Theodore Roosevelt: The Adventurous President (Time For Kids Biographies Series) by Editors Of Time For Kids, Time Magazine, Time for Kids Magazine, Lisa DeMauro (With)

From the Publisher

Each day was an adventure for President Theodore Roosevelt. When he was a kid, he kept turtles in the bathtub and frogs under his cap. As an adult, he was a cowboy, a river explorer, and a big game hunter. Sometimes he would go on marches through deep puddles and icy rivers — just for fun! TIME For Kids® Biographies help make a connection between the lives of past heroes and the events of today. When Teddy became president, Americans were looking ahead with excitement to the twentieth century. Teddy's spirit and dreams helped make the United States one of the greatest countries in the world.

School Library Journal

Gr 3-5-These beginning biographies have simple texts set upon beautifully arranged spreads with crisp full-color and black-and-white photographs. The first book introduces Kennedy's family and childhood, health problems, education, military service, literary pursuits, political campaigns, marriage, and fatherhood. The Bay of Pigs invasion, Cuban Missile Crisis, Cold War, civil rights movement, and his assassination are all discussed. Sidebars highlight the youngest presidents, Jackie's White House tours, Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation (a bit of a stretch), Rosa Parks (a "mystery person" inclusion), and "John, Jackie, & Caroline after the White House." The second book describes Roosevelt's childhood; health problems; and love for animals, nature, and learning. The untimely deaths of both his mother and first wife are described as is his subsequent marriage to Edith and their family. Roosevelt's efforts to reform local, state, and national politics are noted as is his military service with the Rough Riders, success in building the Panama Canal, and establishment of 230 million acres of national park land. Sidebars focus on Roosevelt's home museum, Mount Rushmore, his "Big Stick" policy, and the story of the Teddy bear. While the coverage is somewhat superficial, the eye-popping layout of these titles makes them serviceable additions for most collections.-Laura Scott, Farmington Community Library, MI Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

An adequate biography of the 26th president is one of four biographies in the vanguard of a new series linked to TIME for Kids. Punctuated by rather too many exclamation points, simple declarative sentences take readers through TR's life (continually referring to him as "Teddy" despite disclosing that he hated that name), with occasional sidebars offering little tidbits (such as the origin of the teddy bear and Roosevelt's legacy of conservation). For all its breathlessness, the text does a creditable job of explaining such concepts as monopolies to its upper-elementary audience (but it does struggle with the creation of the Panama Canal), and the illustrations are lavish-at least two to a spread. As nonfiction, however, it falls far short of minimal standards of documentation, lacking even a bibliography. It gets the job done for the most part, and it looks good while doing it, but one is forced to wonder whether the world really needs another just-adequate series of cookie-cutter branded biographies for kids-perhaps "the editors of TIME for Kids" might consider this before churning out still more. (Nonfiction. 7-10)

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