America Dreaming

Hill, L.C. (2007). America dreaming: How youth changed America in the '60s. New York: Hatchett Book Group, 165 pp.

Nonfiction, no awards for the book but good reviews, and Hill is a National Book Award nominated author

America Dreaming gives a meticulously researched and engagingly written look into the culture (and counterculture) of the 1960s. From Kerouac to Kennedy to Martin Luther King; from the Beats to the Beatles to the Bay of Pigs to bra burning, all the important events and people come to life in this book, whose sections include "Our Bodies, Our politics" (feminism), "Upside Down Flag" (Native American Rights), "Earth Day" (environmentalism), and many more.

There are several great aspects of this book that make it perfect for young adults. First, it is visually stimulating, featuring many photos, cartoons and illustrations, graphs, charts, and colorful captions and headings. Even if the students don't read every word on the page, they can still gain a lot of useful information from looking at the visual depictions. Next, the information provided is well put-together and highly relevant. There are quotations from a number of primary sources--important political figures and artists as well as magazine and newspaper excerpts and reviews. Finally, the book's subtitle is "How Youth Changed America in the '60s," and Hill gives special emphasis to how youth propelled and were impacted by the events described. Many of the topics covered, such as diversity and minority rights, economic change, and urban violence, are still subjects of serious discussion today. My only criticism (and it's more a caveat than an actual critique) is that the body text does read a bit like a textbook, so it is not necessarily the kind of thing to send home for pleasure reading.

That said, I think it could work in all classrooms from middle school to high school, depending on the sophistication of the activities planned with it. I would recommend it to students interested in this time period or as needed to complement other material in the course. It is the perfect reference book to draw from for exciting research and media projects.

Any age -- some of the material is heavy, but it is presented historically in a scholarly manner, and so I think kids can digest it without too much trouble.

America Dreaming is super cool. I wish I owned it, but I borrowed it from Tara, and unfortunately I think she wants it back. As a junior in high school, I did a research project on alternative energy, which I considered pretty lame, even at the time. However, I would have LOVED to have been able to pick a topic from a book like this. It's amazing how much good information Hill packs into a small space, and the design of the book is inventive and really eye-catching. Chase Tara down and beg to borrow it, too. She might not be happy you did, but you will :)