Welcome to the American History Reading website/blog. The purpose of this site is to share novels and readings I've used in teaching 7th and 8th graders American History and, hopefully, provide a venue for other teachers to discuss their experience of the readings and, hopefully, add other novels to this definitely not all-inclusive list. I believe that novels and primary documents make history "come alive" and more relevant to the students. American History should not be, in my opinion, a recitation of dates and events, but should be an experience of the emotions, customs, and beliefs of the time. Novels are a way of reliving history.

The period of history I teach is from colonization up until the Civil War so you will find most of the readings that I have posted during that timeline.  But please feel free to suggest other novels dealing with different periods of American History.

On each page I've included on this site, I've also posted discussion questions, a link to a book seller, and, if available, lexile scores.  (The link to the book seller is not a recommendation of the book seller but provided as an example of price, etc.)