I believe if there's one way to instantly improve anything, it's to add food! This book has exactly the right idea. Instead of just reading your way through history, why not eat through it? Beginning with the first Thanksgiving, you can cook representative foods from colonial times, Louisiana territory, the Alamo, pioneer times, plantation life, the transcontinental railroad days, the Victorian era, the twenties, the Great Depression, World War II, the fifties, the sixties and seventies, and finally the eighties and nineties. Each time period has around four pages of brief, informative history reading (complete with humorous illustrations) and then gets down to the recipes. (Getting started cooking pages with tips are included in the very beginning.) Key terms in the history reading are in bold, and there are fun food facts to read from that time period. The recipes are great symbols of the time periods. For example, after reading about "Remember the Alamo!", students can make tacos, Texas ribs, and meatless chili. When you are studying about plantation life, it won't do but to fix up a plate of fried chicken wings, corn bread, and sweet potato pie, with a peaches and cream sundae on the side. From first Thanksgiving golden harvest pumpkin bread, to colonial clam chowder all the way to nineties blueberry muffins, this is one U.S. history study the whole family will join you for. - Melissa