_Thomas Jefferson: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Everything_ by Maira Kalman

This colorful book is striking in appearance and style. Maira Kalman takes a poetic approach to writing about the life of Thomas Jefferson. Lilting phrases and fun facts draw the reader into this children's picture book biography. While some uptight people (like myself) might find the text style that uses capital letters in the middle of words annoying, others would likely think it all added to the charm of the story.

But charm is not everything; it often distracts from less appealing qualities.

I can forgive the text style; it's artistic, I suppose. I cannot, however, be okay with what I consider to be age-inappropriate content. Now, it's not blatantly graphic or anything like that; it's just a little too much detail about sensitive topics, and I don't think it's fit for the grades K-3 for which it is recommended. While I think young children cannot and should not be kept in the dark about slavery, I do not think that they need to be exposed quite yet to sexual relations issues when they are not yet ready to learn all about sex itself:

“Here is Jefferson’s farm book with a list of his slaves and the supplies they were given. Our hearts are Broken. One of the names is Sally. It is strongly believed that after his wife died, Jefferson had children with the  Beautiful Sally Hemings. Some of them were freed and able to pass for white. Passing for white meant that your skin was so light, you could hide the fact that you were partially black. To hide your background is a very sad thing. Perhaps people felt they had no choice in such a prejudiced land."

And that brings me to the other problem I have with this book. It presents itself as a non-fiction book, but Kalman intersperses her own feelings and opinions throughout in such a way that the young intended audience cannot easily distinguish fact from opinion. Even when some facts are presented without opinion, they are stated in such a way that there seem to be some subtle political undertones:

“He was a strong leader with many ideas. He believed in separation of church and state. That means that all people should be free to practice whatever religion they like. Religion should not be part of government.”

Kalman  writes of Jefferson, "The monumental man had monumental flaws." That's true, but we all do. I feel that this book had promise, but the monumental flaws ruin it for the younger set. Perhaps it would be useful for the older set to critique.

If, however, you want a different perspective on this book, here's a much prettier blog with lots of pictures and such.

Yesterday I did check out what other picture books our small library had about Jefferson. Thomas Jefferson: A Picture Book Biography by James Cross Giblin had great illustrations (by Michael Dooling) and was really informative. It did not come out and speak about the Sally Hemings relationship, but she was mentioned several times. An older, more astute child might wonder why she was mentioned so often, leading to the important historical discussion.

The two other books compared John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. Worst of Friends: Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and the True Story of an American Feud by Suzanne Tripp Jurmain and Those Rebels, John and Tom by Barbara Kerley were both interesting reads with fun illustrations (by Larry Day and Edwin Fotheringham, respectively). While perhaps Kerley's depiction of King George and England is particularly unfair or American-centric, I found no major flaws for the younger set.