Alexander Hamilton

April 15, 2018
Albee and Ko take their shot at an early-reader biography about Alexander Hamilton.Emergent readers (and their caregivers) familiar with Lin-Manuel Miranda's hit musical Hamilton will be rewarded with what amounts to an illustrated highlights reel of the founding father's life. Albee opens in medias res by describing Hamilton as "a soldier, a lawyer, and a financial wizard," before the spare text quickly brings readers to Hamilton's Caribbean childhood, noting his father's abandonment, his mother's death, and his determined rise from poverty. He's presented as a trusted adviser to George Washington and rival to Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr, with Ko's accompanying digital art depicting him with a smiling man on horseback (Washington), while on the facing page, the two other men scowl. A later spread notes major differences between Jefferson and Hamilton, including acknowledgment that Jefferson enslaved people while "Hamilton was against slavery," but Washington's slave-owner status isn't named, nor is the American Revolution's impact on Indigenous peoples. Personal milestones, such as marriage to Eliza Schuyler, are noted alongside references to his involvement in the war and his work with the nascent American government. While his death occurs on the page, strategies to keep the text within the comprehension of its audience risk undermining other historical content by omitting such terms as "revolution" and the Federalist Papers (though they do appear in backmatter).Solid, if not revolutionary. (Early reader/biography. 6-8)

COPYRIGHT(2018) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

May 15, 2018
Grades K-2 Excitement about the musical Hamilton may or may not have filtered down to the easy-reader set, but this entry in the I Can Read! series makes for a solid introduction to a founding father. Using short sentences and simple concepts, the book begins by telling readers Alexander Hamilton was a soldier, a lawyer, and a financial wizard. It goes on to preview him as stubborn and proud ?as well as a man who didn't get along with Aaron Burr. The focus then returns to his boyhood in the Caribbean, where Hamilton, orphaned at an early age, was able to parlay his skills into running a business and finding patrons who sent him to college in America. The bulk of the book traces his rise under George Washington and concisely explains his differences with Thomas Jefferson and Burr. His antagonism toward the latter, of course, led to Hamilton's death. Fine painting-like illustrations entice readers and extend the text. Excellent back matter features a time line and extra information, including Hamilton's views on slavery.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2018
These early-reader biographies offer simple narratives that touch on highlights of these (frequently covered) subjects' lives. Large font is surrounded by plenty of white space to aid emerging readers. The cartoonlike illustrations are slick but occasionally emotive; an appendix includes photographs and/or period paintings as well as contextual information. Timeline.

(Copyright 2018 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)