Which Way to the Wild West?: Everything Your Schoolbooks Didn't Tell You about America's Westward Expansion

by Sheinkin, Steve
5 out of 5 Customer Rating
ISBN: 9781250075765
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Overview

History--with the good bits put back. Welcome to the thrilling, tragic, and downright wild adventure of America's westward expansion.

1805: Explorer William Clark reaches the Pacific Ocean and pens the badly spelled line "Ocian in view O the joy " (Hey, he was an explorer, not a librarian.)
1836: Mexican general Santa Anna surrounds the Alamo, trapping 180 Texans inside and prompting Texan William Travis to declare, "I shall never surrender or retreat."
1861: Two railroad companies, one starting in the West and one in the East, start a race to lay the most track and create a transcontinental railroad.

With a storyteller's voice and attention to the details that make history real and interesting, Steve Sheinkin's Which Way to the Wild West? delivers America's greatest adventure. From the Louisiana Purchase (remember: if you're negotiating a treaty for your country, play it cool.) to the gold rush (there were only three ways to get to California--all of them bad) to the life of the cowboy, the Indian wars, and the everyday happenings that defined living on the frontier.

Which Way to the Wild West? Everything Your Schoolbooks Didn't Tell You About America's Westward Expansion by Steve Sheinkin is a fun, funny way for young readers to learn about a chapter of American history.

Steve Sheinkin is the acclaimed author of many nonfiction works, including The Notorious Benedict Arnold: A True Story of Adventure, Heroism & Treachery, Newbery Honor Book and National Book Award Finalist Bomb: The Race to Build--and Steal--the World's Most Dangerous Weapon, and National Book Award finalist Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War.

Praise for Which Way to the Wild West?

"An engaging . . . medley of anecdotes about the Wild West in nine lively chapters starting with the Louisiana Purchase and ending with the Lakota massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890. Casual vignettes of famous figures and ordinary people come to life. . . ." --School Library Journal

"Super illustrations, fresh stories, thoughtful insights with a light touch, this is fun for kids and parents alike." --Travelforkids.com

"Sheinkin builds his conversational narrative around stories of the men and women who peopled the west, with particular attention given to African Americans, Chinese workers, and everyday farmers and cowboys. There's plenty of humor here, but Sheinkin's strength is his ability to transition between events." --The Horn Book

By Steve Sheinkin:

Bomb: The Race to Build--and Steal--the World's Most Dangerous Weapon
The Notorious Benedict Arnold: A True Story of Adventure, Heroism & Treachery
The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights
Undefeated: Jim Thorpe and the Carlisle Indian School Football Team
Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War
Which Way to the Wild West?: Everything Your Schoolbooks Didn't Tell You About Westward Expansion
King George: What Was His Problem?: Everything Your Schoolbooks Didn't Tell You About the American Revolution
Two Miserable Presidents: Everything Your Schoolbooks Didn't Tell You About the Civil War

  • Format: TradePaperback
  • Author: Sheinkin, Steve
  • ISBN: 9781250075765
  • Condition: Used
  • Dimensions: 9.00 x 0.70
  • Number Of Pages: 288
  • Publication Year: 2015

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