Here are some letters from teachers, homeschoolers and students:
"I interrupt the tedious work of averaging grades today to share with you something very exciting. You will find along with my note some letters from students in one of my eighth grade social studies classes [about the series: A History of Us]... One day this past week when they had completed another of many classes devoted to the role play based on a chapter in 'From Colonies to Country' I asked them if their lively, good work was due to their talents or to your book. They all said it was because of your book, and they decided on their own to write you thank you letters. I have never in thirty years of teaching seen that happen. I hope you find their letters gratifying. The ideas expressed are strictly their own and spontaneous."
-Margaret Ford, 8th grade teacher
****************
"I discovered your books [A History of Us] while engaged in one of my 'time off' rituals in a bookstore almost two years ago. I remember sitting on the floor cross-legged in the history section thinking I struck gold... I approached my principal and indicated I would like the three fifth-grade classes to use [A History of Us] to supplement our textbook... From that conversation along with some 'creative financing' we purchased eighteen copies... The other two fifth-grade teachers also enthusiastically embraced the books and we proceeded to purchase eighteen more of each volume. Consequently, our 'Hakim' books (as we always refer to them) now have reversed roles with our Houghton Mifflin textbook."-Fifth-grade teacher Donna Kasprowicz
****************
"Thank you for the time you spent writing compelling chapters and notes…you have created a rich landscape for learning and discussion. As Daniel read the final chapter we stopped many times with shivers, soaking in the significance of the Civil War’s end and President Lincoln’s life and death."-Tina Watson, Homeschool teacher (May 9 2014)
****************
"I love the way your writing style puts important information into more of a story. I love all of the side notes and “extra” stories you include. The values you seem to express through your writing are exactly what I want my children to learn. I don’t feel like I have to re-teach everything they have learned to insert the values we are trying to instill in our children. Thank you for giving my children a fun way to learn facts that are so important to all Americans. "-Melissa Cozza Cleveland (3/14/14) via facebook
****************
"Our homeschool group in Frankfort, KY has just completed your series through the Civil War and I wanted to write to thank you for making fair minded value judgments and using primary source material to make history come alive. All of us have learned so much: Thank You!"-Chris Schimmoeller ([email protected])
****************
"Thank you so much for your powerful, compassionate, and thought-provoking writing. I am so moved by all of your books."-Marilyn McGinnis (Marilynn [email protected])
****************
"…a beautiful job of showing (the Civil War) from all angles. It wasn’t some idealist fight…(you) really showed in your writing the diversity of morals throughout the people of the North and South."-Daniel Watson (age 14)
****************
"You have added a very personal touch to the writing and the stories are very captivating and help us all to remember the facts much better."-Enrico Contolini
****************
"This book is outstanding! I found myself reading all around the house, even trying to read while giving my daughters a bath! Now all I want to do is read the rest of the books as soon as possible and get them for my students."
-Teacher George Coggan, from Port Charlotte, Florida
****************
"I wish you had been here with us on Friday afternoon. When I finished reading the first chapter of your book, A History of Us–The First Americans, the students all clapped. Your style is so passionate that it stirred the ten and eleven year olds and their much older teacher. This is the first time in my 36 years of teaching that reading a textbook sparked spontaneous applause! Thank you for writing these informative and engaging books!"
-Ellen Baker, a fifth-grade Masachusetts teacher
I often get letters from kids. Here are just a few examples of what they have to say.
"You have saved me from another year of boring Social Studies text books.
Your books are great and make you feel you are in the book with the Indians or the Europeans or whatever it is. You make me feel like I am really jumping into a time machine into the past." -Katie Rahowski
********************
"My name is Jason Goodine. I am in 6th grade. Last year when my class studied the Civil War I did not want to stop learning about it....I like how you talk about so much in your books. Before our school got the History of US books, I hated social studies...Then I really started to like social studies. I like your books. They are so descriptive. In my spare time when I start to read one of your books I cannot put it down." - Jason Goodine
********************
"Ever since your book on American History was first published, our eighth-grade teacher, Charles Schefer, has wanted it for our school. Well, after five years our class is the first to use it! It is an awesome way of presenting American History, so that we look forward, five days a week, for our American History class!" - Katie Schneider, St. Petersburg, FL
********************
"My name is Claire Dorman. I have all ten of your A History of US books, and I love reading each and every one of them. I like the way you make the reader feel like she is in the time that you are talking about...One of my favorite books was An Age of Extremes. Yes, the one with the "boring" presidents chapter. Hey, you know, that chapter was not boring at all."-Claire Dorman, Newark, CA
********************
"Other books just give the information, plain and flat. You make it fun. I don't know exactly how you made Social Studies fun, but you did, and I thank you for that." –John, 5th grade, Hearst Elementary, San Diego
"Joy Hakim makes it so kids can understand about Martin Luther King, Jr, Harry Truman, and Thurgood Marshall, or Malcolm X, Cesar Chavez, and Ronald Reagan....I think this is one of the top history books, if not the best. But I haven't read all the history books, and I probably never will, but this will be my all-time favorite." -Jason Diemer
