Best Teen & Young Adult 20th Century United States History Books
Here you will get Best Teen & Young Adult 20th Century United States History Books For you.This is an up-to-date list of recommended books.
1. The Finest Hours (Young Readers Edition): The True Story of a Heroic Sea Rescue (True Rescue Series)
Author: by Michael J. Tougias
Published at: Square Fish; Media Tie-In edition (December 8, 2015)
ISBN: 978-1250044235
This adaptation for young readers of The Finest Hours: The True Story of the US Coast Guard’s Most Daring Sea Rescue by Michael J. Tougias and Casey Sherman tells the story of the shipwreck of two oil tankers and the harrowing Coast Guard rescue when four men in a tiny lifeboat overcame insurmountable odds and saved more than 30 stranded sailors.
Now a major motion picture from Disney, starring Chris Pine and Casey Affleck. On the night of February 18, 1952, during one of the worst winter storms that New England has ever seen, two oil tankers just off the shore of Cape Cod were torn in half.
With the storm in full force and waves up to 70 feet high, four coast guardsmen headed out to sea in a tiny lifeboat to come to the rescue. They were the only hope for the stranded sailors. Despite incredible obstacles, these brave men risked their lives, remembering the unofficial Coast Guard motto: You have to go out, but you do not have to come back.
This is a fast-paced, uplifting story that puts young readers in the middle of the action. It’s a gripping true tale of heroism and survival in the face of the elements. New York Times bestselling author Michael J. Tougias adapts his histories of real life stories for young readers in his True Rescue Series, capturing the heroism and humanity of people on life-saving missions during maritime disasters.
2. No Better Friend: Young Readers Edition: A Man, a Dog, and Their Incredible True Story of Friendship and Survival in World War II
Author: by Robert Weintraub
Published at: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers; Reprint edition (November 13, 2018)
ISBN: 978-0316344654
A memoir of the Civil Rights Movement from one of its youngest heroes-now in paperback will an all-new discussion guide. As the youngest marcher in the 1965 voting rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Albama, Lynda Blackmon Lowery proved that young adults can be heroes.
Jailed eleven times before her fifteenth birthday, Lowery fought alongside Martin Luther King, Jr. for the rights of African-Americans. In this memoir, she shows today’s young readers what it means to fight nonviolently (even when the police are using violence, as in the Bloody Sunday protest) and how it felt to be part of changing American history.
Straightforward and inspiring, this beautifully illustrated memoir brings readers into the middle of the Civil Rights Movement, complementing Common Core classroom learning and bringing history alive for young readers.
4
Undefeated: Jim Thorpe and the Carlisle Indian School Football Team
Author: by Steve Sheinkin
Published at: Square Fish; Reprint edition (January 15, 2019)
ISBN: 978-1250294470
A great American sport and Native American history come together in this true story for middle grade readers about how Jim Thorpe and Pop Warner created the legendary Carlisle Indians football team, from New York Times bestselling author and Newbery Award recipient Steve Sheinkin.
Sheinkin has made a career of finding extraordinary stories in American history. The New York Times Book ReviewA Boston Globe-Horn Book Nonfiction Honor BookA New York Times Notable Children’s BookA Washington Post Best BookUndefeated: Jim Thorpe and the Carlisle Indian School Football Team is an astonishing underdog sports storyand more.
It’s an unflinching look at the U.S. Government’s violent persecution of Native Americans and the school that was designed to erase Indian cultures. Expertly told by three-time National Book Award finalist Steve Sheinkin, it’s the story of a group of young men who came together at that school, the overwhelming obstacles they faced both on and off the field, and their absolute refusal to accept defeat.
5. Fever Year: The Killer Flu of 1918
Author: by Don Brown
Published at: HMH Books for Young Readers; Illustrated edition (September 3, 2019)
ISBN: 978-0544837409
From the Sibert Honorwinning creator behind The Unwanted and Drowned City comes one of the darkest episodes in American history: the Spanish Influenza epidemic of 1918. This nonfiction graphic novel explores the causes, effects, and lessons learned from a major epidemic in our past, and is the perfect tool for engaging readers of all ages, especially teens and tweens learning from home.
New Year’s Day, 1918. America has declared war on Germany and is gathering troops to fight. But there’s something coming that is deadlier than any war. When people begin to fall ill, most Americans don’t suspect influenza. The flu is known to be dangerous to the very old, young, or frail.
But the Spanish flu is exceptionally violent. Soon, thousands of people succumb. Then tens of thousands … Hundreds of thousands and more. Graves can’t be dug quickly enough. What made the influenza of 1918 so exceptionally deadlyand what can modern science help us understand about this tragic episode in history?
