What to do About Alice?: Book Review

What To Do About Alice?: Book Review

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Kerley, Barbara. What to do About Alice?: How Alice Roosevelt Broke the Rules, Charmed the World, and Drove Her Father Teddy Crazy! New York: Scholastic Press, 2008. ISBN 0439922313

Fotheringham, Edwin. 2008. What to do About Alice?: How Alice Roosevelt Broke the Rules, Charmed the World, and Drove Her Father Teddy Crazy! By Barbara Kerley. New York: Scholastic Press, 2008. ISBN 0439922313

PLOT SUMMARY

Many children demand lots of attention, and young Alice is no different. She demands that all around her pay her constant consideration, including her father, the 26^th president of the United States, Teddy Roosevelt. Inheriting her father’s spirit for adventure, young Alice and her insatiable curiosity leads her into many fun and entertaining situations, as she “eats up the world” around her. Will Alice ever calm down? Will her father be able to control her wild and free nature? Pick up this fun-filled biography to find out!

CRITICAL ANALYSIS

This fun-filled, beautifully illustrated piece of children’s literature serves as an example of a fantastic picture book biography. Author Barbara Kerley’s informative, yet comedic, text work pairs with Edwin Fotheringham’s lively illustrations to create an all-around entertaining piece of work. From the very beginning, it is abundantly clear that Teddy Roosevelt has his hands full with Alice. The biography begins with text depicting how Teddy has faced several challenges, including herding “thousands of cattle across the Dakota badlands”, leading “Rough Riders as they charged up Kettle Hill”, and how he has even “bagged a grizzly bear”, yet his biggest problem was his free-spirited daughter Alice, who he nicknamed the “running riot”. These words compliment the vivid illustration work that shows Teddy herding cattle, leading the Rough Riders, and even a roaring bear, serving to bring the words to life and captivate the biography’s audience. The image that is paired with “running riot” shows young Alice running around the world, with a spoon in hand, representing her belief that she is “eating up the world”.

This tale of the adventurous and inspiring Alice serves as an educational and factual account of Alice Roosevelt’s life, providing historically accurate accounts of her life, doing so in such a way that the audience does not feel as if they are being lectured at, but rather that they are diving into a fun story. The overall design and organization of the book flows linearly, beginning at the start of her life with Alice as a young child and progressing towards her womanhood, ending with a beautiful illustration of her as an adult walking past her father’s head at Mount Rushmore with an even bigger spoon in tow. The last piece of text is a statement, telling the audience how Teddy never solved the issue of “what to do about Alice”, the illustration representing that she continued to “eat up the world” as she continued on in life, never losing her thirst for life or quenching her curiosity for the world and the people in it.  

This picture book biography carefully crafts a hard-to-put-down account of Alice’s life, with both the author and illustrator working together to construct accurate storytelling with images that come to life before the reader’s eyes. Alice, as a historical figure and book character, broke down gender-normative behavior during her time, and inspired others to do the same. This biography can serve to teach children about a historical figure, but also to encourage both boys and girls to do what they love, regardless of what society deems as appropriate for their gender. This is a quick read, being impossible to put down, and is a picture book that readers will definitely want to enjoy more than once!

REVIEW EXCERPT(S)

Sibert Honor Book 

Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor Book 

Irma Black Award Honor Book

From Booklist (starred review): “Irrepressible Alice Roosevelt gets a treatment every bit as attractive and exuberant as she was....  Kerley's text has the same rambunctious spirit as its subject, grabbing readers from the first line....  The large format gives Fotheringham, in his debut, plenty of room for spectacular art."

From School Library Review (starred review): "Kerley's text gallops along with a vitality to match her subject's antics, as the girl greets White House visitors accompanied by her pet snake, refuses to let leg braces cramp her style, dives fully clothed into a ship's swimming pool, and also earns her place in history as one of her father's trusted advisers.... Fascinating."

From Horn Book: “What to do about Alice? Enjoy!”

CONNECTIONS

Read other books by Barbara Kerley such as:

• ·         A Home for Mr. Emerson. ISBN 0545350883
• ·         The Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins. ISBN 0439114943
• ·         Those Rebels, John and Tom. ISBN 0545222680

Read other books about historical women such as:

• ·         Lee, Tanya Stone. The House That Jane Built: A True Story about Jane Addams. ISBN 0805090495
• ·         Corey, Shana. Mermaid Queen: The Spectacular True Story of Annette Kellerman, Who Swam Her Way to Fame, Fortune, and Swimsuit History! ISBN 0439698359
• ·         Cardillo, Margaret. Just Being Audrey. ISBN 006185283X

Use to teach children about historical women/interesting individuals in history.