THE FOUNDERS

The Constitution celebrated its 217th anniversary on June 21, 2005, and the 39 founders would be delighted that their document has not only endured but has been amended 27 times to make the United States even more democratic. In this handsome companion to The Signers (2002), and using a similar format, Fradin and McCurdy provide a history of each state, a biography of each signer and maps to place the states in their new context as a union. McCurdy’s excellent black-and-white scratchboard illustrations are a perfect complement to the text. The introduction clearly summarizes the issues behind the Constitution: the battles between Federalists and Anti-Federalists; the clashes between large states and small; the controversy over slavery; and the call for a Bill of Rights. The afterword provides a sense of what the document has meant to the nation in the two centuries since the summer of 1788, when the new governmental framework was adopted. The bibliography will not lead young readers beyond the text, but this volume has much to offer all by itself. (Nonfiction. 10+)