If You Were a Kid During the Civil War (If You Were a Kid)

My 5-almost 6 yr old grandson loved this book as a "read-aloud", but this is only because Nanny was able to minimize the info-box readings on slavery, which were too graphically described and intrusive to an otherwise interesting and well-written adventure story for this age group. This is not to say that I don't want him (eventually!) exposed to deeper issues, but I am so aggravated with the usual PC way of shoving these complex and scary issues on small children when all they want is an adventurous bedtime story, and all parents/grandparents want is a story that will also whet their appetite for further history-oriented fiction and non-fiction. I think that the boy learned that to help an enemy in need was the right thing to do is message enough for this age group. I don't think at this point, for this age group, it matter what his COLOR was. I skipped any mention of color or slavery and he still got the message. In this day and age he has plenty of friends of all races on the playground and at school. Why draw attention to sometime that doesn't matter to him anyway? Just the subject matter of war and that we humans do sometimes fight, wound and even kill enemies in real life is crazy enough for a sheltered child this age to digest. I would say that it might be even more traumatic to him as a child of mixed race if his first introduction to an historic war was that people would want to kill him even more due to his race! Anyway, this book will be put away and will become useful possibly when he is older and when he is ready to explore the deeper issues of historic wars and situations. I also feel that this book would be more appropriate for a child who has already had an introduction to the historic issue of slavery.

WARNING This is NOT a historical book or even an accurate introduction to the Civil War for children. Instead, however, this book is entirely focused on anti-slavery, racism, and the mistreatment of black Americans that has plagued America long before we became a nation.I purchased this book based on previous reviews in hopes of introducing my 8 yrs old daughters to the Civil War. A topic I studied for years as a young adult. All my books are entirely to graphic and detailed to introduce to an 8 yr old, so I turned to find something softer and easier to catch their interest.There's very little historical accuracy within this book EXCEPT for the dates, the armies and that slavery was a major component of it. The book starts out positive depicting the divide, even among friends (Children in this case), that the war caused, but quickly shifts the sole focus on slavery and how children should respond to slavery. It goes so far as to one child calling the other "STUPID" because he listened to his dad tell him never to trust black people and thus he's afraid of them (black people). The rest of the book is about them caring for a wounded black soldier and how they should treat him.My criticism of this book is calling it an "Introduction to the Civil War" for children. NOT the comments of slavery. We should always teach both the good & the bad of our nations history so we NEVER again commit the same sins as our fathers. BUT, this is not what I would call an introduction to the Civil War, especially for children.This is a humanitarian book centered on the topic (Which I COMPLETELY support) that love & kindness know no color. However, as for the Civil War, there's so many other ways to softly introduce children to history than how this book was written.Hope this helps future buyers & readers.

Perfect book to help explain the civil war to my five year old!

This was awesome! My 8 yr old grandson is totally into the Civil War and this was just right on his level.

I love the point of view of these books! Teaches my child to see past the end of their noses & imagine other scenarios.

Great children’s introduction story

Perfect for young children.

Good read aloud for 8-9 year old