Hi, Clay!
I can't really help you with American history, but a book the lads liked which sounds perhaps a bit like what you are wanting was Geraldine McCaughrean's "Britannia" (British history, obviously)--something like 100 short stories about memorable incidents (Alfred and the cakes, Canute and the waves, Grace Darling, etc.)--about 300 pages in total, if I'm remembering properly. Lots of pictures, a real "story" approach to history, chronologically arranged--might be kind of fun for her? (Chico happily listened to this at 4, so likely would be fine for 3, as well.) I think I just got it from Amazon or Chapters--it wasn't hard to find.
Another thing that was popular here was a series called "Learn to Cook the x way" (x being Korean, Vietnamese, Swedish, Spanish, whatever). We had these from the library, they were all around 65 pages, and included a little history and cultural background for each country, and then maybe 20 or so recipes (reasonably easy ones) characteristic of each country's cuisine. That was quite fun!
There's a series somewhat analogous to the MTH books called the Canadian Flyer (the kids go back in time on a magic sled); I don't know if those would be readily available in a Georgia library, though! None of my kids (nor I) can get very excited about either of those series, though (we've never made it all the way through even one of them), so I can't tell you much!
You could look at travel guides in the library--the DK ones are profusely illustrated (picking hotels and restaurants for hypothetical trips to Krakow and Budapest is the most recent bee in Chico's bonnet, for some reason). Maybe along with a children's atlas?
peace
minnie
