A nuanced, engaging, and thought-provoking blend of biography and disability history.
Biographer Tobin examines how polio shaped Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s path to the United States presidency.
In 1921, at the age of 39, the always active Roosevelt suffered mysterious pains, weakness, and paralysis in his legs. After some investigation, he was diagnosed with poliomyelitis, which threatened his political career as well as his body. Polio, thoroughly and accessibly explained, grounds this biography. Chronicling Roosevelt’s recovery as well as his campaigns—for governor of New York in 1928 and 1930 and finally for president in 1932—the author details the intricate physical and political maneuvering Roosevelt’s disability required. Sympathetically and sensitively, he reveals that Roosevelt’s obsession with walking unaided and appearing nondisabled stemmed less from vanity than desperation. Accounts of pitying and skeptical bystanders and rumor-spreading political rivals illustrate the fact that prejudice, as much as paralysis, jeopardized his career. Though the author emphasizes Roosevelt’s determination and optimism, he doesn’t ignore their drawbacks; occasionally, Roosevelt’s stubbornness undid his progress, and his intense focus on politics and walking left his children lonely and stifled his wife’s own ambitions. Nor does Tobin glorify “overcoming” disability; only by working with his limitations could Roosevelt finally move forward. An epilogue details the debate surrounding a statue of Roosevelt in his wheelchair and summarizes Roosevelt’s presidency until his death in 1945.
A nuanced, engaging, and thought-provoking blend of biography and disability history. (source notes, index) (Biography. 10-14)Pub Date: March 23, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-62779-520-3
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Christy Ottaviano/Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Dec. 23, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2021
A breezy, bustling bucketful of courageous acts and eye-popping feats.
Why should grown-ups get all the historical, scientific, athletic, cinematic, and artistic glory?
Choosing exemplars from both past and present, Mitchell includes but goes well beyond Alexander the Great, Anne Frank, and like usual suspects to introduce a host of lesser-known luminaries. These include Shapur II, who was formally crowned king of Persia before he was born, Indian dancer/professional architect Sheila Sri Prakash, transgender spokesperson Jazz Jennings, inventor Param Jaggi, and an international host of other teen or preteen activists and prodigies. The individual portraits range from one paragraph to several pages in length, and they are interspersed with group tributes to, for instance, the Nazi-resisting “Swingkinder,” the striking New York City newsboys, and the marchers of the Birmingham Children’s Crusade. Mitchell even offers would-be villains a role model in Elagabalus, “boy emperor of Rome,” though she notes that he, at least, came to an awful end: “Then, then! They dumped his remains in the Tiber River, to be nommed by fish for all eternity.” The entries are arranged in no evident order, and though the backmatter includes multiple booklists, a personality quiz, a glossary, and even a quick Braille primer (with Braille jokes to decode), there is no index. Still, for readers whose fires need lighting, there’s motivational kindling on nearly every page.
A breezy, bustling bucketful of courageous acts and eye-popping feats. (finished illustrations not seen) (Collective biography. 10-13)Pub Date: May 10, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-14-751813-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Puffin
Review Posted Online: Nov. 10, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2015
Hot on the heels of the well-received Leonardo da Vinci (2005) comes another agreeably chatty entry in the Giants of Science series. Here the pioneering physicist is revealed as undeniably brilliant, but also cantankerous, mean-spirited, paranoid and possibly depressive. Newton’s youth and annus mirabilis receive respectful treatment, the solitude enforced by family estrangement and then the plague seen as critical to the development of his thoughtful, methodical approach. His subsequent squabbles with the rest of the scientific community—he refrained from publishing one treatise until his rival was dead—further support the image of Newton as a scientific lone wolf. Krull’s colloquial treatment sketches Newton’s advances in clearly understandable terms without bogging the text down with detailed explanations. A final chapter on “His Impact” places him squarely in the pantheon of great thinkers, arguing that both his insistence on the scientific method and his theories of physics have informed all subsequent scientific thought. A bibliography, web site and index round out the volume; the lack of detail on the use of sources is regrettable in an otherwise solid offering for middle-grade students. (Biography. 10-14)
Pub Date: April 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-670-05921-8
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2006
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