Claudia Friddell

Originally, I wanted to read this for the cover, but this book needs to be read because it’s fantastic. This is a true story of four very famous people: Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Harvey Firestone, and John Burroughs. They went camping together and there are pictures and home movies of their wild adventures. I love a book that teaches me something I did not know, and this fits that bill perfectly. What I think is the best thing about this book or the illustrations. They feel old timey, like 1920s, but they are so vibrant and colorful and wonderfully odd that children cannot resist picking up this book and flipping through the pages.… (more)

Author Claudia Friddell and illustrator Stacy Innerst tell the story of Hungarian-American journalist and activist Joseph Pulitzer and his campaign to build the base for the Statue of Liberty in this engaging work of picture-book biography. Emigrating to the United States as a young man, Pulitzer fought in the American Civil War, and eventually became a newspaper man. As the owner of The New York World, he ran editorials promoting fundraising efforts aimed at building the base for the Statue of Liberty, before Bartholdi's massive monument arrived from France. Finding that the wealthy and powerful were indifferent, Pulitzer turned to the American people, promising to print the names and stories of any member of the public, if they made a donation to the fund. His efforts paid off, the necessary money was raised, and in October of 1886 the great statue was unveiled...

Although familiar with Joseph Pulitzer's name, thanks to the Pulitzer Prizes created through his bequest, I knew very little about the man himself, going in to Saving Lady Liberty: Joseph Pulitzer's Fight for the Statue of Liberty, and therefore found it most informative. Friddell's narrative emphasizes the importance that Pulitzer always placed on liberty, and on justice for the ordinary people, and she focuses on how those ideals played out, as he worked toward the goal of raising the funds for the statue's base. The author's biographical blurb on the rear dust-jacket flap describes Pulitzer's efforts as a "crowd-funding" campaign, which is an interesting way of looking at it, applying a more recent lens to the historical events described within. While this certainly wasn't the first time in history that a public monument was funded through subscription from many donors, Pulitzer's campaign was groundbreaking, in the sense that he used the media to enlist the wider public, rather than just appealing to elites. In any case, the story here is inspiring, reminding young readers that the general American public helped to fund the base of one of our most beloved and recognizable national icons. The Statue of Liberty belongs to the people, and the people helped to fund it. It's worth recalling of course, that the French people funded the creation and construction of the statue itself, and that it was a gift from their nation to ours. The accompanying artwork from Innerst, done in gouache, acrylic and ink, is striking, and although not exactly to my taste, aesthetically speaking, works very well with the text. The back matter includes a note from the author, fun facts about Pulitzer and about the Statue of Liberty, a detailed timeline, and a list of sources. Recommended to young biography and history lovers, and to any child interested in the Statue of Liberty. As it briefly mentions Emma Lazarus, it could pair very nicely with titles like Emma's Poem: The Voice of the Statue of Liberty.… (more)