Will You Sign Here, John Hancock?

by Jean Fritz

Bringing History to Life

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Description

A biography of the first signer of the Declaration of Independence outlining all that he did for himself as well as what he did for Massachusetts and his new nation.

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Member Reviews

11 reviews
I thought that this book had great pictures and it was interesting to read about John Hancock. But I didn't really like how it was set up, it had these borders in to focus your attention directly to the text, but I felt like it narrowed your view in so that you couldn't look at the illustrations and the text without stumbling over the border. It had great information about John Hancock and it was a good start to learning about one of our Founding Fathers. Hyman's illustration were good, but they were not her best work I didn't really feel like they fit, mostly because of the color choices that she used.
What it does, it does very well. I read the edition with illustrations by Trina Schart Hyman, she was a good choice.
½
A biography of the first signer of the Declaration fo Independence outlining all that he did for himself as well as what he did for Massachusetts and his new nation. Great book to use for a history class or social studies lesson.
A kinda of simple and dry telling of the J. Hancock story and signing of the DOI. CAUTION: p12 cuss word I would use this book to talk about JH and the DOI. I would surely use it as a read aloud since its dry monologue gives me the oppty to spice it up a bit. It does have interesting facts nestled in the pages. Read aloud for grades 3-5. Study resources grades 5-8.
Whether this counts as historical fiction or straight historical biography, I am not sure. Some details may be fictional, but by and large it is a straightforward favorable but not reverential biography of Hancock.
I think this was a good book about the signing of the Declaration of Independence. It can teach the students about the Founding Fathers and how the saying, "Put your John Hancock here" can about. Great U.S. history is the book but it does put you in the mind of a history book also.
This book tells the story of John Hancock. He was an important man. He was from Boston. He was elected into the first public office. He helped to end taxes.John Hancock changed the United States, by his part in making the US free.
This book is well written. It gives facts of the way the government was started and the fight to become a free nation. It has colorful illustrations, that do show what it would have looked like in that time. The setting is believeable. It shows the historical facts of the time.
This could be used in a classroom by doing a group project to find out about a president. It could be done by a report. Using all the resources available. Do a word search for all the presidents.

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Author Information

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70+ Works 42,117 Members
Jean Fritz was born in Hankow, China on November 16, 1915. She received a bachelor's degree in English from Wheaton College in 1937. She wrote picture books and historical fiction before focusing on historical nonfiction. Her first book, Bunny Hopewell's First Spring, was published in 1954. Her other books included And Then What Happened, Paul show more Revere?; Will You Sign Here, John Hancock?; Can't You Make Them Behave, King George?; Shh! We're Writing the Constitution; Traitor: The Case of Benedict Arnold; Where Do You Think You're Going, Christopher Columbus?; Who's That Stepping on Plymouth Rock?; The Double Life of Pocahontas; and George Washington's Mother. Homesick: My Own Story, a collection of linked narratives, traces her life from her girlhood in China to her longed-for yet uneasy passage to America. It won a National Book Award and was named a Newbery Honor Book. She received the Regina Medal by the Catholic Library Association, the National Humanities Medal, and the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award and the Knickerbocker Award for Juvenile Literature for her body of work. She died on May 14, 2017 at the age of 101. (Bowker Author Biography) show less

Some Editions

Schart Hyman, Trina (Illustrator)

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Common Knowledge

Canonical title
Will You Sign Here, John Hancock?
Original title
Will You Sign Here, John Hancock?
Original publication date
1976
People/Characters
John Hancock
Important places
Massachusetts, USA
Important events
American Revolution

Classifications

Genre
Nonfiction
DDC/MDS
973.3History & geographyHistory of North AmericaUnited StatesRevolutionary War (1775-89)
LCC
E302.6 .H23 .F74History of the United StatesUnited StatesRevolution to the Civil War, 1775/1783-1861Biography (Late eighteenth century)
BISAC

Statistics

Members
1,551
Popularity
14,737
Reviews
10
Rating
(3.95)
Languages
English
Media
Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
ISBNs
28
UPCs
1
ASINs
13