Theodore Roosevelt: An Initial Biography

I would put this book at about 4.5 stars. I purchased this book for my 9 year old for American History homeschool. It is very cleanly written making it an easy read at 106 pages of medium-sized font and covers a large historical time period starting with a child-appealing intro when Teddy was 7 years old, 1 year after Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. The book finishes with Teddy's death in 1918 at the age of 60. The book references nearly every important historical event along the way and is fairly comprehensive given its brevity. It is not chaptered traditionally, but broken down into subheadings every two or three pages making it easy to break the reading assignment up; my daughter read 15 - 20 pages a day during school and finished the book in a school week, although the whole book could probably be read by a fluent reader in an hour or so. It really could use a comprehension guide, Beautiful Feet books offers a study guide for Western Expansion pack I believe which includes this book. The later chapters include a lot of famous Teddy quotes, but some of the politics might be boring or over some children's understanding if they do not have a good grip on American civics (particularly state vs. federal government, the function and division of power in the 3 branches, and how the two party system works to elect a president- as Teddy's role as a reformer is discussed quite a bit in the late chapters). Fortunately, the book pays tribute to Teddy's interests in history, natural and other wise, his avid outdoorsmanship, his family, the "rough riders" and much more aside from politics alone. The assassination attempt is glossed over as is his eventual demise. The vocabulary is for the most part simple, but there are a lot of historical references or terms that might be lost on kids from Teddy as a child visiting "Webnuster" Abbey, his sister getting the "grippe" and a few other political-type references. Sprinkled throughout the book every three pages or so are lovely three-color illustrations. I would say this is more "living history" style in the tradition of Charlotte Mason rather than "textbook" style historical writing. It is a solid historical reader for middle schoolers.

Absolutely loved this and so did my child! The way she writes keeps attention and made learning exciting!