Franklin & Eleanor

by Cheryl Harness

Introduces the lives of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and First Lady Eleanor, distant cousins who married in 1905 and helped guide the country during the Depression and the second World War.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Picture Books

48 pages, Hardcover

First published December 27, 2004

About the author

Author and illustrator. Worked variously as a student teacher, waitress, short-order cook, portrait artist, and needlework designer. Greeting-card artist for Hallmark Cards and Current. Presenter at schools.

Reviews

[Kathryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

An unabashedly glowing portrait of Franklin and Eleanor. I find Harness' biographies of the presidents a little frustrating as they are too wordy for the younger picture book crowd but not as nuanced as I would like for older readers. I would have liked more direct quotes interspersed, especially given how prolific a writer Eleanor was, and I wanted their personalities to shine through more than the fairly information-based text showed. However, it is a decent overview (covers their whole lives) and I appreciate that it includes both Franklin and Eleanor since she was so instrumental to his presidency. Has a timeline at the back as well as a bibliography and the illustrations are full of detail.

[Rachel Bush · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book contained many amazing facts about Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. Before I read it I didn't know much about them. If you are looking for a quick book that has a lot of information, I encourage you to read this.

[Yasmin Gomez Geng]

Eleanor Roosevelt has always been a personal hero of mine. She overcame so many obstacles in her life. The impact of the Roosevelts on America continues to be felt in many ways, and I want my students to understand that. This book also does a great job in both simplifying and making grand the job of President. By beginning with their childhoods, this book lets kids come to understand Eleanor and Franklin as regular people. It also shows the importance that their individual lives had on their later years. It is my hope that this book allows my students to see the importance of caring about others and hard work in becoming whatever it is they want to. I think we tend to made the person who is President larger than life, but we need to remember, as well as share with our kids, that a President is simply a regular person with an important job.

Grade: 3rd Grade - 5th Grade
Topic: Presidents, Women's History Month, History

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

I learned a lot by reading about Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. I like that there was information about Eleanor as well as Franklin. This book could be enjoyed by elementary students, but there is a lot of text on each page so it might work best to read it aloud or have students choose which pages to read. The family tree and list of important dates in the back as well as a list of additional resources are all useful information.

[Krista the Krazy Kataloguer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a big Eleanor Roosevelt fan, so I had to read this.

[Holly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great history lesson.