This book offers an introduction into the life of Eleanor Roosevelt to the elementary aged reader. It chronicles Eleanor's life from birth to death, but I don't feel that it does so in a compelling manner. I don't think that this book would keep the attention of young children, but could maybe be utilized as a reference for a report on Eleanor Roosevelt as is does contain a lot of factual information. ( )

Eleanor Roosevelt lost her mother at age 8 and her father at age 10. She was raised by her grandmother, and loved to visit her favorite uncle, Theodore Roosevelt. She married a distant cousin, Franklin D. Roosevelt, who would eventually become President of the United States. She was very active in helping those less fortunate from a young age. As she got older, she fought for women's rights, civil rights, higher wages for the working class, and equality for all. She volunteered for the Red Cross during WWI to help injured soldiers, and used her husbands political career to make a difference in the lives of those less fortunate. When Franklin became president, she did not want to plan parties like the other First Ladies had done in the past; she wanted to keep helping those in need. When her husband passed away after being elected 4 times to serve as president, Eleanor was given a position with the United Nations and helped write the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. She died at 78, after living a long fulfilling life.

I enjoyed this biography. It had more information than the other biographies I have read for this level, but it would not overwhelming for a younger reader. ( )

Kellie Maurin EDLS 6710 Nonfiction in the Curriculum Midterm Exam

1. I selected the Beginner Biographies books, Eleanor Roosevelt: First Lady and Civil Rights Activist and Barack Obama: 44th U.S. President written by Darlene R. Stille. According to Bamford and Kristo’s text, these books can be identified as concept books. The books are short and written for emergent readers, and they provide basic and brief information about famous Americans. The two books follow identical formats with similar writing styles, while providing a foundation of background information to scaffold learning. The major concept being explored is people, in the form of a biography, and it is written in a simple and clear manner for emergent readers to understand. The illustrations and text complement each other well, by providing a visual for the main idea on the page next to it.

