Tracy MaurerRessenyes

A little bit linguistic history, a little bit American Revolution history, and all around sassy telling of Noah Webster's work.

Adorable. Very interesting and great illustrations. If you have a fact loving, word loving, list loving child, this is a must.

This book, subtitled “The Story of the Telegraph and Morse Code” tells the story of how instant messages were first invented back in the 1800s.

The author begins by pointing out for children ages 5 and up:

“Back when Samuel Morse was a boy, news wasn’t usually new by the time folks heard it. A letter could ride for weeks between towns or sail for months between countries.”

Samuel dreamed up a machine that would use electric pulses to carry coded messages through wires to machines far away from each other. He created a code that used dots and dashes to stand for numbers that in turn referred to words. He shared his idea with a science professor and an engineer who helped him realize his invention. He tried various schemes to bury cable but ran into difficulties. Under water, a ship inadvertently pulled up his cable. On land, poorly made pipes caused the wires to fail. Then he tried above ground, using tall chestnut poles strung with wires. This plan, completed in 1844, was the one that finally worked. The first message went from the U.S. Supreme Court changer to a Baltimore train depot and read “What Hath God Wrought.”

The invention took off like wildfire and spread from coast to coast, and then across the oceans.

The author ends with: “So, who made electricity useful? Who created instant messages and changed the world forever? Samuel Morris, that’s who!” And part of Morris’s name is rendered in code.

Backmatter includes a time line, list of additional facts, bibliography, and Author’s Note.

Charcoal-lined mixed media Illustrations by Borja Ramón López Cotelo, also known as el primo Ramón, have a comic-book feel.

Evaluation: This story emphasizes Morse’s persistence in the face of repeated failures, and the fact that his ideas required collaboration with others. Both of these messages are laudatory for children. I thought it a bit of an exaggeration to claim Morse “made electricity useful” however, as it was quite useful even aside from its role in enabling telegraphy.

The author, who expressed her admiration for Morse in her note, did not mention that Morse, who was anti-Catholic and anti-immigrant, was also a well-known defender of slavery in the 1850s, declaring it sanctioned by God. Specifically, he wrote:

“Slavery per se is not sin. It is a social condition ordained from the beginning of the world for the wisest purposes, benevolent and disciplinary, by Divine Wisdom. The mere holding of slaves, therefore, is a condition having per se nothing of moral character in it, any more than the being a parent, or employer, or ruler.”

It would be a good lesson to point out to young readers that people are not all one thing or the other, and that many prominent figures in America’s history bear the stain of racism and prejudice, in addition to their accomplishments.

Note: This book received a number of accolades, including NSTA Best STEM Book of the Year, Junior Library Guild Selection, and A Bank Street College Best Book of the Year.½

Clever design.

Prolific children's author Tracy Nelson Maurer, whose previous forays into the world of picture-book biography include John Deere, That’s Who! and Noah Webster's Fighting Words, returns to the form in this look at the life of Lady Bird Johnson, the wife of Lyndon Baines Johnson, the thirty-sixth President of the United States. Born Clara Alta Taylor, Lady Bird - so nicknamed by her childhood friends - was a shy girl who grew up to become an important public figure, notable not just for her relationship to LBJ, but for her active participation as a citizen in her own right. A campaigner for the beautification of American's parks and motorways, and for the protection of our green spaces, she was the first First Lady to have her own chief of staff, and she worked tirelessly for the ecological causes she espoused...

Although Lady Bird Johnson, That's Who!: The Story of a Cleaner and Greener America is the first book I have read from Maurer, it is the second picture-book biography of Lady Bird Johnson that I have encountered, following upon Kathi Appelt and Joy Fisher Hein's Miss Lady Bird's Wildflowers: How a First Lady Changed America. Although on the whole I think I prefer the Appelt/Hein title, this was still an engaging, educational book, one that pairs an informative, friendly narrative from Maurer with cute, appealing artwork from illustrator Ginnie Hsu. I liked the focus here on Lady Bird overcoming her shyness - as one might imagine from the title, the focus in Miss Lady Bird's Wildflowers: How a First Lady Changed America was its subject's love of wildflowers and how this influenced her life - and think many young children will find something to identify with, in this theme. Recommended to picture-book readers who enjoy biography, are passionate about conservation, or are interested in First Ladies.½

A blacksmith, John Deere developed a lightweight plow made of steel that cut quickly and easily. The steel plow, which customers named the “singing plow,” enabled farming to evolve beyond feeding one’s family into a business. Includes Glossary, Fact Page, Bibliography

great story of overcoming shyness and speaking out for what is important

This review is based on an ARC from NetGalley.

