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20th Century World History for Kids: The Major Events that Shaped the Past and Present
Take kids ages 8 to 12 on a journey through the events that shaped the 20th century
World history is an amazing teacher when it comes to understanding why the world looks the way it does. This journey through world history for kids gives young learners a look at 30 of the most important moments in the 20th century and how they helped create the modern world.
This book of world history for kids is split up into 5 different eras, covering the years from 1901 to 2000. As kids travel through each one, they'll explore the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the Mexican Revolution, the rise of the Beatles, the creation of the Internet, and more.
Go beyond other history books,
Inspire kids to take an interest in history with 20th Century World History for Kids .
World history is an amazing teacher when it comes to understanding why the world looks the way it does. This journey through world history for kids gives young learners a look at 30 of the most important moments in the 20th century and how they helped create the modern world.
This book of world history for kids is split up into 5 different eras, covering the years from 1901 to 2000. As kids travel through each one, they'll explore the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the Mexican Revolution, the rise of the Beatles, the creation of the Internet, and more.
Go beyond other history books,
Inspire kids to take an interest in history with 20th Century World History for Kids .
120 pages, Paperback
Published August 10, 2021
About the author
Judy Dodge Cummings
47 books22 followersJudy Dodge Cummings has published 21 books for the school and library market, most of them on historical topics. She was a high school history teacher for 26 years and has a MFA in Creative Writing for Children and Teenagers from Hamline University. Judy's favorite way to research history is through the soles of her feet–meandering through museums, racing up redoubts, and rambling through historic ruins. The number one item on her bucket list is time travel!
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
September 10, 2023
This book introduces elementary-aged kids to major events from world history in the twentieth century, covering a wide variety of topics and notable people. The book has clear subject headings and has an in-depth table of contents, so kids can read this in chronological order or jump around to areas of interest. There are photographs throughout that add visual appeal and help kids imagine the past, and there are sidebars with extra information about some things.
Unfortunately, this book quickly becomes overwhelming and confusing. The publisher is marketing this for ages 8-12, but many kids that age will be completely lost for much of the book unless they have a lot of prior knowledge or are reading this with an adult who can guide them and provide spur-of-the-moment teaching to contextualize things and explain the connections between different events that the author quickly introduces but doesn't adequately explain.
The author also uses a lot of sophisticated vocabulary and specialized terminology that many children won't know, and the glossary in the back only defines a sampling of these words. This is mainly on a middle school reading level, and the confusing content and complex writing will overwhelm and deter most younger kids unless they're reading with an adult.
Although the book moves along in roughly chronological order, the author constantly jumps around between different countries and cultures without providing enough background information, and even older readers can find this confusing if they don't have a sophisticated mental filing system based on prior knowledge. There are all kinds of snapshots here from all over the world, with a whole century's worth of events, and the scope just doesn't work in such a short book, with so many oversimplifications and so many things getting stuffed in randomly.
I'm a history major, so I could mentally fill in the missing context and correct the author's many oversimplifications, but she jumps around with so many things that it still felt like drinking from a firehose, with the firehose also feeding you a bunch of lies or distortions about communism. The author does get real about some of the horrors of Mao's China, and she writes about how desperate people were to escape to liberty in West Germany, but she paints communism in an overly positive light based on communist ideals, like by saying that enterprise and property were publicly owned, when they were controlled in practice by totalitarian governments.
Communism comes up throughout the book in lots of different contexts and cultures without the author ever giving a consistent definition or explanation, and this is likely to be very confusing for readers who notice the inconsistencies in how the author writes about communism, don't really get what it is, and don't understand what all the fuss was about, positive or negative.
This book wasn't completely terrible and occasionally introduced things in clear and helpful ways, which is why I'm still giving this two stars, but I do not recommend it at all. There are far better books about world history, and this tries to cover too much too quickly, without enough context and without an age-appropriate reading level.
I received a free copy from the publisher through Amazon Vine in exchange for an honest review.
Unfortunately, this book quickly becomes overwhelming and confusing. The publisher is marketing this for ages 8-12, but many kids that age will be completely lost for much of the book unless they have a lot of prior knowledge or are reading this with an adult who can guide them and provide spur-of-the-moment teaching to contextualize things and explain the connections between different events that the author quickly introduces but doesn't adequately explain.
The author also uses a lot of sophisticated vocabulary and specialized terminology that many children won't know, and the glossary in the back only defines a sampling of these words. This is mainly on a middle school reading level, and the confusing content and complex writing will overwhelm and deter most younger kids unless they're reading with an adult.
Although the book moves along in roughly chronological order, the author constantly jumps around between different countries and cultures without providing enough background information, and even older readers can find this confusing if they don't have a sophisticated mental filing system based on prior knowledge. There are all kinds of snapshots here from all over the world, with a whole century's worth of events, and the scope just doesn't work in such a short book, with so many oversimplifications and so many things getting stuffed in randomly.
I'm a history major, so I could mentally fill in the missing context and correct the author's many oversimplifications, but she jumps around with so many things that it still felt like drinking from a firehose, with the firehose also feeding you a bunch of lies or distortions about communism. The author does get real about some of the horrors of Mao's China, and she writes about how desperate people were to escape to liberty in West Germany, but she paints communism in an overly positive light based on communist ideals, like by saying that enterprise and property were publicly owned, when they were controlled in practice by totalitarian governments.
Communism comes up throughout the book in lots of different contexts and cultures without the author ever giving a consistent definition or explanation, and this is likely to be very confusing for readers who notice the inconsistencies in how the author writes about communism, don't really get what it is, and don't understand what all the fuss was about, positive or negative.
This book wasn't completely terrible and occasionally introduced things in clear and helpful ways, which is why I'm still giving this two stars, but I do not recommend it at all. There are far better books about world history, and this tries to cover too much too quickly, without enough context and without an age-appropriate reading level.
I received a free copy from the publisher through Amazon Vine in exchange for an honest review.
July 30, 2021
I’m a retired teacher and a grandmother who is enjoying 20th CENTURY WORLD HISTORY FOR KIDS in several ways. It’s the perfect book to act as a springboard for discussing world history with family and then incorporating personal stories. After reading about the Beatles (p.70) I was able to tell the story of my community’s reaction to them. That long hair was scandalous! This led to a discussion of my family not owning a TV until I was ten and a longer talk about how electronics have changed.
It’s also an effective springboard for relating historic events to children's’ personal lives. For instance, after reading about Albert Einstein’s ineptitude in school and how instead of listening to the teacher he “ran thought experiments in his mind,” I asked my grandchildren if they ever did something similar. One in particular could relate.
The book is also a helpful tool for adults. Want to give a quick refresher of The Spanish Flu back in 1918? (See p. 16) Peek curiosity by having kids guess how a mummified teenage king inspired fashion designs in the 1920s. (See p. 26.) Is there any interest in knowing the history of the bikini? (Check out p. 46.)
Besides excellent summaries, the author, Judy Dodge Cummings, also gets accolades for carefully choosing photos to enhance the reading experience. (Check out the striking color photo of people on the Berlin wall, p. 93.)
Use this wonderful resource to get the kids in your life thinking and talking.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews