Product Description

No matter how the question is answered, one thing is clear: There has hardly been a life in the last century that Eleanor Roosevelt has not affected, in one way or another. From securing safe, low-cost housing for Kentucky's poor, to helping her grandchildren hang a tire swing on the White House's south lawn, to representing America as the first female delegate to the United Nations, Eleanor rarely kept a second of her life for herself -- and she wouldn't have had it any other way.

In this stunning "scrapbook" biography, Candace Fleming, author of the acclaimed Ben Franklin's Almanac, turns her keen eye to our nation's premier First Lady. Filled with photographs of everything from Eleanor's speech at the 1940 Democratic National Convention to her high school report card, as well as fascinating stories about life in and out of the White House, Our Eleanor gives us a remarkable perspective on a remarkable woman, and presents to a new generation an Eleanor to call its own.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #639911 in Books
• Published on: 2005-09-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 192 pages

From School Library Journal
Starred Review. Grade 4-8–This presentation does for the longest-serving First Lady what Russell Freedman's Lincoln: A Photobiography (Clarion, 1987) did for an earlier inhabitant of the White House. While the arrangement is chronological from Roosevelt's parents' marriage to her own death, the narrative is not linear per se. Rather, each of the seven chapters leads readers through the subject's busy life with short sections of text filled with well-documented first-person accounts and direct quotes. Much of the story is told within the meaty sidebars covering supporting perspectives, enlightening details, and amusing anecdotes. Fleming is honest, respectful, and astute throughout, addressing both successes and controversies with balance (not to mention with candor, as when she approaches the issue of Eleanor's sexuality with the statement Was She or Wasn't She?). Not a spread goes by without incredible archival photographs or reproductions, newspaper and magazine clippings, handwritten letters, and diary entries. Many of them have never been published in a book for young people, and they all provide relevant and fascinating insight. The title suggests an intimacy between reader and subject, which is strengthened by a design suggesting a family album. Pages are jam-packed with information in varying fonts and formats, yet still manage to remain clearly and logically laid out. Basic research tools include a time line, family tree, and extensive source notes. Enjoyably educational, Our Eleanor will be a core title in all collections for years to come.–Andrew Medlar, Chicago Public Library, IL
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Gr. 6-9. As in Fleming's Ben Franklin's Almanac: Being a True Account of the Good Gentleman's Life (2003), which was a 2004 Booklist Top 10 Biography, this takes a pastiche approach to humanizing a legendary life. Through anecdotes and archival photos drawn from an assortment of sources, Fleming invites readers into a camaraderie with the timid, neglected little girl who grew up to become the woman many nicknamed "copresident," and whose flouting of accepted gender roles earned her admiration and ridicule in equal measure. The details of Roosevelt's life are certainly riveting; however, Fleming's jigsaw-puzzle approach is probably best suited for use in conjunction with more traditional narratives, such as Russell Freedman's Newbery Honor Book Eleanor Roosevelt: A Life of Discovery (1993). In terms of Roosevelt's sexuality, for instance, the frank details about Roosevelt's bonds with known lesbians appear 15 pages before a segment that asks "Was She Or Wasn't She?" (Answer: who knows?)--a structural choice that seems to encourage assumptions rather than heading them off. That said, a broad audience, including many adults, will be intrigued by the volume's photo-album immediacy. Those eager to gain perspectives from other biographers may be frustrated by a list of related books primarily geared to younger children, although multimedia resources and exhaustive source notes offer plenty of opportunities to extend this intimate, unvarnished, and ultimately deeply moving portrait. Jennifer Mattson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
"[Franklin Delano Roosevelt's] most important political asset."

-- Jim Farley, chairman of the New York State Democratic Party

"A woman who does not know her place."

-- Winston Churchill

"The best-dressed woman of 1934."

--U.S. fashion industry

"The only one who comprehends the true meaning of democracy."

-- Marian Anderson, legendary black opera singer

"Candace Fleming has chronicled the life of Eleanor Roosevelt as no other. With photographs on every page and with special attention having been given each important person, place, and project, this book provides an exciting glimpse into a remarkable life. It will appeal to young and old alike."

-- Chandler Roosevelt Lindsley and Elliott Roosevelt Jr., grandchildren of Eleanor Roosevelt

"This book belongs in every school library and on the shelf of everyone who cares how America came to be the country we know. With thorough research and vivid storytelling, Candace Fleming brings to life a fascinating and complex woman. Through one engrossing tale after another, perfectly illustrated with historical photographs, Eleanor emerges from these beautiful pages; by midway, you half expect her to wander into your kitchen for tea at any moment."

