What To Do About Alice (A Book Review)

What To Do About Alice (Review by Leighanne Massey)

Bibliography

Kerley, Barbara. What To Do About Alice? New York: Scholastic, 2008. ISBN 9780439922319.

Plot Summary

What To Do About Alice chronicles the interesting life of Theodore Roosevelt's daughter and her vivacious personality.     

Critical Analysis

Barbara Kerley is an award-winning author known for her books written about prominent topics in science and history. What To Do About Alice is a Biography set in a picture book format that highlights Theodore Roosevelt's daughter and her unordinary behavior as documented in the early 1900's. With factual excerpts embedded throughout, the story begins two days after Alice is born, briefly mentioning the devastation after her mother's death. As Roosevelt remarries and Alice grows, so does her big personality. With historical facts in the time period portrayed accurately in the colorful depictions of clothing, period documents, buildings, furnishings, and transportation, Edwin Fotheringham helps paint a comical picture of a bold girl growing up in the spotlight of her political father. Referred to by her father as "running riot," Alice adversely described herself as "eating up the world." Alice could be seen staying out late, gambling, playing with her pet snake, and joining a club with boys. Even with some setbacks, She enjoyed life differently than girls her age and did not want anyone feeling sorry for her. Though her antics continued in the White House when she was a teenager and her father became President, the nation began to love Alice and anticipate the news stories about her. Roosevelt was once documented as saying to a friend, "I can be president of the United States, or I can control Alice. I cannot possibly DO BOTH." Readers will fall in love with Alice just as a nation did in a conservative time when hardship and prosperity prevailed.                     

Review Excerpt(s)

A Starred Review From Booklist on December 15, 2007:

"Irrepressible Alice Roosevelt gets a treatment every bit as attractive and exuberant as she was....The large format gives Fotheringham, in his debut, plenty of room for spectacular art."

A Starred Review From Kirkus on February 1, 2008:

"Theodore Roosevelt's irrepressible oldest child receives an appropriately vivacious appreciation in this superb picture book.... Kerley's precise text presents readers with a devilishly smart, strong-willed girl who was determined to live life on her own terms—and largely succeeded."

A Starred Review From School Library Journal in March 2008:

"Kerley's text gallops along with a vitality to match her subject's antics, as the girl greets White House visitors accompanied by her pet snake, refuses to let leg braces cramp her style, dives fully clothed into a ship's swimming pool, and also earns her place in history as one of her father's trusted advisers. Fotheringham's digitally rendered, retro-style illustrations are a superb match for the text."

Connections

Other Barbara Kerley books to check out:

• Kerley, Barbara & Fotheringham, Edwin. A Home for Mr. Emerson. New York: Scholastic, 2014. ISBN 9780545350884

• Kerley, Barbara & Fotheringham, Edwin. The Extraordinary Mark Twain. New York: Scholastic, 2010. ISBN 9780545125086

• Kerley, Barbara & Selznick, Brian. Walt Whitman: Words for America. New York: Scholastic, 2004. ISBN 9780439357913

Teachers can utilize these books to facilitate a research project about influential Americans and their lasting impact on the country. Students could even check out other books about these famous figures, comparing and contrasting the information contained.