Identifying thousands of historical fiction novels, biographies, history trade books, CD-ROMs, and videotapes, this book helps you locate resources on American history for students. Each book presents information in two sections. In the first part, titles are listed according to grade levels within eras and further organized according to product type. The books cover American history from North America Before 1600 and The American Colonies, 1600-1774 to The Mid-Twentieth Century, 1946-1975 and Since 1975. The second section has annotated bibliographies that describe each title and includes publication information and awards won. The focus is on books published since 1990, and all have received at least one favorable review. Some books with more illustration than text will be valuable for enticing slow or reticent readers. An index helps users find resources by author, title, or biographical subject. It is rare that an author of professional materials understands a need so precisely and fulfills it so completely. These useful selection and reference tools help librarians and teachers sort through the abundance of literature for children and young adults and choose and organize appropriate materials for social studies classrooms. Each volume has the same format. The first section contains a series of book lists organized by historical periods from "North America Before 1600" to "Since 1975." The materials for each time period are divided into single grade levels (kindergarten through 2nd-grade books are clustered together, as are those for grades 11 and 12). Grade level lists are further broken into genres: historical fiction (including time-slip fantasy), biography, history, and multimedia (CD-ROM and video). The second and major section is an annotated bibliography of materials divided by format. The numerous entries are arranged alphabetically by author and sequentially numbered. The annotations are headed by full bibliographic information and include recommended age ranges, brief descriptive synopses, and any awards received. Author/illustrator, title, and subject indexes make up the third section. The subject index is especially notable because it uses common language and familiar terms, both specific and general, and it organizes the numbered entries by genre. As promised, these volumes "enhance and entice" the exploration of American history.ASue Burgess, Framingham State College, MA Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. It is no surprise that many students prefer to read historical fiction rather than a textbook. However, finding the appropriate title has been a problem for many librarians until now. This new title provides chronological access to historical fiction, biography, and other history trade book "good reads," as well as CD-ROMs and videotapes. It does not include filmstrips or laser discs. The work is divided into two main sections. The first, arranged by historical time period and subdivided by grade level (based upon recommended grade levels in reviews or publisher catalogs), contains a listing of authors and titles under the categories of historical fiction, biography, collective biography, history, trade books, and multimedia (CD-ROM and videotape). A title may appear more than once depending on its subject or appropriateness for different age groups. The second section consists of three separate annotated bibliographies of the titles listed in the first section. There are separate bibliographies for different material types. The preface tells users that except for a few classics, the majority of the items selected for inclusion were published/created since 1990 and were included because they received at least one favorable review, are well written, or are one of a few items available on the topic. Most annotations are descriptive rather than evaluative. The annotated entry for D'Aulaire's Pocahontas (Doubleday, 1985) does indicate that the "book is more fiction than biography" and notes that in it "a ster-eotyped Powhatan contrasts with the sweetness of his daughter Pocahontas." On the other hand, the entry for Walter D. Edmond's Matchlock Gun (Doubleday, 1989) does not indicate any of its problems with the characterization of Indians. The annotations include notations about awards and also list any special features. The work is easy to use if the table of contents is referred to in order to locate the appropriate time period. Periods included range from "North America before 1600" to "Since 1975." After determining the time period, the user must locate the grade level and material type, read the listing of titles, use the index to find the annotated entry, and then read the entry. Although this procedure seems cumbersome, it is not. Author/illustrator, title, and subject indexes facilitate access. This work will be useful in school and public libraries and in academic libraries with teacher-training programs and children's literature courses. Adamson, who also wrote Refe