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Title: Thomas Jefferson's Feast (Step into Reading) (Step #4)
ISBN: 0375822895
Author:
Frank Murphy
Publicate Date: 2003-09-09
Publish: 2003-09-09
List Price: $3.99
Average Customer Rating: 4.5
Format: Paperback
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $1.19
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $0.01
Amazon Merchant Price: $3.99
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| Customer Review: |
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1: The book is great for what it is
All of the books in this series take one personality trait of a famous person and talk about it. The trait they chose for Jefferson was that he liked to eat. The fact that the "feast" happened over several parties as opposed to one meal is not an important enough piece of "fiction" to justify saying that the book is bad. The book does not talk about Slavery. That is covered in the book about Harriett Tubman, which is also a very good book. This is a Step Into Reading book, not a complete history of Thomas Jefferson book. Although the reading level is 2nd - 4th grade, the content is PreK - 1st.
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2: Where are the slaves?
There are enough facts about Thomas Jefferson to easily fill a book hundreds of pages in length. So why, a reader might wonder, would an author choose to even partially fictionalize a 48-page-long children's book. Six pages are filled with specific information about a feast that did not take place, and although clarified in the author's note, it seems that young children are unlikely to distinguish fact from fiction in a biographical book. Additionally, the idea of a man who owned 100-200 slaves at any given time preparing an entire feast by himself is nonsensical. Only two pages portray slaves: one shows a smiling man at the door of a dumbwaiter; another, two small figures working the land. Their almost-absence, when recounting the life of a man whose existence depended so heavily on their labor, borders on revisionism. The illustrations are very good; the factual parts of the story are excellent; and the inclusion of several French words, complete with meanings and pronunciation, is a bonus; but the truth is overly bent. Abe Lincoln's Hat by Martha Brenner, another in the Step Into Reading series, is equally good, but all true.
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3: Terrific Book!
This is a wonderful children's book about our third president (US). It provides a fun story about how he loved to read and write and eat! He brought foods back from France that weren't popular here and made them famous. Jefferson got people to finally try love apples or tomatos, thought to be poisonous here in the US, but eaten often in France.
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