TERRI SCHLICHENMEYER The Bookworm Sez Advertisement

"America's Hidden History" by Kenneth C. Davis c.2008, Smithsonian Books / Collins $26.95 / $28.95 Canada 272 pages, includes index

Everybody laughed, but you couldn't help yourself. Even now, years later, you're a class reunion remember-when story.

It was almost inevitable back then. Every afternoon during High School History class, you tried hard to study, to listen, to absorb all the stuff the teacher was throwing at you. Magna Charter, War of Somebody's Ear, Iced Tea Scandal.

Something like that. You tried to learn it. You really did.

Truth is, though, that History class was a great time to nap.

Still think history is dry as a stale cracker?

Then you need to grab "America's Hidden History" by Kenneth C. Davis. You'll read about the kind of stuff they never taught in school.

In his introduction, Davis, author of the "Don't Know Much About..." series expresses his excitement about little-known historical events and trivia that changed the course of America's future.

"For the most part," he says, "these are tales that the textbooks left out."

Tales like the teenage husband-and-wife who started a reign of terror in Europe. The wife half of the couple took out a loan to send Christopher Columbus to the New World. Knowing that the food supply might be iffy, she recommended that ol' Chris include some pigs onboard.

In the new land, the pigs became food ... and feral. Davis says that pregnant porkers spread their progeny and those cute baby piglets spread disease, which early Native Americans couldn't fight off.

Once the Puritans and Pilgrims settled in the New World, they set about populating it. Twenty-one thousand original English emigrants came to America in the years 1629 to 1640. The population reached a million souls by 1800, which didn't help the situation with the Natives, either.

In this book, you'll learn that George Washington's military career started not because he was brave and smart, but because he knew the "right people".

You'll read how Mount Vernon got its' name and how Paul Revere got involved in the Revolution (and why he's considered by some as the father of forensic dentistry).

You'll learn about the compassionate principles of an American traitor (the same traitor who's honored anonymously with a statue of his boot), and his wife who kept mum about her involvement in the scandal.

You'll see what item was most important to secure when Fort Ticonderoga was captured, and you'll learn which famous American had a parent from the West Indies.

Think you know history? Even if you do, you'll find something hidden that you'll want to learn from this fun-to-read book.

"America's Hidden History" is a little heavier than I wanted for summertime reading, but there were enough asides and I-didn't-know-that tidbits to keep me content.

Author Kenneth C. Davis is a master at sleuthing facts, and his enthusiasm in the telling is evident in the liveliness of his writing. This book will make historians smile, and it's a good introduction to Early American studies.

If you think all history is dry and boring, grab "America's Hidden History" and try again.

Your high school History teacher would be so proud.