As the subtitle indicates, this dual biography focuses on the remarkable marriage of one of the nation’s founders and his publicly silent but privately very vocal wife. Drawing heavily on primary source material, largely the letters of her two protagonists, both to each other and to third parties, St. George (So You Want to Be President?, 2000, etc.) crafts an engaging account of John Adams’s political and diplomatic career, while carefully highlighting Abigail’s role in it. John himself emerges as fiercely brilliant, vain, and stubborn; Abigail is witty, opinionated, and in equal parts utterly devoted to her husband and yet an independent thinker. As John works on the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia, she writes, “I cannot say that I think you very generous to the Ladies, for while you are proclaiming peace and good will to Men, you insist upon retaining an absolute power over Wives.” The lead-up to the signing of the Declaration of Independence occupies slightly less than half the book; the rest details Adams’s difficult diplomatic career (during which he and Abigail were separated for years at a time), his even more difficult presidency, and finally a happy, domestic retirement. While St. George clearly holds more affection for Abigail than for John, she nevertheless works to present his later career sympathetically, sketching out the political landscape that influenced some of his more ill-considered decisions. Despite a certain breathless quality at times and the liberal use of exclamation points, this is a fine offering that presents an image of a marital partnership that was extraordinary for its time. One real drawback as a piece of nonfiction for children is that the bibliography, while extensive, includes no titles for young readers. (chronology, bibliography, Web sites, acknowledgments for archival illustrations, index) (Biography. 10-14)
Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2001
ISBN: 0-8234-1571-6
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2001
A breezy, bustling bucketful of courageous acts and eye-popping feats.
Why should grown-ups get all the historical, scientific, athletic, cinematic, and artistic glory?
Choosing exemplars from both past and present, Mitchell includes but goes well beyond Alexander the Great, Anne Frank, and like usual suspects to introduce a host of lesser-known luminaries. These include Shapur II, who was formally crowned king of Persia before he was born, Indian dancer/professional architect Sheila Sri Prakash, transgender spokesperson Jazz Jennings, inventor Param Jaggi, and an international host of other teen or preteen activists and prodigies. The individual portraits range from one paragraph to several pages in length, and they are interspersed with group tributes to, for instance, the Nazi-resisting “Swingkinder,” the striking New York City newsboys, and the marchers of the Birmingham Children’s Crusade. Mitchell even offers would-be villains a role model in Elagabalus, “boy emperor of Rome,” though she notes that he, at least, came to an awful end: “Then, then! They dumped his remains in the Tiber River, to be nommed by fish for all eternity.” The entries are arranged in no evident order, and though the backmatter includes multiple booklists, a personality quiz, a glossary, and even a quick Braille primer (with Braille jokes to decode), there is no index. Still, for readers whose fires need lighting, there’s motivational kindling on nearly every page.
A breezy, bustling bucketful of courageous acts and eye-popping feats. (finished illustrations not seen) (Collective biography. 10-13)Pub Date: May 10, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-14-751813-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Puffin
Review Posted Online: Nov. 10, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2015
Hot on the heels of the well-received Leonardo da Vinci (2005) comes another agreeably chatty entry in the Giants of Science series. Here the pioneering physicist is revealed as undeniably brilliant, but also cantankerous, mean-spirited, paranoid and possibly depressive. Newton’s youth and annus mirabilis receive respectful treatment, the solitude enforced by family estrangement and then the plague seen as critical to the development of his thoughtful, methodical approach. His subsequent squabbles with the rest of the scientific community—he refrained from publishing one treatise until his rival was dead—further support the image of Newton as a scientific lone wolf. Krull’s colloquial treatment sketches Newton’s advances in clearly understandable terms without bogging the text down with detailed explanations. A final chapter on “His Impact” places him squarely in the pantheon of great thinkers, arguing that both his insistence on the scientific method and his theories of physics have informed all subsequent scientific thought. A bibliography, web site and index round out the volume; the lack of detail on the use of sources is regrettable in an otherwise solid offering for middle-grade students. (Biography. 10-14)
Pub Date: April 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-670-05921-8
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2006
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