Customer Reviews

Sam Houston: Standing Firm (Texas Heroes For Young Readers)

5 star:		(2)
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Sam Houston
Written by: May Dodson Wade
Illustrated by: Joy Fisher Hein
ISBN: 978-1-933979-13-7
5 stars
This book is supposed to be for ages 5-7. I would like to expand that to include all elementary school students.
I have to admit that I did not know anything about Sam Houston. Every child--not just those in Texas--should read this book. The illustrations are bright and show action. The words are easy to sound out. The font is large.
The "educational part" of this book is hidden behind a great story--sort of like hiding your child's medicine in his drink.

I've read many scholarly works on Sam Houston but Mary Dodson Wade has captured Sam Houston, one of the most complex characters in Texas History, in a detail unfound in children's books.

Set in 24 wonderful four color illustrations by Joy Fisher Hein, the text has a statement of fact in almost every sentence. "Sam Houston was big man. He did big things" the story begins and it walks the young reader through every major event in Sam Houston's life. It tells of his sticking to his beliefs even when they were not popular and how he reveled in being unique both in action and dress. It tells of his life with the Cherokee, his life as a politician and as a family man with his young wife Margret Lea. But mostly it tells of his public service to Native Americans, Texas and to the United States.

This is a Children's book about a complex man that all can read, learn and understand; that is a literary success.