIGANTIC. It’s overwhelming without a doubt. Want a book on George Washington? The book provides 31! And that’s just one person in American History.
Now, times that by each person and event and you can see how this becomes an extremely extensive list. The reason I bring it up though is because it’s a fantastic resource if you’re looking for more book ideas about history. The author has multiple units from ancient history to modern times.
After a little reading and studying on my own, I was able to come up with a list of books that would allow us to work through American History with picture books. I’ve learned in the past that quality is better than quantity, so I have chosen spectacular books to help us do this. I can’t wait to share this list with you!
Narrations
I am normally the crafty type, but for some reason I am just not in a crafting season right now. Maybe it’s the work load of my two bigger ones. Or maybe it’s because of the two little ones that need my time and attention as well. If you check out some of my other units I’ve shared about, you can see that I love a good craft at times.
As much as I love them, that wasn’t my goal in this unit. I wanted to keep it so, so simple. Our “assessment” or “learning products” came in the form of narration instead of a craft. Since narration uses my children’s actual words/thoughts I have actually come to really value them. What a treasure to see their sweet minds at work. I usually toss crafts…these I want to hang on to forever!
I kept this really simple. My goal was one per week, but some weeks we did two. Add in a simple coloring page for them to work on while I read and it served two purposes – keeping their hands busy AND a page for me to record their narrations. (I share exactly how I did this in my unit)
If you’re not familiar with narration, it’s basically telling back what you just read. We do this each time we read, but some books we record our narrations. My oldest (9) writes her own. My 7yo verbally narrates and I write it for her. Every once in a while my 4 year old will tell me something, and I melt at her cute little sentences about the book!
This was such an easy way to “measure” their learning and it was FUN! I also love going back and reading what they wrote. It’s interesting to see how my 9 year old’s writing has changed, and I notice my 7yo improving in the way she verbally narrates as well. It’s just amazing to see all they remember.
Videos
There were definitely times I couldn’t find a book about what I needed. When this happened, I usually shared a short video with the kids on the topic. This made it easy to have a discussion as needed and move on to the next thing. I will list videos we watched in my list below.
Picture Book List
It is so exciting for me to share this list with you. I hope you and your family enjoy these books together! You can find all of the books linked HERE. I will also link them individually for you for convenience, especially because a couple of them can’t be found on Amazon.
Some of these books are lengthy. Many of them we read half one day and finished it the next. I have little ones, so I totally get the need to cut read aloud time short. It’s hard to keep them quiet and still! Take your time. Enjoy the books for however long you need. Almost every book we were able to read in 1-2 days.
- “Leif the Lucky” by Ingrid and Edgar D’Aulaire (We fell in love with the books by Ingrid and Edgar d’Aulaire. You’ll see a few of them on this list.)
- “Columbus” by Ingrid and Edgar D’Aulaire
- “Roanoke: The Lost Colony” by Jane Yolen and Heidi Stemple
- “Jamestown: New World Adventure” by James E. Knight
- “North American Indians” by Marie and Douglas Gorsline
- “Pocahontas” by Ingrid and Edgar D’Aulaire
- “Three Young Pilgrims” by Cheryl Harness
- “Squanto’s Journey: The Story of the First Thanksgiving” by Joseph Bruchac
- “If you Lived in Colonial Times” by Ann McGovern
- “Thunder From the Clear Sky” by Marcia Sewell (WARNING: This book has graphic images. The book is so helpful in teaching about how the relationship of the English settlers and Native Americans changed over time. Just be warned of the pictures for little eyes. Make a decision that’s best for your own kids. Also making a note that this book took me three days. It’s lengthy but well written, and it covers two different perspectives – Pilgrims and Wampanoags)
- “William Penn: Founder of Pennsylvania” by Steven Kroll (Putting this here because we read it. However, I felt like it was boring and not worth it. Just my personal opinion. I was trying to touch on other colonies, but I wish I would’ve skipped this one.)
