Everything You Need to Ace American History in One Big Fat Notebook

Everything You Need to Ace American History in One Big Fat Notebook: The Complete Middle School Study Guide by Lily Rothman is the type of reference book I wish I had had as a middle schooler.

Tracing the history of the Americas from prehistory through various wars to current times, this guide is all-inclusive and presents information in a fun, simple to digest format.

The book's premise is that of the notebook of the smartest kid in American history class, complete with highlighted facts, bullet lists, mini quizzes, and underlined points to remember.

The various vibrant colors used throughout the tome are eye-catching, yet not distracting, as primary colors are used.

What truly amazed me about this study guide is just how much information is packed into it, with over 400 years of history captured within its roughly 500 pages.

Despite the sheer amount of facts, Rothman's guide is not overwhelming to read; in fact, it makes learning fun. While reading it, I learned more than expected and my memory was refreshed by information long forgotten.

I really appreciate the information set forth regarding the wars in which the United States has been involved over the course of its history.

The World Wars, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War are included in Rothman's coverage, which thrilled me because I honestly did not know very much about any of them prior to studying the guide.

I wholeheartedly recommend this book not only for the target audience, middle schoolers, but for children of any age as well as adults who may want to learn something in a quick, simple, and fun manner.

I'm really excited about the Big Fat Notebook Series from Workman Publishing. They provided me with an ARC of Everything You Need to Ace American History in One Big Fat Notebook. The book covers everything from prehistoric peoples on to 9/11 and the War on Terror in an easy to read format. It's marketed as "the complete middle school study guide," but it beats the AP American History class I took in high school.

This book is amazing! I may teach English, but we deal with plenty of history in the classroom and this is a wonderful and accessible way to engage students. Although the book is designed for AP students this book easily translates to the middle school classroom. I think it is wonderful for teachers that need to brush up on their history or just your run-of-the-mill history buff. I plan to put the entire series in my classroom library. Loved it!! I can't wait to own a copy.

Where was this when I was in high school?! This beautifully organized and fun guide has a lot of what is common core for high school in American History organized into a giant notebook style stud guide with spaces to take your own notes in class or doodle if needed. I love this so much and want the illustrator to take notes for me!

Everything You Need to Ace American History in One Big Fat Notebook is geared to Middle School Students, but makes an excellent reference for adults as well. The text is marked up with various colors of highlighter to emphasize the most important points. Periods are outlined so students can visualize a timeline of events, but are fleshed out enough that cause and effect are included making history more understandable and thus more memorable. Out of approximately 500 pages, I chose to read about the Civil War and Reconstruction periods because of a discussion with a colleague. I was not disappointed: I came away with answers to some questions and a better overall understanding of the events in a fairly brief amount of time. Obviously, since it was written for middle school students, it was not an exhaustive treatise on the Civil War, but it was a great summary and beginning place for more in-depth research. One of the difficulties of studying American History at any grade level is that is nearly impossible to cover the full history of America in one school year. With this supporting text, one could independently study periods that are not studied in class.

As an independent reviewer, I usually read a book one time and then move on to the next book. In this case I was looking forward to having Everything You Need to Ace American History in One Big Fat Notebook on my iPad as a reference and work through the various periods as a side hobby. As a tribute to the book’s usefulness, I must say I was disappointed to discover that this book has an expiration date and is no longer available to open. Who knew a book could be like a carton of milk? I guess I will purchase a copy!

Everything You Need to Ace American History in One Big Fat Notebook has a proposed publication date of August 9, 2016. I would like to extend my thanks to netgalley.com and to Workman Publishing for allowing me to read and review this book in exchange for an unbiased review.

This book is an lively resource for both middle schoolers interested in reaching the top of the class and adults looking for a refresher. Information is organized in a way that pops visually, assisting with reader engagement and recall. Topics in American history range from prehistoric times to the Obama presidency. Each chapter ends with a short quiz to assess comprehension. Packed with information in digestible bites, I highly recommend this as a supplement to the middle school American history curriculum.

I found this book really interesting to learn and read. It has a lot of helpful things throughout history for students and even give them based on knowledge questions which is excellent to see where they are standing. Also to see how much they are comprehending from it. I recommend this to anyone that Who has children in middle grade school to either help them have a better understanding or might be teaching a homeschool for there middleschooler. This was very easy to understand.

Awesome resource for young people! An engaging and understandable format that will help students enjoy American history.

This eBook is written to attract young readers. Bright colors are used and important points are blocked off; notebook paper is even used for the background. A table of content breaks the content down into large blocks of time and then further broken into chapters. A student could go to a point in history they were studying in school or home. The writing style is an outline with short paragraphs to briefly explain.
This book is a pleasure to read. It reinforced what history I knew and taught me what I didn’t know. It amazes me how powerful world events are when read as an adult. I strongly urge all parents to buy this book for their children to help them with their studies. I was given this eBook by Net Galley in return for an honest review.

AWESOME resource for teachers and kids. Great information, some I already knew and some I didn't (I teach 5th and 6th grade American History). Very graphically organized, lots of color, the text is chunked into easily readable passages. Also included: highlighted vocab words (definitions on the same page in the margins), mnemonic devices to remember important info, maps with important things highlighted, and cool doodles (no actual photographs or paintings :/ ). At the end of each chapter are a few comprehension questions; answers are on the next page so you can check what you know. It goes all the way from the Bering Land Bridge all the way up to "really recent history", i.e. 2006 and the Obama administration.

Not necessarily a book for younger grades. I can't see any of my students sitting down and reading it for fun. Maybe they'd page through it and pick out interesting facts. Definitely useful for a high school student. A 5th or 6th grader would find it useful, but maybe overwhelming. For my personal use I'd read it as a supplement to the textbook, a refresher course for me before I teach the topics.