********************
"I think it's so important that kids understand about America. If we don't know how it was formed, if we don't understand what freedom, liberty and justice mean, how will we ever become good citizens? You can't stand up for your rights if you don't know what they are. And now I do." -Susie Allen, Palo Alto, CA
-Margaret Ford, 8th grade teacher
****************
"I discovered your books [A History of Us] while engaged in one of my 'time off' rituals in a bookstore almost two years ago. I remember sitting on the floor cross-legged in the history section thinking I struck gold... I approached my principal and indicated I would like the three fifth-grade classes to use [A History of Us] to supplement our textbook... From that conversation along with some 'creative financing' we purchased eighteen copies... The other two fifth-grade teachers also enthusiastically embraced the books and we proceeded to purchase eighteen more of each volume. Consequently, our 'Hakim' books (as we always refer to them) now have reversed roles with our Houghton Mifflin textbook."-Fifth-grade teacher Donna Kasprowicz
****************
"Thank you for the time you spent writing compelling chapters and notes…you have created a rich landscape for learning and discussion. As Daniel read the final chapter we stopped many times with shivers, soaking in the significance of the Civil War’s end and President Lincoln’s life and death."-Tina Watson, Homeschool teacher (May 9 2014)
****************
"I love the way your writing style puts important information into more of a story. I love all of the side notes and “extra” stories you include. The values you seem to express through your writing are exactly what I want my children to learn. I don’t feel like I have to re-teach everything they have learned to insert the values we are trying to instill in our children. Thank you for giving my children a fun way to learn facts that are so important to all Americans. "-Melissa Cozza Cleveland (3/14/14) via facebook
****************
"Our homeschool group in Frankfort, KY has just completed your series through the Civil War and I wanted to write to thank you for making fair minded value judgments and using primary source material to make history come alive. All of us have learned so much: Thank You!"-Chris Schimmoeller ([email protected])
****************
"Thank you so much for your powerful, compassionate, and thought-provoking writing. I am so moved by all of your books."-Marilyn McGinnis (Marilynn [email protected])
****************
"…a beautiful job of showing (the Civil War) from all angles. It wasn’t some idealist fight…(you) really showed in your writing the diversity of morals throughout the people of the North and South."-Daniel Watson (age 14)
****************
"You have added a very personal touch to the writing and the stories are very captivating and help us all to remember the facts much better."-Enrico Contolini
****************
"This book is outstanding! I found myself reading all around the house, even trying to read while giving my daughters a bath! Now all I want to do is read the rest of the books as soon as possible and get them for my students."
-Teacher George Coggan, from Port Charlotte, Florida
****************
"I wish you had been here with us on Friday afternoon. When I finished reading the first chapter of your book, A History of Us–The First Americans, the students all clapped. Your style is so passionate that it stirred the ten and eleven year olds and their much older teacher. This is the first time in my 36 years of teaching that reading a textbook sparked spontaneous applause! Thank you for writing these informative and engaging books!"
-Ellen Baker, a fifth-grade Masachusetts teacher
I often get letters from kids. Here are just a few examples of what they have to say.
"You have saved me from another year of boring Social Studies text books.
Your books are great and make you feel you are in the book with the Indians or the Europeans or whatever it is. You make me feel like I am really jumping into a time machine into the past." -Katie Rahowski
********************
"My name is Jason Goodine. I am in 6th grade. Last year when my class studied the Civil War I did not want to stop learning about it....I like how you talk about so much in your books. Before our school got the History of US books, I hated social studies...Then I really started to like social studies. I like your books. They are so descriptive. In my spare time when I start to read one of your books I cannot put it down." - Jason Goodine
********************
"Ever since your book on American History was first published, our eighth-grade teacher, Charles Schefer, has wanted it for our school. Well, after five years our class is the first to use it! It is an awesome way of presenting American History, so that we look forward, five days a week, for our American History class!" - Katie Schneider, St. Petersburg, FL
********************
"My name is Claire Dorman. I have all ten of your A History of US books, and I love reading each and every one of them. I like the way you make the reader feel like she is in the time that you are talking about...One of my favorite books was An Age of Extremes. Yes, the one with the "boring" presidents chapter. Hey, you know, that chapter was not boring at all."-Claire Dorman, Newark, CA
********************
"Other books just give the information, plain and flat. You make it fun. I don't know exactly how you made Social Studies fun, but you did, and I thank you for that." –John, 5th grade, Hearst Elementary, San Diego
"Joy Hakim makes it so kids can understand about Martin Luther King, Jr, Harry Truman, and Thurgood Marshall, or Malcolm X, Cesar Chavez, and Ronald Reagan....I think this is one of the top history books, if not the best. But I haven't read all the history books, and I probably never will, but this will be my all-time favorite." -Jason Diemer
********************
"I think it's so important that kids understand about America. If we don't know how it was formed, if we don't understand what freedom, liberty and justice mean, how will we ever become good citizens? You can't stand up for your rights if you don't know what they are. And now I do." -Susie Allen, Palo Alto, CA