Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

It's a large colorful book with 100 stories from our nation's history. The stories are short and easy to read aloud. There is a definite anti-religion slant. People who preach Christianity are always (from what I've read so far, maybe 25 stories) presented in a bad, or uneducated way. There is plenty of room given to say, Spanish missionaries who forced Pueblo people to work for them (obviously bad and should be remembered), but no room given to how Christian beliefs helped start our nation or write our laws. The Temperance Movement is portrayed as a silly idea led by crazy women who professed God but "didn't need him." Jonathan Edwards was "allowed to scare and harangue" people for 13 years, the Bible is portrayed as contradictory and outdated during the Scopes Trial story, etc. Some stories are too mature for my young children (8 and under) - The Donner Party, Lizzie Borden, Cannibalism from the whale ship Essex. On the plus side, if you pre-read and self-edit, there are some good stories like Henry "Box" Brown's escape from slavery or the first dinosaur find in America. (But we have found great picture books with these same stories.) We are returning this book in favor of a better one. It's not a history book so much as a collection of stories about our nation, a fun idea, but there are better options available.