Review by New York Times Review
Young George Washington, long a bête noire of fibbing schoolchildren with his "cannot tell a lie" pieties, is humanized in this comic account of his early years. The opening spread shows George grabbing his powdered wig as he awakens on his seventh birthday, inadequately feted by his family. At one point a peevish George mutters to his half brother Augustine, "Someday, I'll be the boss of you." Purists may resist Washington as a moody youngster, but McNamara (author of last year's charming "Three Little Pigs" knockoff, "The Three Little Aliens and the Big Bad Robot") knows how to win over 6-year-old fans. The only thing they'll resent is no longer getting his birthday off from school. LOOKING AT LINCOLN Written and illustrated by Maira Kalman. 32 pp. Nancy Paulsen Books. $17.99. (Picture book; ages 5 to 9) Based on "In Love With A Lincoln," an online column Kalman ("Fireboat," "Next Stop Grand Central") wrote for The New York Times, this introduction to America's 16th president will inspire children to a similar state of reverence. Kalman's text is marvelously tuned to young readers. "One day he was kicked in the head by a mule," she writes. "Then he woke up and grew up and decided to be a lawyer. (He did like to argue.)" The accompanying paintings alternate between veneration (flags, uniforms, moving portraiture) and whimsy (Lincoln's favorite vanilla cake), enriching this utterly winning tribute. THE CAMPING TRIP THAT CHANGED AMERICA Theodore Roosevelt, John Muir, and Our National Parks. By Barb Rosenstock. Illustrated by Mordicai Gerstein. 32 pp. Dial. $16.99. (Picture book; ages 6 to 8) Once upon a time, a Republican president and a California tree-hugger were united in grand purpose. So goes the story of Theodore Roosevelt and John Muir's 1903 camping trip, told here with towering sequoias, pre-global-warming glaciers and snowstorm. Gerstein, who won a Caldecott for "The Man Who Walked Between the Towers," knows how to bring a great man's feat to picture-book life, and here he captures the men's vision of natural conservation against the glorious backdrop of what would become part of Yosemite National Park. WORST OF FRIENDS Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and the True Story of an American Feud. By Suzanne Tripp Jurmain. Illustrated by Larry Day. 32 pp. Dutton. $16.99. (Picture book; ages 6 to 9) Presidential foibles and feuds are a reliable source of astonished delight for children otherwise taught to revere their founding fathers. Teddy Roosevelt said, for example, that President McKinley "had the backbone of a chocolate éclair." And frenemies Thomas Jefferson and John Adams - "as different as pickles and ice cream" (unless you're pregnant) - make an especially colorful pair. Jurmain and Day offer an early-elementary-school account of the Republican/Federalist divide and a story of friendship surmounting ideological differences. THOSE REBELS, JOHN & TOM By Barbara Kerley. Illustrated by Edwin Fotheringham. 48 pp. Scholastic. $17.99. (Picture book; ages 7 to 11) Two picture books this season about those amicable opposites, Jefferson and Adams? Could it be nostalgia for the days when political foes would still break bread? Here, for older readers but with a similar blend of caricature and portraiture, historical substance and comieal aside, is the story of how the two men "formed a surprising alliance, committed treason and helped launch a new nation." Fotheringham's cartoonish drawings hold a retro "Schoolhouse Rock" appeal in this rousing account of the friendship before the feud. PAMELA PAUL ONLINE A slide show of this week's illustrated books at nytimes.com/books.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [January 15, 2012]
Review by Booklist Review
A young George Washington awakes on his seventh birthday with a hope familiar to seven-year-olds everywhere: that his birthday will be special. Instead, he has a day filled with events that will find their way into history books. He notes and records the weather. He throws a rock across the Rappahannock River. He chops down a cherry tree. And then, finally, there's a surprise party, and the promise that George's birthday will be remembered in perpetuity. McNamara peppers a colloquial narrative with factual asides set apart with decorated borders. Blitt matches the ebullient tone with spare, sketchy watercolors dressed with period accoutrements and peopled with bright, gangly caricatures. Young George is shown as a statesman in miniature, dressed in a founding father's garb, complete with powdered wig (which, we learn, he never really wore). In a first person afterword, George himself traces the line between fact and fiction, adding a meta-nod to the intentional, meaningful blur. This will not only entertain young readers, but also offer a beginning look at the many varieties of truth.--Barthelmess, Thom Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
It's George Washington's seventh birthday, but he can't get anyone to acknowledge it. "Another cold day," he says, dropping a 10-ton hint on his harried mother. "But I guess there's nothing special about that." His stern father isn't cutting him any slack, either. "Now clean your face and hands and powder your wig and occupy yourself gainfully until dinnertime," says Mr. Washington after George has carried out some punitive chores (the consequences of taking out his frustrations on a cherry tree). As Blitt (The Adventures of Mark Twain by Huckleberry Finn) chronicles George's slow burn in his elegant, irreverent ink line, McNamara (The Three Little Aliens and the Big Bad Robot) serves up delicious ironies ("Someday I'll be the boss of you," George mumbles prophetically as he's being condescended to by his "tyrant" of an older brother). She also sets the record straight with asides labeled "Myth" (George did not throw a stone across the Rappa-hannock) and "Fact." This book should add at least a few giggles to any Presidents' Day festivities, while reminding readers that every great man starts out small. Ages 4-8. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 2-On his seventh birthday, young George waits for his family to remember his special day while working hard and displaying the characteristics for which he is famous (honesty, studiousness, etc.). The text is a mix of fictional narrative and factual sidebars. Oddly, the story itself reinforces some of the myths debunked by the fact boxes; for instance, George is shown in a wig despite the footnote that explains how he only powdered his hair. A final note in Washington's voice clarifies the true facts behind the story, including an intriguing but unexplained mention that the calendar was different in 1732, so that his birthday was actually February 11, not February 22. The loose, cartoony watercolors by New Yorker artist Blitt impart a wry humor, and the muted palette gives a colonial flavor. The tale is mildly amusing and certainly informational, but the tension between fact and fiction may prove confusing to young readers. Teachers seeking material for Washington's Birthday may find this book is good filler, but it is not a first purchase.-Heidi Estrin, Feldman Children's Library at Congregation B'nai Israel, Boca Raton, FL (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
Parson Weems's notorious cherry tree fable is a canonical case of fiction adopted as historical fact. McNamara debunks that particular fiction plus others (no, GW didn't actually wear a wig), intermingling them with real facts to imagine Washington's seventh birthday. Boxed notes distinguish truth from fancy ("Fact: The Washingtons would not have thrown a party for George, but they might have had a large family dinner on his birthday"). The cherry tree legend includes some lively dialogue here, plus an appropriate consequence ("chop it up now...and put it in the woodshed to dry," says his father). George's page-long first-person concluding note sorts out the truth once again while summarizing his later life and commenting that "it's funny to think that a story about the truth was actually not true!" -- a double irony since of course this note was actually authored by McNamara. "George's" last comment brings us neatly around to the holiday: "My mama was right -- nobody forgets my birthday anymore!" Blitt's energetic pen and watercolor art, in colonial blues and browns, is appropriately lighthearted, evocative of the period while augmenting the humor (busy little George wears that mythical wig throughout) and slipping in a newspaper headline with a twenty-first-century reference: "Don't Axe Don't Tell Repealed." Altogether, a good introduction to this Founding Father -- and to a healthy skepticism toward any kind of unexamined information. joanna rudge long From HORN BOOK, Copyright The Horn Book, used with permission.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
(Picture book. 7-10) ]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
