Author:
Jill Biden
Illustrator
: Raul Colon
Publisher: Simon & Schuster/Paula Wiseman Books
Copyright Date: 2012
# of Pages: 40
Genre: Historical Fiction
The Second
Lady, Mrs. Jill Biden, writes a lovely story about her son’s deployment and the
effect it has on her children –mainly Natalie. While the emotions, names,
times, and places are true, the author adds a lot of fictional elements to the
story. I’ve read online in some places where the book is organized under
non-fiction with fictional elements and other places as historical fiction, but
either way, it’s a great story that could be used in a classroom during after
Veteran’s Day or for a child to read who personally struggles with a family
member that’s being deployed to fight overseas.
The
illustrator uses a lot of very soft colors with his paintings. I think that it’s
made in such a way to leave the reader with a very solemn feeling while
reading. The lines are very smooth and curved in a way that goes back to the
tone thing. The paintings were very organic, drawing to very life like
characteristics of people’s faces. Honestly though, when I was reading this
story, I kept thinking that the illustrations reminded me of an old 1940’s
propaganda poster.
Like I said
before, this book could be brought out around veteran’s day to propose all
manners of projects. I could see students doing writing projects where they
write thank you letters to be sent to soldiers overseas. You could use this in a
character education lesson for national pride and respect for the brave men and
women who protect our country. You could also have a veteran come in to read
this book to the class. This book would be appropriate for ages 5 and up. I
would suggest this book to be read alone for silent reading around second or third grade.
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