What To Do About Alice?

Title: What To Do About Alice? How Alice Roosevelt Broke the Rules, Charmed the World, and Drove Her Father Teddy Crazy!

Author: Barbara Kerley

Illustrator: Edwin Fotheringham

Publisher: New York: Scholastic, 2008

ISBN: 978-0-439-92231-9

SUMMARY: “What to do about Alice?” is the question Teddy Roosevelt continually grapples with as daughter Alice’s madcap adventures entertain the nation and the world. From her energy as a little girl to her maturity (a relative term when it refers to Alice), nothing will slow this girl down!

CRITICAL ANALYSIS: “I can be president of the United States, or I can control Alice. I cannot possibly do both.” -Teddy Roosevelt.

Theodore Roosevelt was not only one of our most popular presidents, but also one of our most capable, so when he declares that his eldest daughter is “running riot” you know it’s serious. Barbara Kerley’s straight-forward text is punctuated with occasional bold fonts to emphasize what Alice should be doing as the daughter of a president and snippets of the public’s reactions to what she was actually doing. Kerley grounds her writing in thorough research, providing not only author notes, but also a bibliography for the quotes from Theodore Roosevelt and Alice.

If Kerley’s text is the straight man, Fotheringham’s illustrations are the comic.

Illustrator Edwin Fotheringham’s pictures are barely contained. Family Circus-style dotted travel lines show Alice’s frantic movements from falling down the stairs to crisscrossing the globe. Her period skirts and ribbons, primarily in red or Alice Blue, are always trailing behind her. The up-tilted chin and mischievous smile gracing her pretty face make you wonder what she has in mind next.

Alice would be proud.

AWARDS:

Sibert Honor Book 
Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor Book 
Irma Black Award Honor Book
Parents Choice Award 
A Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year
A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year
A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year
An ALA Notable Book

REVIEWS:

Booklist: "Irrepressible Alice Roosevelt gets a treatment every bit as attractive and exuberant as she was....  Kerley's text has the same rambunctious spirit as its subject, grabbing readers from the first line....  The large format gives Fotheringham, in his debut, plenty of room for spectacular art."

Publishers Weekly: "It's hard to imagine a picture book biography that could better suit its subject than this high-energy volume serves young Alice Roosevelt."    

Horn Book: "What to do about Alice?  Enjoy!" 

YOU MAY ALSO ENJOY:

George Washington’s Teeth by Deborah Chandra and Madeleine Comora. Illustrated by Brock Cole. Farrar Straus Giroux, 2003 ISBN 0374325340. 
A picture book revealing the First President’s life as measured by the number of real teeth in his mouth. The end of the book contains a time line of his life, more information about his teeth, and quotes from George Washington’s letters, diaries, and accounts

Duck for President by Doreen Cronin. Illustrated by Betsy Lewin. Antheneum, 2004. ISBN 978-0689863776.
 From the team that brought us Click, Clack, Moo comes the story of how Duck’s modest political ambition leads him to the White House and then back to the farm.

Lincoln Tells a Joke: How Laughter Saved the President (and the Country) by Kathleen Krull and Paul Brewer. Illustrated by Stacy Innerst. HMH Books for Young Readers, 2010 ISBN 978-0152066390.
A picture book presenting Abraham Lincoln’s extraordinary wit.

Crowded Hours: Reminiscences by Alice Roosevelt Longworth. Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1933. Although not a children’s book, it is a fun read for fans. Find this one in the library—it’s over $100 on Amazon, though you can find it for half that at some used book stores!

ACTIVITIES:

A slide show about the children of the U.S. Presidents:

http://fun.familyeducation.com/slideshow/presidents/61488.html

A quiz game about children of the U.S. Presidents:

http://www.funtrivia.com/trivia-quiz/World/Children-of-US-Presidents-137680.html

Here's a sample of the color named after Alice Roosevelt Longworth:

What color would you like to have named after you?



Review Created for TWU class LS 5603.21