Langston Hughes, Great American Poet

By Patricia McKissack

(2002) ISBN 0766016951

This book on one of American’s great poets is part of a series introducing readers to notable African Americans.  The writing is while simple manages to focus on the essential facts that readers may first wish to learn about a person completely new to them.  The facts presented in this book offered to the reader in an interesting manner and an approach that will win over its readers.  There is an overtone of sadness but it is encouraging to find out that Langston Hughes lived full of hope and appreciation for the beauty of life.  Perhaps that may be that being a creative person, Hughes would always look deeper at what was transpiring around him and see more than what is obvious to most people.

This is a book ideal for tweens as they search for information on our great poets.  With a book like this to reach more young readers, it is hopeful that the audience for the works of this gifted American poetry will increase in numbers.

Sally Ride, First American Woman in Space

By Carole Ann Camp

(1997) ISBN 0894908294

Being a biography of Sally Ride, this book provides the reader with more than enough information about this individual in order to arrive at an easy understanding how she chose her lifework and prepared for it.  It is important to keep in mind that this volume is much more than a book about one individual.  There is also an enormous amount of valuable information provided about the space program in general.

This work is quite detailed for a relatively short work but done in such a manner that the interest of the reader is always well maintained. The respect shown towards the privacy of the subject is noted and the writer is to be highly commended for this consideration towards Ms. Ride.  In a biographic work, when the individual is still living, it seems the better practice to withhold some unnecessary details.  This book follows this guideline quite well.  Even with all the information contained, this is a book that is easy to follow and will be a big help to young researchers including tween readers and scholars.

Meet Thomas Jefferson

By Marvin Barrett

(1967) ISBN 0375812113

This is a well rounded picture of a person very important to anyone researching the history of our country,  Since tweens often times do study this area of history, this book can prove to be a highly tool for them in their research endeavors. This book starts off with a good clear and interesting recounting of the family background of Thomas Jefferson.

Life was definitely not one of glamour and endless socializing.  The father of Jefferson was a farmer, with land to his name it is true, but a farmer nevertheless and he passed away when Jefferson was only fourteen years of age.  Jefferson then had many responsibilities handed to him which he carried out well and continued his education and he involved himself at a very young age in the political side of life. This behavior was risky inasmuch as by doing so Jefferson and his friends incurred the wrath of the King of England.  Jefferson, in becoming the author of the Declaration of Independence, ran the real danger of the English army sending soldiers for him.  When this actually occurred Jefferson did manage to escape them.  When the war ended, Jefferson continued involving himself in the life of politics and he eventually became the Third President of the United States.

This book places an emphasis on the fact, often alluded in the majority of works on Jefferson, that Jefferson was a strong opponent of the existence of slavery.  This is an issue that this book’s readers, most especially its tween readers, may like to research further.  The illustrations are very helpful to the reader in presenting good clues to the life of Jefferson and his world.