 Sam Houston: Standing Firm by Mary Dodson Wade and illustrated by Joy Fisher Hein. Albany and Houston: Bright Sky Press, 2009. 24 pages. http://brightskypress.com/ Large picture book, colored drawings. ISBN 978-1-933979-3-7. $16.95 Hardback. Reading level ages 5-7, grades k-2.
Mary Wade, author of many children's books, inaugurates Bright Sky's new series, Texas Heroes for Young Readers. Joy Fisher has also illustrated Miss Ladybird's Wildflowers. Here's the life of Houston in a hundred sentences, most quite short, spread over the two dozen pages, each of which is illustrated in four color form. The work steadily develops Sam's trait of standing firm, aka aloofness or stubbornness or arrogance or blindness, as may have been alleged over time by Sam's non-supporters. But for the youngest kids Mary gracefully tends toward the positive adjective "firm." Houston leaves school, home, traditional culture for the Cherokee ways, etc. He goes into teaching, soldiering, and politics. In Texas he signs the Declaration of Independence (although unnamed in the book), retreats from the Alamo trap, and wins at San Jacinto. The presidency prepares him for another try at matrimony. Then it's the Senate and the Governor's chair which is taken from him for his "refusal to be loyal to a new country." He dies after moving into his Huntsville Steamboat House. Most of the illustrations depict the out-of-doors, and most of the sentences use active verbs. Pronunciation aids follow some words. http://www.wadeco.com/author.htm http://www.joyfisherhein.com/ http://www.prbythebook.com |
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