Plot Summary - This book gives the history of Abigail Adams. She married John Adams in 1764 as an educated and influential woman. From the beginning of their relationship, John Adams respected her and her ideas. Her vision of equality and justice informed and inspired the first happenings of equal rights for women.
Personal Reaction - This book was informative and interesting. The key players in the shaping of America are mentioned in this book. Abigail Adams had a lot of insight on women's rights many years ago.
Memorable Literary Element - The book is divided into ten chapters. The book is broken into diary entries, letters, and other primary documents, students will learn about the various stages of our nation's development.
Illustrations - The book contains drawings and photographs.
Review - Children's Literature Unlike many biographies that begin with a vignette designed to capture interest, this book plunges the reader into events in U.S. history that shaped the lives of John and Abigail Adams. Ching summarizes events in the fledging nation and capably explains Abigail's views on the rights of women and on slavery, juxtaposing them with both modern and Revolutionary-era views. Overall, however, the book's writing seems disjointed. Better editing would have helped. Some information, such as the death of daughter Nabby, is repeated, often unnecessarily. Discussing the final years of Abigail's life as "not always easy" and "saddened" by Nabby's death is out of place in the chapter on her legacy. Another example is a paragraph that begins, "For a period of ten years, from 1774 to 1784, John and Abigail Adams often were separated." The paragraph goes on to say that much of their courtship was conducted via letters and "Away from his fiancée, John Adams complained...." By 1774, however, the couple had been married ten years. Although the publisher states this book, one of the "Library of American Lives and Times" series for middle school students, is written at a grade 5 reading level, readability, according to the Fry formula, is at a low 9th grade. The illustrations and photographs are numerous and well chosen and, with large serif font and wide margins, pages are visually attractive. Backmatter includes a timeline, glossary, index, list of resources, and bibliography. The latter two contain multiple punctuation errors. 2002, Rosen Publishing Group,
— Mary Bowman-Kruhm
Promotion - Abigail Adams was a strong influential woman. Her place in American history can't be forgotten. This book could be used when studying influential American women that shaped American history. Below is a link that plays a two minute video about Abigail Adams and gives a brief synopsis of her biography.
Abigail Adams Biography and Video
Personal Reaction - This book was informative and interesting. The key players in the shaping of America are mentioned in this book. Abigail Adams had a lot of insight on women's rights many years ago.
Memorable Literary Element - The book is divided into ten chapters. The book is broken into diary entries, letters, and other primary documents, students will learn about the various stages of our nation's development.
Illustrations - The book contains drawings and photographs.
Review - Children's Literature Unlike many biographies that begin with a vignette designed to capture interest, this book plunges the reader into events in U.S. history that shaped the lives of John and Abigail Adams. Ching summarizes events in the fledging nation and capably explains Abigail's views on the rights of women and on slavery, juxtaposing them with both modern and Revolutionary-era views. Overall, however, the book's writing seems disjointed. Better editing would have helped. Some information, such as the death of daughter Nabby, is repeated, often unnecessarily. Discussing the final years of Abigail's life as "not always easy" and "saddened" by Nabby's death is out of place in the chapter on her legacy. Another example is a paragraph that begins, "For a period of ten years, from 1774 to 1784, John and Abigail Adams often were separated." The paragraph goes on to say that much of their courtship was conducted via letters and "Away from his fiancée, John Adams complained...." By 1774, however, the couple had been married ten years. Although the publisher states this book, one of the "Library of American Lives and Times" series for middle school students, is written at a grade 5 reading level, readability, according to the Fry formula, is at a low 9th grade. The illustrations and photographs are numerous and well chosen and, with large serif font and wide margins, pages are visually attractive. Backmatter includes a timeline, glossary, index, list of resources, and bibliography. The latter two contain multiple punctuation errors. 2002, Rosen Publishing Group,
— Mary Bowman-Kruhm
Promotion - Abigail Adams was a strong influential woman. Her place in American history can't be forgotten. This book could be used when studying influential American women that shaped American history. Below is a link that plays a two minute video about Abigail Adams and gives a brief synopsis of her biography.
Abigail Adams Biography and Video