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Middle Grade
5 Nonfiction U.S. History Books for Middle Graders
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J. Edgar Hoover
Master of Deceit: J. Edgar Hoover and America in the Age of Lies
In this unsparing exploration of one of the most powerful Americans of the twentieth century, accomplished historian Marc Aronson unmasks the man behind the Bureau- his tangled family history and personal relationships; his own need for secrecy, deceit, and control; and the broad trends in American society that shaped his world.
Hoover may have given America the security it wanted, but the secrets he knew gave him - and the Bureau - all the power he wanted. Using photographs, cartoons, movie posters, and FBI transcripts, Master of Deceit gives readers the necessary evidence to make their own conclusions. Here is a book about the twentieth century that blazes with questions and insights about our choices in the twenty-first.
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Trapped: How the World Rescued 33 Miners from 2,000 Feet Below the Chilean Desert
“Aronson marks the one-year anniversary of the collapse of a Chilean copper mine that entombed miners for more than two months with a riveting, in-depth recounting of the events that held the world rapt… Twelve short chapters with photos and diagrams keep the story well-paced as it alternates between above- and below-ground scenes, detailing the heroic efforts of the trapped men, their waiting families, and their rescuers, sometimes on an hour-by-hour basis. Extensive author and source notes, a bibliography, and suggested reading leave plenty for readers to explore.” --Publishers Weekly, June 13, 2011, *STARRED REVIEW
Five questions for Marc Aronson (An interview from Notes from the Horn Book)
Sugar Changed the World: A Story of Spice, Magic, Slavery, Freedom, and Science
Marc Aronson and Marina Budhos (Clarion)
For more information see the Speaking and School Visits Page. Sugar is a common supermarket item today, but Marc and his wife the novelist Marina Budhos argue in this book that it was a prime mover of world history – and that following the trail of sugar entirely changes how you understand everything from the medieval hunger for spices to the story of the African slave trade, the beginning of the Industrial Revolution., and even the odyssey of overseas Indians that led directly to Gandhi and the idea of Satyagraha.
Over 70 archival illustrations and 4 maps; Note: Watch for bonus sugar music and dance materials coming soon here.
For Boys Only: The Biggest Baddest Book Ever
Marc Aronson and HP Newquist (Feiwel and Friends)
Amazon’s #1 ranked book of nonfiction fun for boys! 160 pages of pure fun -- puzzles to solve, how to fly an airplane, beat a shark, who would win if Romans battled Mongols, and every other brain-bending challenge HP and I could think of, and for more forboysonlybook.com/
"Filled with facts, puzzles, stats, stories and more, For Boys Only: The Biggest, Baddest Book Ever by Marc Aronson and HP Newquist offers up information on favorite subjects . . . Printed with black and red text and illustrated throughout, this graphically fresh and topically diverse collection should capture the imagination of its target audience."
--Publishers Weekly
Buy For Boys Only: The Biggest, Baddest Book Ever at Amazon.com, at Barnes and Noble at Indie Bound Store Finder
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Ain’t Nothing But a Man: My Quest to Find the Real John Henry
Scott Reynolds Nelson with Marc Aronson (National Geographic)
Booklist “starred” review:
“Not many history books are written in first person, but this is no ordinary history book. It traces a historian’s quest for the man behind the legend of John Henry. Nelson’s research involved listening to hundreds of variants of the song “John Henry,” learning about post–Civil War railway construction projects, visiting possible sites for the legendary contest between man and steam drill, and in one groundbreaking moment, glancing at the 1910 postcard on his desktop, hearing the lyrics of a version of “John Henry” in his mind, and making a connection that no other modern historian had considered.”
Buy Ain’t Nothing But a Man: My Quest to Find the Real John Henry at Amazon.com, at Barnes and Noble at Indie Bound Store Finder
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The "How To Get Rich" Series
How to Get Rich In the California Gold Rush
Tod Olson (Author), Scott Allred (Illustrator), Marc Aronson (Afterword)
Booklist *Starred Review*
...the How to Get Rich series deftly blends story with history to not only give readers an understanding of a gold rush but also to provide a lighthearted and engaging entry point into frontier life. The story (with a tongue-in-cheek claim to be true) follows three young men as they decide to try their luck as prospectors out west. Period lithographs are reproduced alongside original illustrations, all lending to the historical feel of the gold rush era, as the young men embark upon their journey, meet with moderate but backbreaking success, fall apart when they run out of money, and eventually all set out on their own to pursue different means of getting rich. This is where the book really shines—showing how very few people actually got rich panning and mining for gold, but demonstrating that a vast number claimed shares of wealth by creating the various trades and services necessary to support the influx of people bustling into the new towns out west. A ledger on each page tracks the young men’s finances in a genuinely exciting way, adding a sly element of math to this well-conceived and compulsively appealing book. Kids won’t even realize how much they’re learning. Grades 4-8. --Ian Chipman
Buy How to Get Rich on the Oregon Trail at Amazon.com, at Barnes and Noble at Indie Bound Store Finder
Buy How to Get Rich in the California Gold Rush at Amazon.com, at Barnes and Noble at Indie Bound Store Finder
Buy How to Get Rich on a Texas Cattle Drive at Amazon.com, at Barnes and Noble at Indie Bound Store Finder
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If Stones Could Speak: Unlocking the Secrets of Stonehenge
What are the secrets of the ancient stone circle? Were the carefully placed stones a burial site, an ancient calendar, a place of Druid worship...or even a site of sacrifice? World-renowned archaeologist Mike Parker-Pearson has spent the last seven years on a quest to answer these and many other questions. In If Stones Could Speak, award-winning author Marc Aronson joins the research crew and records their efforts to crack Stonehenge's secrets. National Geographic helped sponsor the Riverside archeological team’s mission, and now young readers can journey behind the scenes to experience this groundbreaking story first-hand, through the eyes of the experts. This book includes photos of Bluestonehenge.
Video: Marc Aronson talks about Stonehenge and Blue Stonehenge on FoxNews.
If Stones Could Speak is available for pre-order at Amazon.com
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The World Made New
by Marc Aronson (Author), John W. Glenn (Author)
National Geographic Children's Books
“This splendid, exciting, beautifully illustrated account of the Age of Exploration relates events so dramatic that they would have been dismissed as implausible fiction if they hadn’t actually happened. Don’t think of this as `just’ a book for kids: children’s parents will find it equally gripping and informative.” - Jared Diamond professor of Geography at UCLA, and author of the best-selling Pulitzer-Prize-winner Guns, Germs, and Steel
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