6. The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights
Author: by Steve Sheinkin
Published at: Square Fish; Reprint edition (January 3, 2017)
ISBN: 978-1250073495
Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War is New York Times bestselling author Steve Sheinkin’s award-winning nonfiction account of an ordinary man who wielded the most dangerous weapon: the truth. Easily the best study of the Vietnam War available for teen readers.
Kirkus Reviews (starred review) A YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction Award winnerA National Book Award finalistA Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books Blue Ribbon bookA Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Young Adult Literature finalistSelected for the Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People ListIn 1964, Daniel Ellsberg was a U.S.
Government analyst, helping to plan a war in Vietnam. It was the height of the Cold War, and the government would do anything to stop the spread of communismwith or without the consent of the American people. As the fighting in Vietnam escalated, Ellsberg turned against the war.
He had access a top-secret government report known as the Pentagon Papers, and he knew it could blow the lid off of years of government lies. But did he have the right to expose decades of presidential secrets? And what would happen to him if he did it?
8. Left for Dead: A Young Man's Search for Justice for the USS Indianapolis
Author: by Pete Nelson
Published at: Delacorte Books for Young Readers (November 11, 2003)
ISBN: 978-0385730914
For fans of sea battles, adventures, and war stories like Unbroken, this is the incredible true story of a boy who helps to bring closure to the survivors of the tragic sinking of the USS Indianapolis, and helps exonerate the ship’s captain fifty years later.
Hunter Scott first learned about the sinking of the USS Indianapolis by watching the movie Jaws when he was just eleven-years-old. This was fifty years after the ship had sunk, throwing more than 1,000 men into shark-infested watersa long fifty years in which justice still had not been served.
It was just after midnight on July 30, 1945 when the USS Indianapolis was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine. Those who survived the fiery sinkingsome injured, many without life jacketsstruggled to stay afloat as they waited for rescue. But the United States Navy did not even know they were missing.
As time went on, the Navy needed a scapegoat for this disaster. So it court-martialed the captain for hazarding his ship. The survivors of the Indianapolis knew that their captain was not to blame. For fifty years they worked to clear his name, even after his untimely death.
9. The Day the World Went Nuclear: Dropping the Atom Bomb and the End of World War II in the Pacific
Author: by Bill O'Reilly
Published at: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR); 1st Edition (June 20, 2017)
ISBN: 978-1250120335
Autumn 1944.World War II is nearly over in Europe, but in the Pacific, American soldiers face an enemy who will not surrender, despite a massive and mounting death toll. Meanwhile, in Los Alamos, New Mexico, Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer and his team of scientists are preparing to test the deadliest weapon known to mankind.
Newly inaugurated president Harry Truman faces the most important political decision in history: whether to use that weapon. Adapted from Bill O’Reilly’s historical thriller Killing the Rising Sun, with characteristically gripping storytelling, this story explores the decision to use the atom bomb and the end of World War II in the Pacific.
10. The Great American Dust Bowl
Author: by Don Brown
Published at: Etch/HMH Books for Young Readers; Reprint edition (October 10, 2017)
ISBN: 978-1328740878
A complete visual package. Booklist, starred reviewOn a clear, warm Sunday, April 14, 1935, a wild wind whipped up millions upon millions specks of dust to form a dustera savage stormon America’s high southern plains. The sky turned black, sand-filled winds scoured the paint off houses and cars, trains derailed, and electricity coursed through the air.
Sand and dirt fell like snowpeople got lost in the gloom and suffocated… And that was just the beginning. Don Brown brings the Dirty Thirties to life with lively artwork in this graphic novel of one of America’s most catastrophic natural events: the Dust Bowl.
11. "President Has Been Shot!": Assassination of John F. Kennedy
Author: by James L. Swanson
Published at: Scholastic Press; Illustrated edition (September 24, 2013)
ISBN: 978-0545490078
A YALSA-ALA Excellence in Young Adult Nonfiction Award Finalist A breathtaking and dramatic account of the JFK assassination by the NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author of CHASING LINCOLN’S KILLER! In his new young-adult book on the Kennedy assassination, James Swanson will transport readers back to one of the most shocking, sad, and terrifying events in American history.
As he did in his bestselling Scholastic YA book, CHASING LINCOLN’S KILLER, Swanson deploys his signature “you are there” style – a riveting, ticking-clock pace, with an unprecedented eye for dramatic details and impeccable historical accuracy – to tell the story of the JFK assassination as it has never been told before.
