A lot happened from 1946 to the present. Here are suggestions for living books about the modern era to learn about the people and events of this time.

Books About the Modern Era for All Ages

• We Interrupt This Broadcast by Joe Garner (Listen to the actual broadcast of important events in history)
• YouTube video of the first moon landing

Books About the Modern Era for Grades 1-3

Book Series

Childhood of Famous Americans Series

Getting to Know the U.S. Presidents by Mike Venezia

• Harry S. Truman, 33rd U.S. President
• Dwight D. Eisenhower, 34th U.S. President
• John F. Kennedy, 35th U.S. President
• Lyndon B. Johnson, 36th U.S. President
• Richard M. Nixon, 37th U.S. President
• Gerald R. Ford, 38th U.S. President
• Jimmy Carter, 39th U.S. President
• Ronald Reagan, 40th U.S. President
• George H. Bush, 41st U.S. President
• Bill Clinton, 42nd U.S. President
• George W. Bush, 43rd U.S. President

Once Upon America

• Close to Home: A Story of the Polio Epidemic by Lydia Weaver
• President is Dead: A Story of the Kennedy Assassination by Virginia T. Gross
• Tough Choices: A Story of the Vietnam War by Nancy Antle

Spine

• A Child’s First Book of American History by  Earl Schenck Miers

Other Books

• If You Lived at the Time of Martin Luther King by Ellen Levine
• Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11 by Brian Floca
• Richard Wright and the Library Card by William Miller
• The Wall by Eve Bunting

Books About the Modern Era for Grades 4-6

Book Series

Childhood of Famous Americans Series

Dear America

• With the Might of Angels: The Diary of Dawnie Rae Johnson by Andrea Davis Pinkney
• Where Have All the Flowers Gone? The Diary of Molly MacKenzie Flaherty by Ellen Emerson White

Spine

• A Child’s First Book of American History by  Earl Schenck Miers

Other Books

• Teresa of Calcutta by D. Jeanene Watson

See more living history book suggestions as well as the history sequence we follow.

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