-- Karen Blumenthal, author of Let Me Play

"Creating a unique form for biography -- the collage -- the author has given us a superbly rounded and penetrating portrait of one of our greatest women, Eleanor Roosevelt. No one can read it and not feel deeply grateful for her long service to the American people and to human rights the world round."

-- Milton Meltzer, five-time National Book Award finalist and author of There Comes a Time: The Struggle for Civil Rights

"Candace Fleming's portrait bursts at the seams with energy, and makes brilliantly clear why Eleanor Roosevelt is a perfect role model for American kids, and for kids around the world. Mrs. Roosevelt wasn't the head of her time, she's the head of our time."

-- James Carville

"In Our Eleanor Candace Fleming sets a new standard for the blending of an astonishing number of apt illustrations with fine writing and a strong sense of the ever-fascinating Eleanor Roosevelt."

-- Marc Aronson, author of the Sibert Award-winning Sir Walter Ralegh and the Quest for El Dorado

"Many children's book writers have written biographies of Eleanor Roosevelt, but I don't know of any that illuminated so many different facets of this remarkable woman's life and activities."

-- James Cross Giblin, winner of the Robert F. Sibert Award and author of The Amazing Life of Benjamin Franklin

Customer Reviews

Remarkable biography of a remarkable woman
Until I read this biography, the name of Eleanor Roosevelt called to my mind a vague picture of a saintly woman who was married to FDR and who wrote magazine columns. After reading this outstanding scrapbook biography, I realize that this woman WAS the most influential woman in the history of our country. Fleming has presented much factual information about Eleanor and has arranged it to lead readers to a clear understanding of the character, personality, background, and motivations of this truly remarkable woman. The author presents relevant biographical information clearly and honestly, allowing the reader to draw their own conclusions. Fleming's straightforward presentation does not condescend to young readers. Refreshing and all too rare in its honesty, this is an exceptional biography of a multi-talented social activist. Although written for young readers, I recommend it for all readers, young and old.

Make Our Eleanor YOUR Eleanor
A perfectly written biography. Anyone interested in politics, women, American history, civil rights, human rights, and making a difference in the world MUST read this book. You will feel like you not only know her, but after reading, you'll feel that Eleanor is somewhere cheering you on in your life's endeavors as educators, librarians, sanitation workers, peacemakers, leaders, voters, human beings...

An incredible piece of writing about an awe-inspiring person.

Richie's Picks: OUR ELEANOR
" 'I always had the feeling from a very young age that I was ugly,' Eleanor wrote. This feeling came from her mother, who often gazed at her daughter coolly, as if she couldn't imagine having such a plain-looking, solemn-faced daughter. Forced to wear a back brace to correct a curvature of the spine, Eleanor knew 'as a child knows these things,' that her mother was bitterly disappointed in her physical features. 'I can remember,' wrote Eleanor, 'standing in the door, very often with my finger in my mouth which was, of course, forbidden--and I can see the look in her eyes and hear the tone in her voice as she said: "Come in, Granny." If a visitor was there, she might turn and say, "She is such a funny child, so old-fashioned that we always call her Granny." I wanted to sink through the floor in shame.'
"Eleanor tried desperately to please her mother. Small as she was, she often sat and rubbed [her mother] Anna's temples for hours on end, easing her migraine headaches. 'The feeling that I was useful,' Eleanor later said, 'was perhaps the greatest joy I experienced.' "

In the manner of American Idol, AOL and the Discovery Channel have been conducting an online process to determine "The Greatest American." Happening upon the poll containing the Final Five last week, and reading aloud to Shari what was being done, she grumbled in response to the fact that the remaining contestants were all men. I haven't yet dared to tell her which of those five men has since taken the top spot, thanks to 2.4 million online voters with the wisdom to believe that Ronald Reagan was a greater America than was MLK, Abe Lincoln, Ben Franklin, or the dude with the wooden teeth.

If those participating in "The Greatest American" voting had had the wisdom to make sure that at least one American woman be present among those final contestants, who would have been the most likely female to fill such a spot? OUR ELEANOR provides readers with more than enough evidence for proposing that Eleanor Roosevelt be considered as one of the greatest of citizens in the history of America, irregardless of gender. Candace Fleming does a sensational job of recounting the amazing accomplishments of Eleanor Roosevelt, both in Eleanor's own right, and as the eyes, ears and often the conscience of her husband, Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

But at least as important as unveiling the record of Eleanor's prodigious achievements on the national and world stage, the author succeeds brilliantly in revealing the real woman behind the public figure. Closely examined are the relationships with her parents, her husband, her children, her mother-in-law, her friends, and famous world leaders, as well as with the hundreds of thousands of nameless everyday people, both Americans and others, with whom she came in contact over her long, oftentimes difficult life.

