Roberta Edwards

The Who Is/Who Was series is incredibly popular amongst its target audience of upper elementary/lower junior high students. This series is constantly flying off the shelves at the library, so I decided to check a few out to see what the fuss is all about. To get a fair sense of the scope and accuracy of the books, I chose a few subjects for whom I know a decent amount about, and a few subjects where my knowledge beyond the very basics is lacking.

This biography of President Obama falls into show more the first category. Overall, I was impressed with this biographical offering. The book follows Obama from his birth to his re-election in 2012, focusing more on his years before the presidency. Perhaps avoiding the political realities (including controversies) is a good move for a book geared for children, but I thought just a tiny more information about that aspect would be beneficial.

Along the way, the book covers a fair amount of detail and provides pull-out contextual pieces where needed. For instance, the book does not simply mention that Obama spent some of his childhood in Indonesia; it goes on to have a one-page overview of where Indonesia is, what its climate is like, how many people live there, etc. These pull-outs are great for making sure children really understand what they are reading, instead of skimming over some factoid and forgetting it soon after because it has no connection to anything they already know.

The book is broken down into short chapters, which makes for easy places to take a break. However, it is a short and quick enough read that advanced readers could probably finish it in one or two sittings. Back matter includes a bibliography (with books for a child audience starred) and timelines of Obama's life and the world at large. The latter one is a random mish-mosh of hugely important events (e.g., the Iraq War) and really rather insignificant ones (e.g., the 50th anniversary of the Barbie doll). Even though some of the choices were bizarre, I do like the world timeline for providing even more context to this biography.

The illustrations included in the book are so bad as to be almost useless. They break up the text, but they are so loosely sketched that it's often difficult to see what's going on in them. There were also a few details here and there where I thought the book missed the mark. For instance, in describing Obama's campaign and presidency, there is only one brief mention of his and McCain's "running mates." In other words, Vice President Joe Biden is never referred to by name once. I think a sentence or two would have been a wise inclusion. In an earlier section, the text makes note of the terrorist attacks on September 11 as being perpetrated by "a Muslim group called Al Qaeda." Al Qaeda is as much a "Muslim group" as the Lord's Resistance Army is a "Christian group." It may seem minor, but that kind of language reinforces negative stereotypes and I can't help but think a young Muslim child reading that would be hurt by it.

On the whole though, this book does its job of teaching kids about Obama's life. show less

I really enjoyed this book. I liked this book for two reasons. First, the writing was organized. Each chapter lead up to Neil Armstrong arriving on the moon. The opening chapter introduces Neil's home life and where he grew up followed by his dream to become an astronaut and the steps taken to to fulfill his dreams. The illustrations are similar to Walt's chapter book. The pictures support the different stages shared throughout the book of Neil's life. The use of black and white again, gives show more the sense of history and an old time feel to the story helping the reader sense the importance this event has in history. The reader can take away how hard work and dedication pays off. Neil had a dream and he went for it, so pursue your passion! show less

I had mixed feelings about this book after reading it. I ended up scoring the book 5/5 because it doubles as a biography of the historical King Tut and also an information chapter book about mummification and the interesting burial practices of ancient Egypt. First, the book does a great job of matching text with illustrations to better enhance the mental picture readers will have while reading. For example, the text talks about how Egyptians didn't have pens or pencils back then so they had show more to use wooden paintbrushes made of reeds and ink. I love how on the same page is a diagram illustrating what those paintbrushes looked like, along with the scribes's portable wooden palette. Next, to gives readers an even deeper understanding of ancient Egypt and the written language, the text uses a table of the alphabet in hieroglyphic form. This was so engaging because it made reading about hieroglyphs that much more interesting because i could match each letter to it's specific symbol. Finally, the writing organization of the book was very unique. It starts of as a biography of King Tut then moves to information about ancient Egypt and mummy-making but then brings King Tut back into the book by talking about his mummy and burial chamber. It gave background information about all topics before relieving how the King was mysteriously buried in what's very little known about ancient Egypt and the pharaohs that ruled it. show less

My son and I enjoyed another "Who Was?" biography about the first person to set foot on the moon. Armstrong was always a private person so he was harder to feel like you knew anything about him compared with Buzz Aldrin and other more outgoing astronauts. This book fills in the details such as his early love for flying and becoming a pilot at a young age. There's also the sad story of his daughter dying at the age of two, something that Armstrong never spoke about. This is a good bio for show more children (and their parents) wanting to learn about the man who took "one small step" and changed the world. show less