As the 4th of July rolls around, most families are focused on the fun associated with this patriotic holiday. If we take a quick moment amidst the fun and celebrations to explore the men, women, and events that helped to shape this great nation, we can turn a memorable holiday into a meaningful holiday.

Here are some kid-friendly, family-oriented, JM Cremps approved books for kids that will introduce your children to some of our nation’s greatest heroes. From Abraham Lincoln to the everyday colonial family, your children will be fascinated and enlightened by the events that took place during our nation’s turbulent past.

Lincoln’s Last Days, by Bill O’Reilly

Lincoln’s Last Days is a gripping account of one of the most dramatic nights in American history- of how one gunshot changed the country forever. Adapted from Bill O’Reilly’s bestselling historical thriller, Killing Lincoln, this book will have young readers-and grown-ups too- hooked on history.

In the spring of 1865, President Abraham Lincoln travels through Washington, D.C., after finally winning America’s bloody Civil War. In the midst of celebrations, Lincoln is assasinated at Ford’s Theatre by a famous actor named John Wilkes Booth. What follows is a thrilling chase, ending with a fiery shoot-out and swift justice for the perpetrators.

With an unforgettable cast of characters, page-turning action, vivid detail, and art on every spread, Lincoln’s Last Days is history that reads like a thriller.

The American Revolution for Kids, by Janis Herbert

Heroes, traitors, and great thinkers come to life in the activity book, and the concepts of freedom and democracy are celebrated in true accounts of the distinguished officers, wise delegates, rugged riflemen, and hard working farm wives and children who created our young nation. The American Revolution for Kids tells the story of the Revolution from the hated Stamp Act and the Boston Tea Party to the British surrender at Yorktown and the creation of the United States Constitution. All American school children are required to study the Revolution and the Constitution- this book complete with its 21 activities will make learning fun and memorable.

In The American Revolution for Kids Activity Book, children can:
• Make a fringed hunting shirt like the one worn by frontiersman General Daniel Morgan
• Reenact the Battle of Cowpens and the cunning strategy that helped the outnumbered Americans win the war
• Learn how to make their own voices heard in I Protest!
• Dance a minuet like George Washington, the best dancer in Virginia
• Discover how Congress works in There Ought to Be a Law
• Create Papyrotamia, paper cutouts that were all the rage in colonial homes

Gettysburg, The Graphic History by Wayne Vansant

The Battle of Gettysburg is one of the most famous battles in American history, and is widely recognized as the turning point of the Civil War. A landmark event in United States history, it accounted for the most casualties of any battle during the war and spelled the beginning of the end for the Confederacy.

In this power graphic history, Wayne Vansant describes the period leading up to the Battle of Gettysburg, as well as all of the major military events on July 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, including the famous fight for Little Round Top and the death march known as Pickett’s Charge. He paints portraits of each army’s leaders, including Robert E Lee, James Longstreet, George Meade, and then little-known Joshua Chamberlain.

Vansant concludes a few months later at the dedication of the Soldier’s National Cemetery in November 1863, when Abraham Lincoln delivered one of the most famous speeches of all time: The Gettysburg Address. Gettysburg delivers one of the hallmark events of American history in an exciting and innovative format.