History For Kids

As a young boy, Charles Darwin hated school and was often scolded for conducting “useless” experiments. Yet his passion for the natural world was so strong that he suffered through terrible seasickness during his five-year voyage aboard The Beagle. Darwin collected new creatures from the coasts of Africa, South America, and the Galapagos Islands, and expanded his groundbreaking ideas that would change people's understanding of the natural world. This audiobook will make Darwin and his theory of evolution an exciting discovery for every young listener.

If you ask Delphinia Baker, she’d tell you she has all the family she needs. Sure, her mom passed away when she was young, her dad is often away on deployment, but even though Del has never had anyone she can call her people, she has always had her grandmother—and that’s enough. Besides, having no roots just makes it that much easier when you have to move again. All of that changes, though, when Gramma falls ill and Del is sent to stay with her great-grandmother. Del has never even heard of Nana Rose, and she has no interest in spending the summer on a hot island off the South Carolina coast.

At 2:20 a.m. on April 15, 1912, the Royal Mail Steamer Titanic, the largest passenger steamship of this time, met its catastrophic end after crashing into an iceberg. Of the 2,240 passengers and crew onboard, only 705 survived. More than 100 years later, today's listeners will be intrigued by the mystery that surrounds this ship that was originally labeled "unsinkable".

As a young man in India, Gandhi saw firsthand how people were treated unfairly. Refusing to accept injustice, he came up with a brilliant way to fight back through quiet, peaceful protest. He took his methods with him from South Africa back to India, where he led a nonviolent revolution that freed his country from British rule. Through his calm, steady heroism, Gandhi changed everything for India and inspired civil rights movements all over the world, proving that the smallest of us can be the most powerful.

This book covers fascinating origin stories of 55 everyday items that were invented by accident; that is, the inventor did not expect to make the product when the product was discovered. Not only will this book share amazing stories about everyday products, but it will also inspire you. We all encounter things that go wrong, and this book reminds us that when life gives lemons, we can make lemonade. (Seriously, pink lemonade was made by accident—listen to the story inside.) Each story is written to encourage kids and adults to be curious and be inspired to create.

Kateri Tekakwitha lost all reasons to smile when an epidemic of smallpox in her village made her an orphan. But instead of giving up, she persevered to live on. Kateri was a pious girl who defied tradition by choosing to convert to Christianity. She was the first North American aboriginal person to become a saint.

Rosemarie Kuptana is no ordinary woman. She is a Canadian politician and an Inuit rights activist. She is also a broadcaster and a journalist. But did you know that she was born on an igloo while her parents were out hunting? Her birth into the world is the best introduction to her story of great will and greater actions.

Possibly the most important man of antiquity, and even all of history, was Julius Caesar. Alexander Hamilton, the famous American patriot, once remarked that "the greatest man who ever lived was Julius Caesar". Such a tribute, coming from one of the Founding Fathers of the quintessential modern democracy in reference to a man who destroyed the Roman Republic, is testament to the enduring mark that Caesar left upon the world.

Possibly the most important man of antiquity, and even all of history, was Julius Caesar. Alexander Hamilton, the famous American patriot, once remarked that "the greatest man who ever lived was Julius Caesar". Such a tribute, coming from one of the Founding Fathers of the quintessential modern democracy in reference to a man who destroyed the Roman Republic, is testament to the enduring mark that Caesar left upon the world.

In 1872, during a fight along the Yellowstone River between U.S. troops protecting railroad workers and Sioux warriors, one of the Sioux did something both unusual and inspiring. At the height of the battle, with bullets whizzing all around him, this warrior sat down, loaded his cannupa (sacred pipe), and began to smoke, partaking in his people's religious sacrament. For the Sioux, smoking a pipe was akin to praying, and the smoke, wafting up through to the heavens, represented those prayers as they floated up to Wakan Tanka, the "god" of the Native Americans who occupied the North American Plains.

April 19, 1775, was the most momentous day in American history. Over the course of nearly 18 hours, a morning that began with midnight riders spreading an alarm about a British raid headed for Concord, would lead to the British column fleeing for their lives, back to the vicinity of Boston, as thousands of militiamen headed to cut them off and surround them. By the time the sun went down, 10 years of strife between the 13 colonies and Great Britain finally boiled over into pitched battle, and a revolution.

Like Geronimo in the southwest during the same era, Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse were warriors and leaders of different groups of Lakota (Sioux), who fought in several skirmishes against settlers and U.S. forces across the Plains, during the 1860s and 1870s. Admired by their own people for their kindness and strong leadership, reviled by their enemies for their defiance, when The Great Sioux War of 1876 began, Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse were two of the most important leaders among all Native American tribes on the Plains.

Includes accounts of the fighting written by witnesses and soldiers. In Charles River Editors' History for Kids series, your children can learn about history's most important people and events in an easy, entertaining, and educational way. On April 19, 1775, the "shot heard 'round the world" was fired at Lexington, officially starting the Revolutionary War between the colonists and the British Empire.

Throughout his life, Crazy Horse tried to live the life his people had enjoyed for centuries. He never signed a treaty with the US government and was never photographed, largely because he wanted to avoid contact with the settlers encroaching further west upon Native American lands. By staying away from white settlements and military forts, he thus avoided the places where a photographer might be lurking.

Over 1500 years before Leonardo Da Vinci became the Renaissance man, antiquity had its own in the form of Archimedes, one of the most famous ancient Greeks. An engineer, mathematician, physicist, scientist, and astronomer all rolled into one, Archimedes has been credited for making groundbreaking discoveries, some of which are undoubtedly fact and others that are almost certainly myth.

In Charles River Editors' History for Kids series, your children can learn about history's most important people and events in an easy, entertaining, and educational way. The concise but comprehensive book will keep your kid's attention all the way to the end. Over 1500 years before Leonardo Da Vinci became the Renaissance Man, antiquity had its own in the form of Archimedes, one of the most famous Ancient Greeks.

The Renaissance spawned the use of the label "Renaissance Man" to describe a person who is extremely talented in multiple fields, and no discussion of the Renaissance is complete without the original "Renaissance Man", Leonardo da Vinci. Indeed, if 100 people are asked to describe Leonardo in one word, they might give 100 answers. As the world's most famous polymath and genius, Leonardo found time to be a painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, and cartographer.

Many ancient civilizations have influenced and inspired people in the 21st century. The Greeks and Romans continue to fascinate the West today. But of all the world's civilizations, none have intrigued people more than the Mayans, whose culture, astronomy, language, and mysterious disappearance all continue to captivate people.

It would be impossible to overstate the accomplishments and legacy of a man history has dubbed the "Father of Modern Science". In his lifetime, Galileo straddled the epochs of the Renaissance and the Scientific Revolution, and it was his work and technological advances that helped usher in a brand new understanding of the solar system and the scientific method.

Martin Luther King Jr. is one of the most famous Americans in history and one of the most important men children can learn about. The life and legend of Dr. King have been told to every American, many of whom come away equating King with the civil rights movement as a whole, but King's life was about far more than leading movements and having dreams. History for Kids: The Illustrated Life of Martin Luther King Jr. humanizes the leader who constantly sought to better himself and desperately wanted to follow in his father's footsteps.