Customer Reviews

Thomas Jefferson

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Cheryl Harness have written and illustrated some of our nation's great presidents (John Adams, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, etc.), but for Jefferson, I think she did a good job on explaining about Thomas Jefferson. Although this book is mainly for children to give them a main idea about our third president of the United States, many adults, including myself, can learn something from this book. It's highly illustrated on some of the important events in Jefferson life. If you really want your child to know Jefferson or just get a brief idea about him, or do a research paper on Jefferson, I would highly recommanded this book. As well as people that want to be major in US history, this is one of the book that I would recommand. Because illustrations can help a child, even as well as an adult, to understand better about what's going on in the book.
As you filp through pages of this book, Chernal Harness (author) gives you a very good idea of some of the events during Jefferson's time. She show some interesting maps in this book (like P. 25 for example) that tells you about what's going on in that time.
The author also showed you how Monticello was like during Jefferson's retirement. She show a "blue print" (P.36) and a layout map (P.38-39)of Jefferson's "Essays of Architecture"-Monticello and as well his garden and where his slaves work.
As a "Jefferson scholar" and history book collector, I really enjoy reading this book. Even though I might think I already know a lot about Jefferson, but when I first read this book, it teach me something new about him-William Clark came back from the "Corps of Discovery" and lay out the map of the US to show President Jefferson where did he and Meriwether Lewis traveled and explored.
I think this book is fun to read for everyone, no matter how old you are.

Absolutely excellent! The information provided in a clear, concise manner is wonderfully done. I wish history books were written as well. Probably best for either third grade and up, or for a parent to read and discuss with younger children (rather than read word for word). I loved this one so much, I picked up many others (equally as great) by the same publisher.

This is a good picture book biography of Thomas Jefferson for the classroom. It is intended for grades 4-7 I believe but there is information for adults to be had here too. Thomas Jefferson's life from birth to death is covered and yes, there is mention of Sally Hemmings and his possible 6 children with her. Some mentions in the book don't gel quite right because with modern sensibilities, the idea that Jefferson could state that "all men are created equal" and still have slaves doesn't seem logical but Jefferson didn't live in our times, but in his. Slavery allowed him to live a luxurious lifestyle and do many of the things an educated gentleman might do at the time. Without slaves, his quality of life would have suffered and he knew it. Still this book does provide terrific details of his life and gives us a portrait of how he lived.