Anthony and the Magic Picture Frame: The Story of the Boy Who Traveled Into the Past by Stepping Through the Picture Frame on His Bedroom Wall and Ret

Anthony And The Magic Picture Frame is an informative exploration for children into the history of America and the world. Anthony And The Magic Picture Frame offers young readers an incredible depiction and encouraging read for many of the great historical markers of America's history as twelve-year-old Anthony travels the world, and even to the moon. Included are the first lunar landing, Charles Lindbergh's first New-York to Paris flight, WWI and WWII, Edison's first electric lamp, and so much more specifically designed and deftly written in a child-friendly and educational format. Anthony And The Magic Picture Frame is very strongly recommended -- especially to all parents wishing for an accurate and expansive education of American history for their children.

"Anthony and the Magic Picture Frame is an innovative book that will stimulate your child's interest in history. Although written for ages 12 and up, this can easily be used as a family read-aloud for younger children. Your child will be transported back to the time of important historical events using real photographs of "Anthony" superimposed on historical photos of the people he visits including Charles Lindbergh, Lou Gehrig, Thomas Edison, and Dr. Jonas Salk. While on these "visits," Anthony learns about the Apollo Moon Mission, The Great Depression, Immigration, Polio Vaccine, WWII, the Holocaust, and more. Real quotes from real people make the story come so alive that you almost believe Anthony is there! Included in the book is a list of books, movies, museums, and music related to each topic as well as footnotes that are lessons in themselves. I also like that the author chose to include references to God and Bible scripture rather than make this "politically" correct. The author, Michael Class, wrote the book to encourage "young people to become productive, honest, thoughtful, moral citizens-and to contribute in a positive way to American society and the world." He has done an excellent job of fulfilling this mission. I highly recommend this book for everyone, even adults."

I heard about this book and bought it because I thought my middle schooler would like it. She loves it because it makes learning about history fun and interesting, and, as parents, we are really enjoying it. The book is extremely comprehensive and, at the same time, fun to read with the pictures of Anthony in each piece of history. The categorized list of movies, books and other references in the back is wonderful. I bought this book for my father who enjoys history. This book is a real treasure and keepsake.

This book is amazing. We had friends over when we took it out of the shipping box and the book caught everyone's eye. The photographs attract attention and grabbing hands! I've never seen such a reaction to a book, before. My children - and my neighbor's kids - spent the better part of an hour just looking at the pictures. They got drawn into the times and places that the book's main character, Anthony, visited in the past. Even I was fascinated. But when I read the book, there was so much more. I got completely lost in the story and the footnotes. The author makes you feel like you are really there - in the past, say with Charles Lindbergh in his plane - because Anthony narrates the story in the first person. But the footnotes - well, they are like a Trivial Pursuit game based on history. The footnotes are like "links" to other stories and facts and places. For example, when Anthony witnesses the invention of Thomas Edison's motion picture camera and projector, footnotes took me to the first movie shown, the history of the nickelodeon, and the invention of the popcorn popper and its introduction into movie houses. All I can say is "wow." My children love the book, and the neighbors bought copies, too. We are exploring the lists now - the book has lists of recommended books, movies, music, and places keyed to every chapter and subject. Several hundred movies, actually. I can see that this book will be a lot of fun and a topic of conversation at our house for a long time. By the way, the author's Web site - after you read the book - has a history test that you can download. That's fun and educational, too. Why didn't we have a book like this when I was in school?

This book is an amazing resource for US history from the past 125 years. Each chapter is its own story with Anthony visiting real people and taking part in real events from US history. Anthony tells the events from a first person point of view and suddenly boring old history is tranformed into an exciting adventure story and yet - the story is not fiction it is real. Each chapter has incredible photographs. Many of the photos are familiar or famous photos with Anthony in the picture. Several of the photos were extremely powerful and moving. My kids found some fun "hidden" treasures in a lot of the pictures - but they are still looking for more. The chapters are filled with direct quotes from the historical individuals and the author has reference notes to the original sources for each quote. When I went back to look at the notes, I found so much more than just footnotes referencing sources. What I found was almost a second book following the adventure story. The hundreds of references explain tidbits of history, context for the quoted material and hidden recommendations for additional resources in order to delve more deeply into a particular topic. Some recommendatons are hidden in the notes section, but there is a third section to the book called "Anthony Recommends". In this section, there are hundreds of books, movies, music and places recommended for the person interested in a deeper look at any of the topics. I am using this book as a spine for a homeschool history course targeted for high schoolers. For each chapter, they read the story and discuss the photographs and then they each get to pick some additional resources from the recommended materials to extend the study. With so many book and movie recommendations, each student can extend the topic in a more personal way that keeps his or her interest and appeals to his or her learning style. I printed the final exam from the author's website and the students have used the test as a pre-test to see how little they know now and they will use it at the end of their journey through the book as a post test to see how much they have learned. This book is a real treasure. The reading level is late middle school through high school and beyond, but younger kids would definitely enjoy the chapters and photos as a read-aloud story.