"[Franklin's mother] Sara frequently made thoughtless. stinging comments that deeply hurt Eleanor. Once, in front of a dozen dinner guests, Sara turned to her daughter-in-law. 'If you'd just run a comb through your hair, dear,' she said, 'you'd look so much better.' Another time, during a luncheon party, Sara left Eleanor standing while she showed all the other guests to their seats. She was already serving the soup when she finally turned to her daughter-in-law. 'Oh, yes, Eleanor,' she said snidely, 'you sit there.
"With the births of Franklin and Eleanor's five children, Sara's interference became intolerable, causing terrible family friction. Sara spoiled them from infancy to adulthood with expensive presents--ponies, trips, cars, apartments. As one of the children put it long afterward, 'Granny's ace in the hole...was the fact that she held the pursestrings in the family.' Worse, Sara undercut Eleanor's authority and confidence by repeatedly calling the children hers. She once told little Jimmy, 'Your mother only bore you, I am more your mother than your mother is.' "

When the emotional and verbal abuse by her mother and then her mother-in-law led to serious difficulties in fulfilling her role as mother to her children, Eleanor eventually turned to mothering the American people through the Great Depression and World War II. A woman who wore through the soles of two pairs of shoes while meeting 400,000 servicemen during a five-week trip to the war-torn South Pacific of WWII, Eleanor is revealed by Ms. Fleming to be both a woman of her times and a woman who was driven to move far beyond those times to change the world to the benefit of all who have come since.

Speaking of driven:

"Independence-seeking Eleanor took up driving--an uncommon activity for women of her social class, who usually took taxis or rode in chauffeur-driven cars--in 1920. She had tried to learn years earlier, but an incident involving a car bumper and a gatepost had put her off. Now however, she longed to experience the freedom of driving. There were many mishaps. 'Your running into the ditch was all right,' Sara wrote her in 1922, 'so long as you were not hurt.' Still, Eleanor drove herself to church, to luncheons, to speaking events. Once, to her family's dismay, she even drove herself on a camping trip to Canada and reported only three minor accidents. Admitted her son James, 'Mother's driving was worse than anyone's.' She scraped, bumped, and banged her way down the road until 1946, the year she fell asleep behind the wheel. Her car veered across the highway, slammed into another vehicle head-on, then sideswiped one more. The accident cost Eleanor her two front teeth."

As with BEN FRANKLIN'S ALMANAC, the author's previous biography, OUR ELEANOR is written in a series of well-illustrated one- and two-page self-contained sections. Even more than with the Ben Franklin book, the various sections of the Eleanor "scrapbook" flow easily into one another to form an entertaining and enlightening narrative. Mixed right in with Eleanor's convincing her husband to disband the Japanese internment camps, her evolution from anti-Semite to supporter of Israel, her service at the United Nations, and her long career as a writer, are great stories about her attempt to be taught to use a gun in lieu of the Secret Service agent with whom she refused to be stuck, her support of public libraries, and the 3,271 page FBI file that J. Edgar Hoover compiled on her.

"On April 20, 1933, the world-famous aviator Amelia Earhart attended a dinner at the White House. Afterward she invited Eleanor along on an airplane flight from Washington, D.C. to Baltimore and back--the first lady's first night trip. Eager to show the public how easy and safe air travel was, Eleanor quickly agreed. Afterward reporters asked how it felt to be piloted by a woman. Eleanor replied, 'I'd give a lot to do it myself!' She did consider getting her own pilot's license, but Franklin vetoed the idea. 'I know how Eleanor drives a car,' he is reported to have said. 'Imagine her flying an airplane!' "

Time and time again I found that OUR ELEANOR: A SCRAPBOOK LOOK AT ELEANOR ROOSEVELT'S REMARKABLE LIFE revealed connections and relationships to scores of important people and events in American history. Eleanor worked for Women's Rights alongside Carrie Chapman Catt in the National League of Women Voters. Eleanor worked for Civil Rights, being a friend and supporter of Marian Anderson, raising money for the Southern Christian Leadership Council and working as an intermediary between President Kennedy and the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Eleanor worked for Human Rights, debating in private with Nikita Khrushchev and representing the US at the United Nations. Eleanor worked for Workers' Rights, riding two-and-a-half-miles down into a coal mine to observe conditions and then badgering her husband to improve them. Eleanor worked for the rights of prisoners, for the aged and infirm, and she never shied away from hanging out in public or private with friends or acquaintances because they were lesbians.

The life of Eleanor Roosevelt continues to provide inspiration for all women, from the First Ladies who have succeeded her to the girls in the inner cities, small towns, and suburbs who deal with boys still trying to tell them what they can and can't do.

You can keep the Gipper. I'll take OUR ELEANOR.