triscuit807's review
4.0
3.5-4 stars. This is a lengthy biography of the man who commanded colonial forces during the Revolutionary War and became the 1st President. Interestingly, much of the book deals with the earlier period of his life, i.e. his formative years. In many ways he was a study in contradictions. He was both modest and entitled, humble and aristocratic, etc. He felt he was lacking in educations, having not been sent abroad to school like his 2 elder brothers, and early in life was often uncertain about public correspondence and/debate. He was a man of his times, a Virginia planter, landholder, and a slave owner - while he had his slaves freed and provided for after his death, he didn't hesitate to work them or punish them. While a private man, he loved parties, dancing, and socializing. He was also something of a ladies man and seems to have had a "crush" on a older married woman which if the book is to be believed he carried all his life. Unsurprisingly for a public figure, his private familial life was plagued with troubles: financially incompetent relatives and many deaths. He and his wife, Martha, were childless, and the trouble seems to be his since she had 2 children from a previous marriage. Of particular interest to me was the time he spent in western VA surveying for Fairfax and then later leading a militia against the Indians and then acting as a colonial officer to the British General Braddock - it comes of being a West Virginian. I read this for my 2019 Reading Challenge and for my Newbery Challenge (Honor Book, 1939).
scaifea's review
2.0
A biography of George Washington for kids, ostensibly. It's such a shame when biographies are dull and dry. People's lives aren't dull, so how is it that some accounts of those lives are so brain-numbing? And it's an especial tragedy when that biography is intended for kids. Tsk. TSK, I say! *And* this won a Newbery Honor! *Shakes head in dramatic disbelief*
More...