As I help my children enter this wonderful world of book-selection, I find myself prompting them towards historical-nonfiction works like this, The Transcontinental Railroad, while they’re obviously more drawn to things like Bad Kitty or Junie B. Jones. I can’t say precisely what I enjoyed reading most growing up, though I do recall a bin at my local library which held all of the Garfield comic books and to which I bee-lined during every visit we made to the public library. I can’t recall any historical-nonfiction book that I ever purposefully checked out when I was their age, so probably shouldn’t hold it their poor tastes in books against them…yet.

I read this “True Book” by Scholastic to my kids over breakfast this morning, and I think we all learned a lot from it. In Laura Ingalls Wilder’s book By the Shores of Silver Lake which we recently finished, she dedicated many chapters to Pa’s new job as paymaster for the railroad workers. We got to see the graders leveling the ground for the coming line through South Dakota, we saw riots break out when the men couldn’t get paid, and we witnessed the continuing spread West during the late 19th century. Of course, that South Dakota line wasn’t part of the Transcontinental Railroad, but technology hadn’t changed much in the 10-20 years separating the two accounts, so our understanding of the hard work involved increased through both readings.

Perritano breaks this book down into five chapters and includes a number of great, historical photos and sidebars which add life to the reading. The chapters are short yet packed with historical facts. We read about Irish and Chinese immigrants as well as freed slaves, angry Native Americans, and poor Mormon workers. By the end we get a clear idea of how different groups of people took part in this process, whether by choice or not.

He closes the book with a timeline, statistics, a glossary, and an index, making this an excellent resource for kids to learn the process of research. Don’t tell my kids, but they may hear some questions later on today that they can only answer by searching through the pages of this book.

I’m glad I came across this one, especially since I’d never heard of the “True Book” series before. I’ll definitely be looking for more, as my kids have finally reached that age where a book isn’t just decoration on the shelf but rather an opportunity for adventure and exploration. I can’t wait to see what they find!

©2020 E.T.