Janet Pascal

The Who Is/Who Was series of biographies is extremely popular amongst its target audience of middle grades students. These books are constantly flying off the shelves at our library, so I became interested in reading some. To evaluate how good they are, I've read some on subjects I knew a fair amount about beforehand and others on subjects I was unfamiliar with for the most part. This title fits into the latter category as the only remotely biographical information I knew about Maurice show more Sendak came from a series of interviews he did with Stephen Colbert not long before his death.

So this book definitely was a learning moment for me. In addition to not having much biographical background on Sendak, I had only ever read his Where the Wild Things Are and none of his other works. As much of this book talks about the different titles he wrote and/or illustrated (including how parts of his life influenced those works), I was inspired to track down and read several more of his books. Knowing the stories behind his books was incredibly fascinating. For instance, Sendak's beloved and famous work originally grew out of him liking the title Where the Wild Horses Are, but he realized his skill at drawing horses was not quite what he wanted it to be.

This book is straightforward and factual about Sendak's life, noting how and why some of his books were controversial. It also doesn't shy away from mentioning that Sendak was homosexual, which I'm glad to see wasn't passed over to appease a small but vocal contingency that still objects to even acknowledging such relationships exist (especially letting children know this). The book makes liberal use of quotes from Sendak derived from his various interviews over the years, my favorite quotation being, "The best illustrated books ... are the books where the text does one thing and the pictures say something just a little off-center of the language, so they're both doing something ... The most boring books are where the pictures are restating the text."

Backmatter includes a timeline and bibliography. show less

This is a simple explanation of a complex period in US history. It would be easily understood by 3rd through 6th graders, however it is not an ethnically diverse telling. There is one reference to African Americans being hit harder than whites, but other than that there is no mention of the other immigrant cultures impacted. It does give a fairly thorough account of the more important public systems established. I would use this book as a lit circle choice or to supplement a Depression unit show more corresponding with Social Studies. show less

I liked this book several different reasons, but mostly for how it truly demonstrated the offbeat, fun-loving personality of Dr. Seuss along with his passion for writing children's literature. The book was thoughtfully set up to grab reader's attention by first explaining his outrageous youth and then continued on to discuss the impact his career had on the literary world. This biography consisted of beautiful black-and-white illustrations throughout and brought this amazingly gifted show more author/illustrator to life. This is a great read for anyone who has loved the stories and rhymes of Dr. Seuss. show less

I liked this book for several reasons. First, despite this book being a chapter book, the writing is clear, easy to understand and descriptive. The book begins with Abraham Lincoln’s birth in a log cabin, “Eighteen feet long and sixteen feet wide, it had a dirt floor and no windows.” Instead of just stating that he was born in a log cabin, which leaves the reader to their imagination about what the log cabin was like, this description begins to bring the log cabin to life through its show more real life features. Secondly, I enjoyed the book because it contained illustrations even though it was a chapter book. For example, when the book mentions slave states there is an accompanying illustration of a map of the United States with dividing lines based on which were for slavery and which states weren’t. This is especially helpful for young readers who may not know which states were for slavery and which were free states. The illustrations also aided in visualizing the details of the story, such as Lincoln being taller than his friend and therefore easily wading through the water first, by showing Lincoln in the water much taller than his friend and easily wading through. show less