Jean Fritz (1915–2017)

I'm not saying everyone should learn about the writing of the United States Constitution through this book. However, being the frustrated student in American history that I was as a kid (I could never memorize names, places, or dates), I found this a terrific book. I think it is especially relevant to the present because I see so many challenges to the Constitution that I feel it is important to learn as much about it as I can.

I didn't seek this book out. It found me! It came as a donation show more to my Little Free Library. As I was about to release it to children in my neighborhood, I was interested enough in the book title and the amusing cover art of patriots in their black and white garb (and some with wigs) that I thought I'd browse through its pages. That didn't happen. Instead, I sat down to read the whole book. I'm glad I did. The story of the statesmen who came together to write the Constitution was an educational read, but also quite a lot of fun with excellent and often funny pictures by Tomie dePaola (whose artwork I knew from the days when my own kids were small) and tidbits of interesting information to complement the main thrust of the story.

This book not only provided me the incentive to read the Constitution, it also provided a full copy of the Constitution itself for me to read. I read it out loud so that I could understand it more fully. I think this may have been the first time that I actually ever read the entire U.S. Constitution, and I am seventy years old now. It was about time! Thank you, Jean Fritz and Tomie dePaola. show less

Jean Fritz was born in China and lived there until 1927, when she was twelve. Young Jean had spent her entire life in China, but her parents' memories of home and letters from relatives in Pennsylvania made her feel that she was American--and homesick for a place she'd never seen!

Family photographs and illustrations by Margot Tomes show us the real people behind Jean's vivid and unforgettable stories--memories of picnics on the Great Wall, pranks, holidays in the foreign compound, rebellious show more moments at her British school. close ties to Chinese friends, and how it felt to be called a "foreign devil" and spat upon in the streets of a turbulent China on the eve of revolution. When her family embarks upon its long journey home, Jean is thrilled, but she wonders: When she arrives in America at last, will she fit in after growing up on "the wrong side of the world?" show less

Prolific children's author Jean Fritz, who has explored the lives of many historical figures in her titles - What's The Big Idea, Ben Franklin?, Can't You Make Them Behave, King George?, You Want Women to Vote, Lizzie Stanton? - here turns her attention to the little-known tale of the horse that Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci created for the duke of Milan. That is to say, the horse he meant to create for the duke, but which (despite a clay model being made) was never cast, and which show more haunted him until his death. Turning from the sad day in 1519, Fritz moves on the 1970s, when American Charlie Dent, having stumbled upon the story, sets out to create Leonardo's horse at last, as a gift from the people of America to the people of Italy.

An engaging tale - and one with which I was completely unfamiliar! - Leonardo's Horse is part biography and part human interest story, offering young readers an introduction to one of the most important figures of the Italian Renaissance, while also highlighting, through the story of Dent's (and then sculptor Nina Akamu's) quest to finish da Vinci's project, the impact that his work still has, these many centuries later. That idea - that contemporary people still feel passionately enough about da Vinci's legacy that they will go to great lengths to honor it - is the best thing about this book, although illustrator Hudson Talbott's accompanying artwork is also very appealing. All in all, an appealing book, one I would recommend to young artists and dreamers, and to any young reader interested in Leonardo da Vinci. show less

Given the controversy in the last few years over what constitutes a memoir, it was interesting that Jean Fritz qualified the nature of her memoir in the foreward of this book. She said given that she has recreated dialogue from old memories that she must call the book fiction even though it is her past. Setting was a definite character is this book. Fritz's details of the places she lived in are rich and colorful. Setting advances the plot--in fact getting on a boat and going to America is show more little Jean Fritz's goal. Additionally, place changes Jean. After her baby sister dies, the magic of the mountain community where they were living disappears. It becomes too windy and the spring flowers die. Additionally, the historical events in China are described in great detail but from the eyes of a young girl. These events propel the Fritz family out of China and back to the U.S. Fritz used the zig-zag method of inserting back story and it was subtle and effective. For example, in the first chapter Jean returns from school and calls out that she is home. No one answers. "Then I remembered that it was Tuesday, the day my mother taught an English class at the U.M.C.A. where my father was the director." That is the end of this brief insertion of explanation of background. The reader is drawn immediately back into the present as Jean describes the high ceiling in the hallway. show less