The book is illustrated with archival photos, diagrams, source notes, bibliography, places to visit, and index.
12. The Jim Crow Laws and Racism in United States History
Author: by David K. Fremon
Published at: Enslow Pub Inc (September 1, 2014)
ISBN: 978-0766060937
Highlighting the efforts of both blacks and whites to promote racial equality in the face of violent attempts to preserve white supremacy, Author David K. Fremon shows how segregation made the South a caste system. He traces the history of racial discrimination from the end of the Civil War through the Jim Crow era of segregation.
After years of enduring separate facilitiesincluding water fountains, telephone books, hospitals, and cemeteriesfor whites and blacks, Fremon shows how African Americans and their white supporters were eventually able to win the battle for equal rights.
13. Fighter in Velvet Gloves: Alaska Civil Rights Hero Elizabeth Peratrovich
Author: by Annie Boochever
Published at: University of Alaska Press; Illustrated edition (February 16, 2019)
ISBN: 978-1602233706
No Natives or Dogs Allowed, blared the storefront sign at Elizabeth Peratrovich, then a young Alaska Native Tlingit. The sting of those words would stay with her all her life. Years later, after becoming a seasoned fighter for equality, she would deliver her own powerful message: one that helped change Alaska and the nation forever.
In 1945, Peratrovich stood before the Alaska Territorial Legislative Session and gave a powerful speech about her childhood and her experiences being treated as a second-class citizen. Her heartfelt testimony led to the passing of the landmark Alaska Anti-Discrimination Act, America’s first civil rights legislation.
Today, Alaska celebrates Elizabeth Peratrovich Day every February 16, and she will be honored on the gold one-dollar coin in 2020. Annie Boochever worked with Elizabeth’s eldest son, Roy Peratrovich Jr., to bring Elizabeth’s story to life in the first book written for young teens on this remarkable Alaska Native woman.
14. Try a Little Kindness: A Guide to Being Better
Author: by Henry Cole
Published at: Scholastic Press; Illustrated edition (October 30, 2018)
ISBN: 978-1338256413
Bestselling illustrator Henry Cole puts animals in sweet and humorous situations to demonstrate the importance of being kind! In this funny picture book, bestselling illustrator Henry Cole shows kids different ways to be kind with his hysterical cartoon animal characters.
Each page features a different way to be a good person, like using proper manners, telling someone they are special, or sharing a treat! The text is accompanied by two or three related vignettes of different animals giving examples of ways to be good.
And in one illustration out of each set, one animal (like a cat peering into a fishbowl! May not be doing the best job of being kind! The animal characters and simple text will help readers learn the importance of kindness in a fun way with lots of kid appeal.
Our animal friends will show youExactly how it is doneMake sure to look closelyKindness can be very FUN!
15. A Time to Break Silence: The Essential Works of Martin Luther King, Jr., for Students (King Legacy)
Author: by Martin Luther Dr. King Jr.
Published at: Beacon Press; Illustrated edition (November 5, 2013)
ISBN: 978-0807033050
The first collection of King’s essential writings for high school students and young people A Time to Break Silence presents Martin Luther King, Jr.’s most important writings and speechescarefully selected by teachers across a variety of disciplinesin an accessible and user-friendly volume.
Now, for the first time, teachers and students will be able to access Dr. King’s writings not only electronically but in stand-alone book form. Arranged thematically in five parts, the collection includes nineteen selections and is introduced by award-winning author Walter Dean Myers.
Included are some of Dr. King’s most well-known and frequently taught classic works, including Letter from Birmingham Jail and I Have a Dream, as well as lesser-known pieces such as The Sword that Heals and What Is Your Life’s Blueprint?
That speak to issues young people face today.
16. Spies: The Secret Showdown Between America and Russia
Author: by Marc Favreau
Published at: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers; Illustrated edition (October 1, 2019)
ISBN: 978-0316545921
A thrilling, critically-acclaimed account of the Cold War spies and spycraft that changed the course of history, perfect for readers of Bomb and The Boys Who Challenged Hitler. The Cold War spanned five decades as America and the USSR engaged in a battle of ideologies with global ramifications.
Over the course of the war, with the threat of mutually assured nuclear destruction looming, billions of dollars and tens of thousands of lives were devoted to the art and practice of spying, ensuring that the world would never be the same.
Rife with intrigue and filled with fascinating historical figures whose actions shine light on both the past and present, this timely work of narrative nonfiction explores the turbulence of the Cold War through the lens of the men and women who waged it behind closed doors, and helps explain the role secret and clandestine operations have played in America’s history and its national security.
