By Jonah Winter
Illustrated by Barry Blitt
Antheneum Books for Young Readers, 2015. Nonfiction
Just in time for President's Day, here is an entertaining new book about the Founding Fathers. Winter starts the book with an discussion on what it means to be a Founding Father and some common misconceptions about the term. After the introduction each spread features a cartoon illustration, a short bio, and a list of facts about each of the famous characters. Winter's writing is snappy and colloquial and he seems to delight in dispelling the misconceptions children are likely to learn from history text books. Even the fact lists are interesting and contain random trivia like how many hogs the person owned, or what their opinion was about France. The illustrations match the informal style of the writing and are reminiscent of the historical picture books of David Small and Judith St.George. This book has more text than St Georges' So you Want to Be President, but it is so engaging that children will hardly notice how much they are learning.
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