Just read this today. Bought it for my son for Chrsitmas. Some of the tributes made me cry others just inspired me. Good heroes for our children to look up to and good lessons ( )

Heroes for my Son is a quick and easy read. Full of one page inspirations, written initially for his sons, he also has a book with heroes for his daughter. However, he makes it clean in his introduction that all the heroes in both books would be good for his sons and his daughter.

These short inspirational blurbs brightened my day while I read through them. The heroes are of different genders, backgrounds, and nationalities. Some are well known (such as Abraham Lincoln or Mahatma Ghandi). Others are not as well know like Clara Hale and Miep Gies. Either way they each have their own unique magic that shines through.

This book would make a great gift but is also a nice book to look back on at any age if you're looking for something to propel you forward or lift your spirits. ( )

Simple, sweet, and touching. All about the details. Without the pictures maybe 10 pages of words. But impossible to put down. ( )

I borrowed this book from the library. Now I plan to buy it ( )

Heroes for my Son: Ordinary People who Achieved the Extraordinary by Brad Meltzer is a specialized nonfiction book highlighting fifty-two influential, world-changing men and women ranging in history as far back as President George Washington to as present as President Barack Obama. Meltzer divides his book into fifty-three chapters, each chapter featuring an ordinary, everyday person who achieved greatness within his or her lifetime. In his author’s introduction, states that he set out to write a book that is a collection of inspirational people who overcame insurmountable odds in order to encourage his son in his journey through life. In other words, Meltzer selected 52 men and women that he judged as living extraordinary lives and wrote a two page tribute to each one.

The coverage of each “hero” is balanced. Each two page spread features a photograph of the hero on the left, along with a title Meltzer attributes to the individual. Beneath each picture is a 2-4 line description on why this hero is featured. Each photograph is included to put a face to the text, thus illuminating the fact that these were real people. The photographs are all small and in black and white, and look very uninviting in the center of a page with too much white space. For example, Harriet Tubman is featured on page 26-27. Meltzer features her as a humanitarian, an abolitionist, and a union spy. In his three line summary of her accomplishments he writes,”Selflessly leading southern slaves to freedom via the Underground Railroad, runaway slave Harriet Tubman became reverently known as ‘the Moses of her people.’ As she herself once stated, she ‘never lost a single passenger” (26-27).

On the right page of the two-page spread, Meltzer writes as though he is writing to his son. In this brief admonition, he encourages the reader to draw inspiration from each hero’s trial and triumph. For example, after featuring Nelson Mandela, Meltzer ends his admonition by stating,”In life, there are many prisons/ But even in the darkest ones, there are always possibilities” (17). The last scintilla of information on the right-hand spread is either a quote by the hero, “Every great dream begins with a dreamer” (Harriet Tubman), or a fun-fact about the hero, “In English, Nelson Mandela’s given name, Rolihlahla, literally means,’troublemaker” (17).

Although Meltzer’s book seems to be written for young readers, the cover art seems to be designed in such a way as to catch the attention of a much older audience. The cover is mostly white with black font. The word “Heroes” dominates the landscape of the cover, and within each bubble letter featuring a recognizable person in the following order: Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi, Jackie Robinson, Paul Newman Harriet Tubman, and Albert Einstein. I find it interesting that the author selected these photographs to incorporate into the cover, and I wonder if a younger audience would be captivated by the images.

Heroes for my Son does not include many access features. The book begins with a brief introduction on how Brad Meltzer found the inspiration to write his book. Even though he does not outline how he went about researching the lives of these extraordinary people, he does state, “this isn’t a book about how to be remembered-- it’s a book about how we live our live, and what we are capable of on our very best days” (xiii). In other words, this book is designed to inspire the reader to face the challenges he or she will face today. The table of contents does not offer much insight into the organizational structure of the book. It seems as though there is no rhyme or reason as to why the “heroes” are ordered the way they are. For example, Meltzer begins with the Wright Brothers, moves to Team Hoyt, a father and son long-distance team, followed by Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel, the creators of Superman and Clark Kent. There is no index or glossary, but I don’t think this book would be enhanced by the addition of either. The information in this book is a mile wide and an inch deep, and a mile wide; therefore, I don’t think people will need to use an index to locate specific words and/or phrases. No bibliography or research notes are included; however, credit is given documenting sources of the photographs, which makes me wonder about the accuracy of the information.

Brad Meltzer is a best-selling author in both fiction and nonfiction. However, there are huge red-flags concerning the scholarship of this book. Since this book is written to inspire as opposed to research, there are times when the author overgeneralizes these great men and women’s lives. In his section about Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel, Meltzer writes,”They weren’t good-looking./They weren’t popular. / And they were so poor that they used to draw on the back of butcher’s paper. / But they were two best friends. / With one dream…” (7). As a critical-reader, I have to ask how much of this is fact vs. opinion? I will never know because Meltzer gives no reference as to what sources he used.

Milton Meltzer writes, “Style… is not a trick of rhetoric… It is a quality of vision.” WIth that being said, Brad Meltzer’s book, Heroes for my Son, attempts to achieve style through clarity, language, and tone. The language is accessible for his target audience, which seems to be middle to high school students; however, the content is not carefully organized or logically ordered. Meltzer begins with the Wright Brothers, brothers who persevered to build the first airplane. He then moves to Team Hoyt, a father and son long-distance team. Next, he features Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel, the creators of Superman and Clark Kent. It seems as though the heroes are randomly ordered with no method to his madness.

Additionally, the language seems dull and drab. Chapter titles are the hero’s name, and in his brief summary of their achievement, Meltzer uses less than spectacular word choice. Furthermore, his language becomes even more confusing when the reader moves to the right page of each two page spread. Meltzer seeks to draw the reader in through several single-line statements about each hero; but he fails to achieve his desired impact because his language is at times confusing and the format of each right page is drastically different. For example, hoping to inspire wonder and imagination in his audience, Meltzer writes of Mr. Rogers:

“His parents were so worried about his hay fever, they kept him inside for an entire summer.
He had nothing to play with except for a toy piano and some homemade hand puppets.
Freddie made the best of it. He had his imagination.
He didn’t need anything else.” (9)

This excerpt is just one of many examples of dull and unclear language leaving the reader confused and frustrated.

Finally, the author uses a mostly conversational tone, not as if chatting among friends, but rather as a father to a son. There are times at the end of each section when Brad Meltzer climbs onto his soapbox in order to impart wisdom to his son and to the reader. This usually comes in the last line. For instance, of Harry Houdini he writes,”Harry Houdini became the highest-paid vaudeville performer of his time, forever doing what he loved rather than doing what is safe” (29), of Oprah Winfrey he writes,”The only person you ever need to be is yourself,” (59), and of Muhammad Ali he writes,”He never--ever--apologized for who he was” (85). These are three examples where Brad Meltzer explicitly attempts to pass on wisdom to his readers as a father to a son.

All things considered, Heroes for my Son is an interesting read; however, it could have been so much better with a little bit of time and planning. It should not be used as a research aid. This book seems as though it would be a graduation/birthday present full of advice from a sentimental father to a son transitioning into a new stage in life (elementary to middle school, junior high to high school, or high school to university). I would give this book two stars. ( )