I was watching a documentary on the early days of New York city last night and it dawned on me that I read a time travel book when I was a kid about a couple kids travelling back to the days of New Amsterdam pre-New York. It's been years since I thought of it --after a few clicks and one search of "Book about time travel to the days of New Amsterdam" --there it was--the Magic Tunnel!!! Now I have to go and find it!!! I can remember it being totally captivating and I think it was my very first chapter book that I myself picked up and read without the need of a book report for school .


http://www.amazon.com/Tunnel-Caroline-i ... dogpile-20
Imagine suddenly finding yourself living three hundred years ago! Sarah and John take a subway ride one day - and magically find themselves back in 1664, when New York was New Amsterdam. How odd it is to be living in colonial times! Sarah and John are rescued by an Indian scout. They meet Governor Peter Stuyvesant. They see the English take New Amsterdam from the Dutch. They are living in the midst of history. But all the while Sarah and John wonder - will they ever find the magic tunnel that leads back home?

Sound familiar????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Have any of you read this book?


(Oh--and the documentary was really good to put this book in some historic perspective in that we were shown what Manhatten really looked like before the land expansions and urbanizations (Lord John and William will visit there in a 100 yrs or so)--what the the actual Dutch settlement may have looked like and where---It's called We Built this City-New York. I believe the series documents the origines of many large world cities.

I haven't read it but it sounds fascinating !

This book is perfect for teaching history to children while keeping it fun.
I remember reading Choose Your Own Adventure series books when I was a kid (in the 70's/80's). They had some historical facts and time travel thrown into the mix.
I find when kids read historical fiction, they're more likely to enjoy learning the historical facts.

^^^ That indeed was me--I remembered my history lesson of New Amsterdam becoming New York and found this real cool to have an adventure with the actual players of history actually applying what I had learned (and the fact the lesson stuck was pretty impressive since it wasn't Canadian history) and here I am --still checking out the history

And just to make it clear---it is a kid's book.

Exactly! If there is an emotional link that can draw the child into the learning process, then that's how kids learn. As adults or older kids, we can discipline ourselves better and attend to lessons when needed. But, like you said, here we are still checking it out! That's why books like the Outlander series are so great. Other books like Memoirs of a Geisha or Raise the Red Tent also come to mind when thinking of great human stories set in historical times. Although, if one is lucky, reading a great biography can sometimes read like a book of fiction too. I loved Georgiana: Duchess of Devonshire a few years back ((the movie was horrible!).
I'm going to look for The Magic Tunnel and read through it. I'm a teacher and, even if I can't use it, I can always recommend it to colleagues. Also, I'm here in NY and that's part of the state's curriculum.
Happy Reading!

From what I've read the Duchess was quite the woman--and yeah the movie seems to lack!! I've read a book or two who have mentionned the Duchess in passing as parts of those stories--seems I'll have to look up her bio (other than Wiki)!

I hope re-reading the Magic Tunnel lives up to my memories of it!! And check out the author Celestem, she's written quite a bit on the history of New York--written in the 50s tho!
http://www.librarything.com/author/emersoncarolinedwigh

Thanks for the link! It's always fun to share book experiences