JAMES MADISON

The closest this comes to suspense is when Madison is awaiting the arrival of the delegates to the Constitutional Convention (""James Madison wondered if they would come. He wondered if the states would ever be united for the good of all the states""): even the practiced Mrs. Martin can't make much of a story of the Father of the Constitution. Perforce the word law (or laws) appears incessantly in the central portion, and since there's not much adoing in the childhood and youth of the ""small and sickly"" Madison (not even a role in the Revolution), and not much for a child in his Presidency (the War of 1812 being something of a shambles), this is alternately--or concurrently--limp and stiff. That notwithstanding Richard Cuffari's stalwart illustrations, far above par for this series.