Today I am sharing all the great American history books for kids, and a few for adults, that I found in the gift shops at Mt. Vernon and Valley Forge on my recent trip back east. So these are all primarily about Washington. My homeschooling girlfriends and I may have spent a tad too much time in the gift shops on our trip to Washington D.C. oohing and aahing over all the treasures, like this Christmas ornament of Washington crossing the Delaware River. Isn’t it darling? We were gasping so much over all the wonders of American history in book and trinket form on display that I think the cashier thought we might be collapsing soon from overstimulation. You would think that we were yokels who had just rolled off a turnip truck and had never been in a gift shop before. 🙂 We finally decided to contain our joy and get on with the tour of Mt. Vernon before we spent all our day in the gift shop, or got arrested for disturbing the peace.

Much as I love treasures like these I feel books are the real treasures in gift shops. I didn’t have space or the money to buy and pack them all home but thank goodness for phone cameras. It was so splendid to just capture the titles on my phone and then have the ability to go home and look them up at my local library. So here are the ones I found at Mt. Vernon’s gift shop. So go to your library’s web site and get ready to put these on hold or order to your heart’s content on Amazon. Read these now in honor of Independence Day or all year-round. It is such a blessing to be an American citizen, to be recipients of the sacrifices that Washington and the other patriots made.  The more you read, the more you know, and the more you know about American history, the more you will be able to enjoy your heritage and rights as an American citizen, as well as fulfill your responsibilities.

I didn’t find the book pictured below at any of the gift shops. I found it at the public library just this week and my son picked it up this morning to read during breakfast. It’s full of facts and trivia, fun and cool things to know about America.

Ok so here are the books and DVDs found at the smaller gift shop at Mt. Vernon. We saw it when we first entered the Ford Orientation Center. I noticed the bigger gift shop in the Reynolds Education Center at the end of the day and didn’t dare go in I was so tired. Sometimes the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. 🙂

These books below are part of a trilogy about the Revolutionary War. I started listening to the first one on scribd.com for free, when I signed up for a free two month trial. You can do the same here.