by Doreen Rappaport, illustrated by C. F. Payne
Hyperion, 2013. Unpaged. Biography
Theodore Roosevelt loved life and all the adventures and experiences it could provide. As a young boy he was sickly and frail, but he trained his mind by extensive reading and then took his father's advice to "make [his] body into one that would allow him to live his life to the fullest. Fascinated with the natural world, Teedie, as he was called, filled his house with animals--hedgehogs, snakes, whatever he could get his hands on, to study and to enjoy. When he was grown, he took long trips into the wild West, especially after his first wife died, to try to overcome his sorrow. He rode with the rough riders against the Spanish in Cuba in the Spanish-American War, and when he became president of the United States after the assassination of William McKinley, he curbed the power of immense corporations to crush their competition, took the part of the rebels in Panama so the Panama Canal could be built, and perhaps best of all, established the National Park Service and set aside vast acreage for national parks and monuments. Doreen Rappaport's fine text and C. F. Payne's forthrightTo Dare Mighty Things . . . a terrific tribute to our 26th president, and a fine introduction for young people to an American icon.
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