YOUNG ADULT:  The Library of American Lives and Times™

Biographies For Grades 4-8 Correlated to the Curriculum

Extend the learning through this new biography series. The Library of American Lives and Times use extensive primary resources as it brings American history to life for your students.
Learn about some of the greatest players who helped in shaping America as it grew from a colony to a world super power. Through a chronological narrative, enriched with diary entries, letters, and other primary documents, students will learn about the various stages of our nation's development, as well as learning to think about history from the perspective of both individuals and society.
By learning about history from a particular and unique biographical perspective, each student will learn about the following themes that form the framework for the social studies standards: Culture; People, Places, and Environments; Individual Development and Identity; Individuals, Groups, and Institutions; Power, Authority, and Governance; Production, Distribution, and Consumption; Global Connections: Civic Ideals and Practices.
These books are comprehensive biographical treatments of important Americans, emphasizing not just their lives, but the times in which they lived.

Peter Stuyvesant - Legends abound about the character, temperament, and wooden leg of the last director-general of New Amsterdam, fueled primarily by Washington Irving's satirical A History of New York. Krizner and Sita set the record straight here and address other misconceptions about the early days of the colony. Indeed, historical evidence does not support the legend of the 24-dollar purchase of Manhattan Island. Stuyvesant did, however, rule with an "iron fist," but loved New Amsterdam and its people, staying on after the colony fell to the English. To this day, street, neighborhood, and borough names (Broadway, Harlem, the Bronx, and Brooklyn), and the popularity of some foods (pretzels), reflect the early Dutch influence in New York.