Eleanor Roosevelt

School Library Journal

Gr 8 Up-- Toor does a more than adequate job describing Eleanor Roosevelt's life and character. Her account is quite accurate--more so than most Roosevelt biographers writing for teens--and fairly complete. Her writing is a bit pedestrian, and the narrative is not terribly exciting, but Toor sticks well to her theme of ``a lifetime devoted to humanitarian principles.'' The book is attractively packaged, and the numerous black-and-white photographs are generally pertinent. Thoughtful bibliographical essays are advantages of two other recent biographies, Jacobs' Eleanor Roosevelt: a Life of Happiness and Tears (Coward-McCann, 1981) and Whitney's Eleanor Roosevelt (Watts, 1982; o.p.). Unfortunately, these both contain numerous factual errors; Jacobs' book, for a slightly younger age group, is moralistic and doesn't provide as much detail as Toor, while Whitney's, which is written in a casual, conversational style with good analysis of Roosevelt's personality, suffers from jumpy chronology. McAuley's Eleanor Roosevelt (Chelsea House, 1987) is very readable, flows well, and covers all the basics, but is filled with an amazing number of misspellings, incorrect dates, and minor misconceptions. --Ann W. Moore, formerly at Lane Road Library, Columbus