What a wonderful book! You can help your middle schooler envision locales of historic interest with these twenty two-page spreads. Pictures use up most of the space and depict people, including children, in typical doings; some cross-sections are employed. The text of several paragraphs describes the place physically, culturally and historically, and sometimes stories are personalized through the experience of a child. Numbered entries point out events or items of interest. Very nicely done and a terrific aid for visual learners.

Presented in chronological order, the sites are: Cahokia, 1200 AD; a Pacific Northwest whaling village, 1490; a pueblo and mission, 1627; New Plymouth, 1627; Charlestown, 1739; a black settlement/fort, 1759; Boonesborough, Kentucky, 1776; battle of Saratoga, 1777; Philadelphia, 1787; a Taos hacienda, 1823; Fort Laramie, 1849; a New England mill town, 1850; a plantation, 1855; Gettysburg, 1863; Abilene, 1871; a wheat farm, 1888; a Chicago mansion, 1893; Ellis Island, 1901; a New York tenement, 1916; a post-WWII housing project, 1953. An index is included.

Very nicely done. Highly recommended.

"Places in Time: A New Atlas of American History" takes young readers to twenty sites that have shaped America's history, such as New Plymouth when the Pilgrims first settled in the New World, Fort Laramie when the wagon trains rolled through, and Ellis Island when the immigrants arrived. Elspeth Leacock and Susan Buckley have combined an atlas and a storybook, with illustrations by Randy Jones, that shows the layouts of these places, often with cut-aways of the interiors of key buildings, such as a New York City tenement.

I think "Journeys in Time," the companion New Atlas of American History co-authored by Leacock and Buckley, is the slightly superior work, but that is mainly because some of these places have a rather limited scope. For example, geography came into play during the Battle of Gettysburg as much as in any battle in American History, but that is not exactly covered here. I also think that when the book looks at just one building, e.g. "Chicago: Christmas at the Mansion (1893)", it is not playing to its strength. When we see the layout of an entire whaling village or the frontier fort at Boonesborough, that is when this book is at its best.

These are a nice set of books, which will give young students a new perspective on American history. The approach is also something that can be emulated in the classroom, taking these same principals and applying them to other aspects of history the kids are studying. Be sure to check out both volumes.

It does not simply show war battle sites. Historic places like a New England factory town, 1770's Philadelphia, and a slave plantation are also shown. Do not think of this as a map book. Cutaway drawings/paintings with labels show the reader a typical plantation, factory town, a 1950's planned suburb and battle scenes. It is a way of making history accessible and put a personal face on it. It is different in a very good way.

What a wonderful book! You can help your middle schooler envision treks of historic interest with these twenty two-page spreads. Pictures use up most of the space and depict people, including children, on the move; some cross-sections are employed. Text describes the journey, and sometimes stories are personalized through the experience of a child. Numbered entries within the text point out events or places, and a sidebar lists interesting facts. Very nicely done and a terrific aid for visual learners.

Presented in chronological order, the journeys are: a Native American creation story; Columbus's voyage, 1492 AD; the founding of New Mexico, 1598; Mayflower voyage, 1620; Ben Franklin's travel from Boston to Philadelphia, 1723; a slave ship, 1735; Daniel Boone's Wilderness Road; bringing Ticonderoga's guns to Boston, 1775; the Lewis and Clark Trail, 1804; California 49-ers' trip around Cape Horn, 1849; the Sante Fe Trail, 1852; the underground railroad, 1856; a Civil War regiment's movements, 1862; John Muir's travels in 1867; a cattle drive, 1879; westward immigration, 1884; a cross-country airplane trip, 1911; Louis Armstrong's train ride from New Orleans to Chicago, 1922; a migrant worker's journey, 1959; a Vietnamese refugee, 1976. Notes and an index are included.

Very nicely done. Highly recommended.

"Journeys in Time: A New Atlas of American History" is quite an interesting book. It maps twenty journeys that have shaped the history of the United States, from "How the Anishinabe Found a New Home (Long Ago)" to "Leaving Vietnam (1976)." The idea here is that maps are more than just geography and understanding the shape of the land, because you can trace a route and see a story in the spaces where it unfolded. Elspeth Leacock and Susan Buckley aptly characterize America's history as the story of a people on the move. Consequently, "Journeys in Time," with its illustrations by Rodica Prato, is a combination atlas and storybook.

Of course, all of the stories in this book are true. While you will find some of the more famous journeys in American history, such as the voyages of Christopher Columbus and the "Mayflower," and the Lewis & Clark expedition, the chief charm of this volume are the lesser known trips, such as "Big Joe Bailey Takes the Underground Railroad," "John Muir Walks America," and "Louis Armstrong Heads North." As you can see, there is an attempt to personalize these trips. So the story of the California Gold Rush is told from the perspective of Dame Shirley, the Civil War through the travels of Union quartermaster Orlando French, cowboy Baylis John Fletcher on a cattle drive, and nervous immigrant Rosa Cristoforo.

This is a pretty unique volume that can be both informative and inspirational. The latter would be true because you can easily see young students creating their own maps to tell their own stories about people coming to or traveling across America. Leacock and Buckley have also co-authored a companion volume, "Places in Time," illustrated by Randy Jones that performs a similar function by looking at particular places. While it is also an interesting combination atlas and storybook, "Journeys in Time" is the better of the pair.