Secrets of American History World War I

I keep coming back to the Secrets of American History titles to review because I find myself drawn to a history series that tries to write independent readers for children to read about history on their own and dives into areas often not found in other children's books on the topic.

Fearless Flyers, Dazzle Painters, and Code Talkers!: World War I (Secrets of American History)has probably the best introduction to the time period I've read in the series to date. World War I is a tough topic to cover with children. Clearly within a leveled reader format much has to be condensed and left out, but I thought this book did a good job of picking and choosing what to write about in the introduction to World War I.

From the introduction the author moves on to a discussion of camouflage. The author discusses the difference in needs between army camouflage which was already being employed and the needs of the Navy who were struggling to avoid German U-boat attacks. The writing was quite engaging and while reading I texted a family member with information on the book as her sons have been fascinated by this topic and would enjoy reading the book. The author describes various experiments that failed and then describes how zebras and Picasso led to a break through. I'm not going to give it all away. You need an incentive to check out this book. While I'm well past the target age, I rather enjoyed it.

From Dazzle Camouflage we move on to Choctaw Code Talkers. This is one of the many things I love about reading and reviewing history books, there are always new things to learn. I've always associated Native American Code Talkers with World War II. However, it turns out the original Code Talkers solved a communication problem the American command was having with intercepted messages. The first recruits were from the Choctaw tribe. By utilizing their own language and creating a code for words that didn't exist in their language they were able to communicate in a code the Germans couldn't understand. I was so interested in this story I went online to read more.

The last story reflect the diversity the series has been known for and it tells the story of Eugene Bullard, an African American pilot who flew for the French since he was not allowed to fly for the Americans. His story is an amazing one, but again what I love about this series, one not often found in a children's series on World War I.

I believe this is the strongest book in the series I've read to date. The introduction was tighter and the individual stories remain strong and engaging.

Across the Blue Pacific

I came across Across the Blue Pacific: A World War II Storywhile researching age appropriate picture books on World War II for kids. This story appealed to me because it sounded so much like the stories my mother told me of growing up during World War II. This historical fiction account is told from a young girl's perspective, which is why it reminds me so much of my Mom's stories of growing up.

Louise Borden has taken the story of her Uncle Matthew's service and death on the USS Albacore as the basis for Molly's historical fiction account of her neighbor Ted's service and ultimate death. His leave visits and the children writing letters to Ted make for an interesting tale.

I thought there were some fun details included in the story. For instance Ted's Mom gets a Border Collie when her son leaves for war. How women coped alone made for some unique war tales among the women in my family. The dog seemed like a realistic choice based on some of the stories I was told.

While this was a children's story, I did think some details were lacking. Molly and my Mom were similar in age and one of my Mom's strongest memories of the time was coping with rationing. I suspect her neighbor and Molly's families would also have been impacted by this as well. There was no mention of how the war changed the home front, although this book was focused on how people at home were dealing with the challenges of having loved ones away from home.

This book would be a good introduction to teaching children about the home front during this time period. Children often connect well to other children. Reading about how other children lived through historical events can help children relate and connect to a topic. I'd love to see more books written in this style.