Arthurdale, West Virginia, is the site of an important social-engineering project initiated by Eleanor Roosevelt. Designed to improve the lives of coal miners and their families who were suffering from the economic effects of the Great Depression, the planned community included farms, homes, schools, shops, and medical facilities. The government bought the land with the understanding that the residents would homestead it and repay the loan after achieving a self-sustaining community. The community and others like it were to be models for eliminating poverty. Roosevelt’s pioneering effort in community-building offers an interesting commentary on how government support made a difference in people’s lives but could not resolve their economic or social problems. It was Roosevelt herself who entered peoples’ homes, engaged them in conversation, brought modern educational methods into the school, and made a lasting impression on the people she touched. Hoffman’s debut effort weaves the historical context of Arthurdale with a biographical approach to Eleanor Roosevelt’s life and personality. She attempts to capture and recreate the spirit of the times by quotations of former residents describing their lives in the town. However, the story never quite comes alive. The voices of the townspeople are not connected in a seamless narrative that pulls the reader into what should be a dynamic piece of historical writing. The biographical information is necessarily sketchy and sometimes superfluous. Black-and-white historical photos illustrate the text. Notes, bibliography, and an index are included. (Nonfiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-208-02504-9
Page Count: 110
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2001
In what has, for no discernable reason, become a rush to publish biographies of Bell, this emerges as the least formal, most approachable of the pack. MacLeod (I Heard a Little Baa, 1998) takes the great inventor, familiarly dubbed “AGB,” from Edinburgh to Ontario, on to Boston, and finally to his estate in Nova Scotia, giving his public and private lives equal attention, capturing his vast range of interest from aeronautics to audiology, and bringing his familiar exploits to life. A stubby caricature of Bell guides readers through full but not overcrowded collages of family photos, manuscript pages, simple diagrams, period advertisements, and newspaper illustrations. This is just a glimpse of the man, of course, and those who want to take a longer look can start with either the web sites listed at the back, or move on to Tom L. Matthews’s Always Inventing (p. 69). (index) (Biography. 8-10)
Pub Date: April 1, 1999
ISBN: 1-55074-456-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Kids Can
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A memorable tribute to a notably versatile inventor: From his first invention at age 11 to his last, 64 years later, Bell “recorded everything, sketched every idea, documented every experiment.” Clearly, Matthews does not lack for source material, but rather than weigh readers down with a long recitation of accomplishments, he covers some high spots (the telephone, Bell’s work with the deaf, experiments in flight, and his role in the National Geographic Society) on the way to creating a character study, a portrait of a man who both earned and knew how to enjoy success, and who never lost his sense of wonder. The fluent text is matched to an expertly chosen array of photographs, encompassing not only family scenes and closeups of small, complex devices, but such seldom-seen treasures as Mark Twain’s telephone bill, and a choked mass of wires suspended over New York City’s Broadway. So upbeat is the tone that the tragedies and challenges in Bell’s life seem downplayed, but readers will come away with a good sense of who the man was and what he did. (chronology, bibliography, index) (Biography. 9-12)
Pub Date: March 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-7922-7391-5
Page Count: 64
Publisher: National Geographic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
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