German Immigrants in America

by Elizabeth Raum

Describes the experiences of German immigrants upon arriving in America. The readers choices reveal historical details from the perspective of Germans who came to Texas in the 1840s, the Dakota Territory in the 1880s, and Wisconsin before the start of World War I.

Genres: History

112 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

As a child, I loved writing reports. For me, doing research has always been a kind of treasure hunt. My treasures are the facts that create pictures of past worlds and faraway places. I've put those facts into nearly 100 biographies, histories, and science books for young readers. I've also written two picture books and several interactive adventures that place you, the reader, inside the story. I hope that all my books lead you to imagine yourself in some intriguing place among fascinating people. Every book should take readers on new adventures in this big, beautiful world of ours.

Happy travels!

Author website: www.elizabethraumbooks.com

Reviews

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was cool! A bit unexpected as I missed the “choose your own” aspect when I grabbed it at the library, but a pleasant surprise. I loved the choose your own adventure books as a kid, so I imagine kids learning history will enjoy this format as well. Looking forward to check others out.

[Kim Hampton · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good way to teach history to kids, especially if you are of German descent.

[Jacklyn (ReadingBliss) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read in one sitting, I explored each story and every life-changing choice offered. I thought it was fun and a good read to explore history in an interesting way.

Touched with historical facts and immersive to the times, I could see it being a very interactive teaching tool. I do not know if everyone would enjoy it as I had one friend who said she found it rather bleak while reading one book in this series to her 8 year old. She said they specifically kept dying all the time and didn’t want to continue with such negative messages for such a young age. I, however, did not find that to be my experience at all. First, I kept living and prospering and then going back to explore alternate routes to see if it was even an option to die in this book (which was different from the one my friend read, but from the same series), and found that yes, several avenues led to an unfortunate demise through illness or war or the like. The other thing I noticed was that it seemed to be very realistic in many ways, which I appreciated. Sometimes you got bad luck, other times, you just couldn’t react fast enough to circumstances, etc.

I read this one to give me an idea if I should order more in the series. So far, I plan to order many. I want to use them to the concluding book when we finish learning about certain American historical eras, but also to hopefully implore my children to think more critically about the cause-and-effect of their choices and some harsh realities that can come forth at times.

[Zadie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was interesting, and it's cool how it's a choose you're own adventure.

[Julie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is appropriate for young school age children. I wonder how many children in this age group would actually find a book about German immigrants interesting. I think the interactive format which includes so many life paths actually detracts from the information that is conveyed in the book. The immigrant experience included in the text is fairly limited. Overall, the book is OK.

[Abdullah · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are many kids like history and that kind of books.