I haven't heard of Milton Meltzer until I read this article. Read any of his YA books? Here's the link to the New York Times tribute http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/25/books/25meltzer.html I especially like this closing quote...

“You may ask, what is the relevance of all this history to the young?” Mr. Meltzer wrote of his body of work in a 1969 article for the Wilson Library Bulletin, a trade magazine for librarians.

“Ours is not a past of sweetness and light, no matter what the textbook tells us,” he continued. “Textbooks avoid conflicts and the disorders that have taken place in our past. No wonder they bore students.”