Aaaadorable. I love the illustrations, they're so lively and old-timey. I love that Noah Webster himself left editorial comments throughout, presumably to make sure Tracy Maurer got everything right. I especially love this bit:



As he once said, "I began life...full of confidence in my own opinions."

I also love that he was a descriptivist, not a prescriptivist. And I'm a huge fan of some of his spelling changes that didn't quite catch on, like riter and soop!

John Deere That's who is the quick and concise story about John Deeres success. It was almost too short, not dealing in anything personal about Johns life. It captures only what he'd done mechanically and business wise. perhaps that's because Jphn Deere was simply a man of action and got everything done quickly or because the author just wanted a short book.

Samuel Morse invented the telegraph, a way of telecommunicating messages quicker than how they once were. His invention of the Morse Code, a series of dots and lines symbolic of letters and numbers, not only impressed government officials, but also they actually adopted it as a way of communication. How swell for Samuel, being that most of his earlier inventions failed. Even the telegraph failed a few times before he got it right.½

The subject matter is fascinating and I think this is a great book for helping children understand how communications were done in the past.

It’s only a 3.5 stars book for me though.

I actually liked the one repetitive line but most of the story for me was just serviceable.

The illustrations are good enough too but for my personal taste I’d have preferred them with much more detail. They were good but I didn’t love them.

I did appreciate the 5 pages in the back that gave more historical details and other information.

Great book for kids to see the complexities of long distance communication in the days before computers, smart phones, televisions, and even telephones.

What a great biography about John Deere. This book shows how anyone that has goals and wants to accomplish them, can. It also, goes into history facts, like how the man had to leave his family and send for them later when he was more successful. He was entrepreneur that made his dreams come true. I like how he said he wanted to make it easier on people so that motivated him to try to come up with a new idea.

John Deere was a blacksmith from Vermont in the 1830s. He moved to Illinois after his forge burned down, and he ran out of money. In Illinois, he helped fix pots, pitchforks, shovels, plows, etc. John Deere made a new, improved plow that impressed many people. Farming grew into a business because of John. He changed plowing for America. I enjoyed this book because I had always noticed the brand John Deere, but I never thought that it was an actual person, with a real story, who changed American history. This book opened my eyes and showed me how a small invention like the plow changed America.

This was one of the cutest books I’ve read in a while. Noah Webster’s Fighting Words gives us a short biography about Noah Webster, and he’s decided to make sure that the author gets it just right, so it features notes and edits by Noah Webster’s ghost.

Mostly, what this book focuses on is Webster’s passion for words, detailing his fight for making an “American” language that was separate from British English, and the career he made for himself in writing and editing. It’s easy to read and incredibly informative; certainly a must-have for an elementary teacher who delves into the American Revolution time period. The illustrations are fun and have a beautiful sepia-toned, old-timey feel to them that brought me right into atmosphere of the colonial time period for America. Plus, you get a bit of humor from Webster making his edits to the biography and giving side notes.

This book is delightful and I highly recommend it for those who want an approachable non-fiction book about an important figure in American history.

Also posted on Purple People Readers.

Great picture book biography! Easy to read and understand.

This book is about the life of Noah Webster and how he came to write the Webster Dictionary.

This is a book about the blacksmith, John Deere, who made the plow better over time. He moved to Illinois after his forge in Vermont burned down. Farmers in Illinois were struggling to to plow through thick soils that they called "gumbo". John Deere decided to create a new plow made out of steel that would change farmer's lives forever. This book gives us a better look at who John Deere was and why he is important in history. It shows us the struggles he had to go through before he was successful in making the steel plow. The illustrations in this book are engaging, and go with the story being told. This book was well-written, and it did a great job at showing John Deere's life in a fun, and factual, way.

