NONFICTION

Hamilton

by Frank Keating (text) & illus. by Mike Wimmer
S. & S./Paula Wiseman Bks. Sept. 2020. 32p. Tr $17.99. ISBN 9781534406568.
COPY ISBN
PreS-Gr 4–This picture book biography, mythologizing the life of Alexander Hamilton, provides a simplistic treatise on a complicated American. The first-person narrative features quotes from Hamilton sprinkled throughout. Each double-page spread chronicles a different chapter in Hamilton’s life. Noticeably absent, except in the author’s note, is the infamous duel with Aaron Burr that ended Hamilton’s life. The book is illustrated with oil portraits, most featuring Hamilton bathed in light like a heroic subject in an Albert Bierstadt painting. One scene of the Revolutionary War depicts smiling, giddy soldiers rushing into battle with their bayonets. A brief bibliography and an author’s note about Hamilton’s death and legacy are included.
VERDICT Skip this one; other treatments of Hamilton’s life are more useful for report writing and sharing as a picture book. Try Teri Kanefield’s The Making of America: Alexander Hamilton for a more report-worthy title, or David Adler and Matt Collins’s A Picture Book of Alexander Hamilton for a similar illustrated approach with more punch.
Reviewed by Jennifer Knight, North Olympic Lib. Syst., Port Angeles, WA , Sep 01, 2020

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