- “Struggle for a Continent: The American Story Series” (This is a great series! There’s multiple books. I wish I would’ve read the one on the Explorers after we read “Columbus” but I didn’t find it until later. Good news is, you can! 😉 I did purchase it to save for the future! Also, letting you know that this was another one that took me 3-4 days)
- “The Liberty Tree: The Beginning of the American Revolution”
- “Can’t You Make them Behave, King George?” by Jean Fritz
- “The Boston Tea Party” by Pamela Duncan Edwards
- “Paul Revere’s Ride” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
- “Let it Begin Here! Lexington and Concord” by Dennis Brindell Fradin
- “Benjamin Franklin” by Ingrid and Edgar D’Aulaire
- “George Washington” by Ingrid and Edgar D’Aulaire
- “The 4th of July Story” by Jane Dalgliesh
At this point in our timeline, there are so many different people you could touch on in history…Abigail Adams, Thomas Jefferson, John Hancock, etc. We could read for days and days! I chose a select few before finishing out our unit before Christmas. Here’s what I went with:
- “Henry and the Cannons” by Don Brown
- “Phyllis Wheatley Sings out Freedom” by Ann Malaspina
- “Betsy Ross” by Alexandra Walner
- “Leave it to Abigail!” by Barb Rosenstock
- “Thomas Jefferson Builds a Library” by Barb Rosenstock
- “A Picture Book of Daniel Boone” by David A. Adler and Michael S. Adler
- “They Called Her Molly Pitcher” by Anne Rockwell
WOW! It is exciting to reach the end of this list and share! Of course I missed things. I am human, but I doubt you can find a textbook that covers every single detail either. The point is to experience the joy of learning all of this. By using picture books, that joy comes effortlessly, and the events and people are memorable in story form. I hope you feel that same way!
Do you want to see how we lined all of these books up and turned it into a history unit? I have it detailed and explained in my unit that you can find HERE.
Videos List
The following videos helped us fill in some gaps between books:
- “How did Europeans immigrate to the Americas?” by History on Maps (Video Length – 11:52) This is a great video to touch on the fact that there were multiple explorers besides Columbus.
- “John Smith | PBS World Explorers” by Gerry Dincher (Video Length – 4:44) A couple books on the list briefly mention John Smith. This is a short video giving more details of his life.
- “13 American Colonies” by Kids Academy (Video Length – 4:16) This video explains how the New World became the 13 Colonies.
- “Crispus Attucks and the Boston Massacre” by The History Channel (Video Length – 6:08) You will read about the Boston Massacre in one of the books, but this video looks into the life of Crispus Attucks, one of the first men killed during the events of the American Revolution.
- “Treaty of Paris 1783 | Daily Bellringer” by The Daily Bellringer (Video Length – 5:01) A peace treaty is mentioned in the couple of books that we read, but this video will go into detail about what it is and what it meant.
Coloring Pages
I have also linked the coloring pages we used for our narrations on a Pinterest board titled “American History Coloring Pages”. There are lots of options online, but be sure to check out the board for a few to start with.
I would love to hear from you if this list is helpful! Be sure to check out the unit I put together that schedules all of these books and videos together. (Click here to view)
Have you read any of these books? Do you have a favorite on this list? Any you never heard of? Share with me in the comments and connect with me on social media. You can find me on Instagram and YouTube.
Helpful Links
Individual videos linked above.
American History through Picture Books Part 2
Part 2 of this series is now available! I’m so excited to share it with you all. Part 3 will be available soon.
6 Responses
Love your stuff as always, Jaime. We have been doing something very similar as the girls are getting older and needing less crafts with lessons and the littles are needing more. It’s been great to push J with her writing and independent reading and then also to include the littles with picture books too.
Thank you!! Yes, we too have enjoyed the simplicity of this. It feels very do-able each day and all the kids can be involved. I’m glad that the same sort of strategy works for you too! You’ll have to let me know when you come across some great history books!