Abigail Adams
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Overview
The Library of American Lives and Times™
Biographies For Grades 4-8 Correlated to the Curriculum
Extend the learning through this new biography series. The Library of American Lives and Times use extensive primary resources as it brings American history to life for your students.
Learn about some of the greatest players who helped in shaping America as it grew from a colony to a world super power. Through a chronological narrative, enriched with diary entries, letters, and other primary documents, students will learn about the various stages of our nation's development, as well as learning to think about history from the perspective of both individuals and society.
By learning about history from a particular and unique biographical perspective, each student will learn about the following themes that form the framework for the social studies standards: Culture; People, Places, and Environments; Individual Development and Identity; Individuals, Groups, and Institutions; Power, Authority, and Governance; Production, Distribution, and Consumption; Global Connections: Civic Ideals and Practices.
These books are comprehensive biographical treatments of important Americans, emphasizing not just their lives, but the times in which they lived.
Abigail Adams did not succumb to the limitations facing women in her day. She married John Adams in 1764 as an educated and influential woman. From the beginning of their relationship, John Adams took her counsel. Her vision of equality and justice informed and inspired the first rumblings of equal rights for women.
"Stunning reproduction and photos provide a clear sense of the times and settings. These attractive titles serve not only as quality report sources but also as a general interest titles." - School Library Journal
Editorials
Children's Literature
Unlike many biographies that begin with a vignette designed to capture interest, this book plunges the reader into events in U.S. history that shaped the lives of John and Abigail Adams. Ching summarizes events in the fledging nation and capably explains Abigail's views on the rights of women and on slavery, juxtaposing them with both modern and Revolutionary-era views. Overall, however, the book's writing seems disjointed. Better editing would have helped. Some information, such as the death of daughter Nabby, is repeated, often unnecessarily. Discussing the final years of Abigail's life as "not always easy" and "saddened" by Nabby's death is out of place in the chapter on her legacy. Another example is a paragraph that begins, "For a period of ten years, from 1774 to 1784, John and Abigail Adams often were separated." The paragraph goes on to say that much of their courtship was conducted via letters and "Away from his fiancée, John Adams complained...." By 1774, however, the couple had been married ten years. Although the publisher states this book, one of the "Library of American Lives and Times" series for middle school students, is written at a grade 5 reading level, readability, according to the Fry formula, is at a low 9th grade. The illustrations and photographs are numerous and well chosen and, with large serif font and wide margins, pages are visually attractive. Backmatter includes a timeline, glossary, index, list of resources, and bibliography. The latter two contain multiple punctuation errors. 2002, Rosen Publishing Group,— Mary Bowman-Kruhm