Good story

John Deere, That's Who by Tracy Nelson Maurer is a book about John Deere and how he enhanced the plow over time.

The book starts out explaining who John Deere was, a young blacksmith from Vermont. We learn about John Deere's journey west to Illinois without his family and how settled back into work. As farmers had issues with their plows, John set his mind to creating the perfect plow that would cut through the soil like butter. This plow became known as the "singing plow." The book offers a glimpse of what real farming used to be like before we had the huge tractors and machinery we use today.

The illustrations are interesting and detailed. I liked that a glossary, additional facts, and bibliography was included at the end. The author's notes were also informative.

4****

Great to introduce the boys to another famous figure from the revolutionary era of American history. Especially one who was able to declare independence with his pen rather than a gun.

Noah Webster fought the American Revolution with his pen, as the author argues in this story:

In his opinion, America needed to break away from Great Britain in every way. Politics. Trade. Even in its ways of speaking and spelling.”

To that end, he published A Grammatical Institute of the English Language in 1783, changing some British spellings and showing American pronunciations. He followed this up in the next two years with American Grammar and the American Reader. He featured the works of Americans in his books, and looked for more ways to make “American” separate from “English.” Thus, for example, he promulgated such usages as “jail” instead of “gaol” (successfully) and “riter” instead of “writer” (not so much).

He asked the U.S. Congress to pass laws making speaking and spelling uniform throughout the states, but Congress refused. He then tried to effect change through a dictionary. In 1806 he wrote a small dictionary with 40,600 entries, including some unique American words, such as chowder and skunk. [His philosophy - “descriptionist” rather than “prescriptionist” to dictate correct word usage - is still being debated to this day.]

In 1828, he published his pièce de résistance, An American Dictionary of the English Language. The author writes:

“No one, not another author, or even a king or queen, has ever successfully changed the spellings of as many English words as Noah Webster did for the new nation.”

“Today,” the author concludes, “a dictionary named after him is still published in America - with new words in every edition.”

An Author’s Note explains the author’s interest in Noah Webster and the research she undertook to write the book. Romanian illustrator Mircea Catusanu also includes a note, reporting on how he “opted for a collage style that incorporates realistic elements including some period drawings of objects, created over one hundred years ago by anonymous artists, as well as excerpts from period books, newspapers, and Noah’s original handwritten letters.” He also reveals that he tried using “a lighter approach” in drawing his characters, “aiming for an unexpected and hopefully amusing effect.”

The book concludes with a timeline, list of sources, and selected bibliography.

Evaluation: The interesting text and lively, collage-style illustrations will provide children with insight into how language evolves, as well as teaching them that the American Revolution was carried out in more unorthodox ways than just through military clashes. This can lead to many insights on the ways in which words, images, and art of all kinds can influence the course of history.

Introducing young readers to real people in picture book biographies is a fabulous way for them to begin learning about those who shaped the world. It is also a wonderful method to introduce and encourage reading of non-fiction works to young readers.

Most Americans have used a Webster's Dictionary at one time or another but few have the slightest clue as to how a dictionary was compiled, when, and by whom. In Noah Webster's Fighting Words the story begins with America's path toward shaping American English as we know and define it.

The story reveals the feisty nature of Noah Webster and how he pushed hard to establish verbiage that was uniquely American in sound interpretation and spelling.

Illustrations that will surely capture the attention of the most reluctant reader add interest and direction to the text that is factual yet with a bit of tongue-in-cheek humor that keeps it lively and entertaining. This story gives a glimpse into an individual that was somewhat weird, hard to get along with, and contrary and yet who was a valuable contributor to American English language development.

The pages at the end of the book include author's note and illustrator's note as well as a fantastic timeline. This book would make a great addition to libraries everywhere and of every type.

DISCLOSURE: I received a complimentary copy from Lerner Books to facilitate this review. Opinions are my own and are freely given.

Terrific for read aloud exposure!

This book show's of the alphabet letter from A to Z thing from the nature.
Source: Pierce College Library
Age: 3-5