Note: I received a digital review copy of this book through NetGalley; I received an ARC signed by the illustrator at ALA Midwinter 2017. ( )

I think this is meant for children at more intermediate level learners (3-5th grade). It could be used in primary levels as a read aloud for a lesson as well. This is a pictorial biography of John F Kennedy. It gives us a nice timeline of his life, and provides beautiful artwork throughout the timeline. It focuses in on the Civil Rights movement, and Martin Luther King's story is integrated into it as well. It gives us a bold insight on the speech that John "Jack" said on television, and how his speech went into action. My favorite pages were 40-41, it could give students a very beautiful and powerful art piece of Dr. King's historic march on Washington in August of 1963. The end of the book has a few pages that are much more informational and could be used to describe people in the book further in a lesson, as well as more resources for information regarding JFK and MLK. ( )

This biography of John F. Kennedy, is succinct and zeros in on his civil rights promises and activity once elected 35th president of the United States. It mentions his book "Profiles in Courage" where he wrote about leaders standing by their beliefs, yet he was reluctant to go against the people in Congress who were against Civil Rights for the black population. He finally made the decision to pursue the Civil Rights laws when he saw the violence perpetrated on the children and young people who were willing to stand up for their rights. He worked with Dr. Martin Luther King to draft Civil Rights Legislation. He and his brother boycotted clubs that did not allow blacks and he had more blacks working and visiting the White House than other president before him. Tragically, he was assassinated before the legislation was passed, but his successor, Lyndon B. Johnson pursued it. The book is simple in the facts and uses two of his speeches as a call to action. One quote from the book that hit a chord with me was, “History isn’t a straight line.” Everything we do is two steps forward and one step back. We are still not where we need to be on civil rights, but it is better than it was when JFK became president. We also see other things that happened and where we are now as a result of decisions and statements made by JFK while he was running and while he was president, such as space exploration, the Peace Corps and more. At the end of the book Shana Corey writes in her Author's Note why she wrote this book the way she did and gives a few more details about the achievements of JFK. I love the stylized watercolour illustrations in this book. This a great biography for schools to use when studying JFK, the civil rights issue, the space race and even art. The publisher generously provided me with a copy of this book via Netgalley.
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