George by Frank Keating - OPTIONAL

Keating, Frank George: George Washington, Our Founding Father, paintings by Mike Wimmer.  Simon & Schuster, 2012.  $17.  

Educated only until he was 15, among many things, George Washington learned rules of character that he wrote down, treasured and used to govern the rest of his life.  From the his first forays with the militia when he was in his 20’s, through the French-Indian War, the Revolution and onto the Presidency, Washington let these rules become his actions.  

While I loved the paintings on each page and could spend hours poring over them, the integration of the Rules and the text didn’t really appeal to me – I would have rather had a Rule on every page, rather than scattered hither and yon – and it wasn’t intriguing enough to support the stilted, fake auto-biographical styling of the narration.  I would, however, recommend this to a teacher to use the paintings to support a look at Washington around President’s Day or any time for a history lesson.  

EL – OPTIONAL. Cindy, Library Teacher.