2. Darlene Stille’s beginner biography on Eleanor Roosevelt is a book intended for emergent readers. The book is part of a series, and unfortunately it simply names Stille as the author. There is no information provided about Darlene Stille or her background and qualifications to write this book. The only notation I could find regarding Stille’s research was in tiny print on the cover page that reads, Content Consultant: Victoria Grieve, PhD, Department of History, Utah State University. Because this book is written for a very young audience, the language use is very basic. There are no direct quotes from Eleanor Roosevelt which was disappointing. There are also no citations and no information whatsoever about where specific details about Eleanor Roosevelt came from. Stille uses many generalizations about Eleanor Roosevelt, including an example on page eight which discusses Eleanor’s love for going to her Uncle Teddy’s big house on Long Island. The following sentences state that Uncle Teddy had big teeth and round glasses, and that he was jolly. I found that to be a little vague and while I assume Stille was trying to appeal to a young audience or perhaps was trying to create a visual, there was no evidence to support these feelings. While some of the accuracy criteria were left to my imagination, the book does provide basic and simple background information about Eleanor Roosevelt for young children. There is no use of sensationalism, stereotyping, anthropomorphism, or teleology.
The scope of the book begins with the birth and childhood of Eleanor Roosevelt in the 1880s, and stretches to her death in 1962; however, the book briefly touches on main ideas and events in her life. There is not much depth to the book because the focus is to simply introduce young people to who Eleanor Roosevelt was and what some of her beliefs and accomplishments were. I was not surprised by the scope, depth, and focus of this book due to its intended audience; however, Stille could have provided a little more detail to help young readers truly understand who and what Eleanor Roosevelt was about.
Unfortunately I was not impressed by the style (or lack thereof) of this book. While the content was organized chronologically, and the language was accessible for young readers, there was no “fusing elements of thought and language into a compelling text” (Bamford and Kristo 1998 p.42) like you would see in informational picture books. Stille did not use analogies or figurative language to further develop the information presented. The language Stille uses lacks rhythmic prose, vivid wording, and interesting descriptions. The sentences are short and straightforward, and literally only provide information. For example, the main idea on page fourteen is “Eleanor’s fight for workers’ rights.” The text reads, “When Eleanor married Franklin, many changes were happening in the world…Working people were trying to get paid more. Eleanor told Franklin about these things. Throughout her life, Eleanor would often bring up important issues to Franklin’s attention. Then, he would help bring changes through his job in politics.” The language is very concise; however, where is the emotion? Where is Eleanor’s passion? How would this draw a reader in? I envision reading this to my kindergarten boys and them being extremely bored and losing interest. The chapter titles also lack excitement, and the chapters do not really transition to each other; instead, they simply state the next phase in Eleanor’s life. Stille takes a very neutral tone, writing very little passion and objective.
The book is organized chronologically, comparable to most biographies. There are reference aids including a table of contents, a glossary containing nine appropriate terms defined, a basic index, three other books for further reading about Eleanor Roosevelt, and the publisher’s website which contains some resources about Eleanor Roosevelt. There are also a few “fun facts” listed on a separate page that also contains a timeline coinciding with the events mentioned throughout this book. I appreciated the multiple reference aids as a way to teach kids the various types and what they are used for, as well as some of the extra information the aids provided.
In my opinion, Eleanor Roosevelt: First Lady and Civil Rights Activist follows a template regarding format. It’s the same exact format as Barack Obama: 44th U.S. President, and most likely, the same as all of the books in the Beginner Biographies set. For being a biography, I was sure disappointed when I noticed that there was not one real photograph of either person. I think Stille is doing children an injustice by not providing a real photograph of Eleanor Roosevelt. Most, if not all, students currently know what Barack Obama looks like, but many have never seen Eleanor Roosevelt and are supposed to rely on Reed Sprunger’s mediocre illustration to visualize her. What’s worse is that in some illustrations Roosevelt appears to be African American, and in some Caucasian. How confusing for young readers! The layout follows the stereotypical concept book layout with one topic with coinciding illustration. Each illustration has a text box that states the main idea, and most of the text pages have a design box, with italicized font adding extra information about something mentioned in the main text. For example, on page eight where Stille notes Eleanor’s love for her Uncle Teddy, she adds his full name and year of presidency in the outlined text box. The end pages are plain white, and do not provide additional information or excitement. The books are very short, both around thirty pages, with not too much text per page, and larger font, which is appropriate for the level of intended reader. The cover does not do much for me, with a light, blue/gray background, and another illustration by Sprunger that does not accurately depict Eleanor Roosevelt in my opinion.

3. As a teacher, I would not use this book as a read-aloud to young students. As I mentioned, it was not exciting and lacked many of the interesting attributes that narrative picture books contain. There are far too many books for children on Eleanor Roosevelt, that I do not feel I need to use this one as a resource. A teacher may choose this book to be used by a first through third grade student as a minor part of research if they were writing a report on Eleanor Roosevelt. I still do not think I would make it required reading, as it goes against my teaching philosophy which is to engage kids in interesting, meaningful literacy. I would let this book serve as an option for students, knowing not many would choose to use it.

4. After searching for other books about Eleanor Roosevelt in UNO’s collection, I would say I am indifferent about adding the book to the collection. There are not any concept books about Eleanor Roosevelt, so if there is a need for such than it is worth adding. It seems like there are a few great picture books about Eleanor Roosevelt for K-3, and some nice informational books for older learners. Personally, it would not be my first choice when looking for books about Eleanor Roosevelt, but it’s sufficient for a basic, concept biography.

5. I had a hard time locating reviews for this book. Finally I found one by Content Consultants on www.amazon.com. They listed the features of the book including the glossary, timeline, index, and table of contents. Content Consultants also noted the short length of the book and the simple text used for elementary students with the addition of sidebars and captions providing information. They also noted the illustrations, and the review was mostly positive but neutral overall. ( )