North America: A Fold-Out Graphic History

Gr 3-8–Using a large time line format, this unique book tells the history of North America over the past 13,000 years. Notably, this title covers a lot of information. Each spread contains many important historical events from all over the continent. Albee doesn’t glorify Christopher Columbus’s “discovery” and actually describes what truly happened to the Indigenous people when the Europeans started to colonize the continent. Along with the plethora of information, there are many detailed illustrations for readers to explore. The illustrations offer a bit of cohesion by having four different color schemes to represent the different areas of the continent. An important thing to know about this book is that it isn’t really a book. The thick pages are actually one long piece that unfolds into one eight-foot long page. It might be fun to lay it out and let students walk around and read the various bits of information, but it may not last long as a circulating book. The foldout pages make it a bit unwieldy and difficult to hold.