High Hopes (Direct Mail Edition): A Photobiography of John F. Kennedy

by Deborah Heiligman

On the eve of the 40th anniversary of his assassination, this profile of President John F. Kennedy follows him from his privileged but sickly childhood all the way to the White House. 50 duotone photos.

64 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2003

About the author

Deborah Heiligman has been writing for children since she worked at Scholastic News soon after college. Since then she has written more than thirty books for children and teens. Her books include picture books, both fiction and nonfiction, and young adult nonfiction and fiction. Some titles: Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith, a National Book Award finalist; The Boy Who Loved Math: The Improbable Life of Paul Erdos, a Cook Prize Winner and Orbis Pictus honor; Intentions, a Sydney Taylor Award winner, and a picture book series about Tinka the dog. Her latest book is Vincent and Theo: The van Gogh Brothers. For more information please visit www.DeborahHeiligman.com

Reviews

[Sara Carmona · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the format of this book. I think it does a great job of making the history interesting for young readers, and I learned some things too!

[Leigh Isley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I chose this as my picture book. This book's photos tell the story of one amazing president John F. Kennedy. The family pictures are so amazing, they show his kids playing in his office at the white house along with some of most important day's in the life of a President. The last page shows a picture of President Kennedy grave along with an Afterword page telling what happened to the rest of the family after the President's death. There are some captions underneath the photos, one being of John Jr. the day President Kennedy was buried saluting his father. It also says that John Jr. never had any memory of his father, which I found very sad.

This book would be good for teenagers from 16-18, especially those history buffs!

[Samantha · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not sure what the best way to address this issue is, but I think this book makes JFK look too saintly. I think it's okay to let kids know that our presidents weren't perfect people.