Review by Booklist Review
Washington, D.C., is more than simply a capital city, writes Schroeder, and this delightful, alphabetical portrait of America's capital proves it, with quirky, paragraph-sized entries using such headings as Gargoyles and Grotesques and Micromanage. Readers will become informed about many historical aspects of the city, learning briefly about Benjamin Banneker, a self-taught African American, who helped determine Washington, D.C.'s boundaries, or how, before the Civil War, most of the citizens of the city were illiterate. The topics keep going from there, bringing in everything from segregation to health epidemics. Most important, this book conveys how much slave labor was used to create the city. All of this helps present a well-rounded view of our nation's capital. O'Brien's cartoonlike illustrations complement the text, while quotes and trivia bits are interspersed on almost every page. Informational readers will devour this latest A-Z book by Schroeder and O'Brien.--Bratt, Jessica Anne Copyright 2018 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 1-4-Short entries arranged alphabetically and accompanied by comical illustrations present snippets of information about the geography, architecture, and history of the U.S. capital. For example, the letter "C" includes information on the Capitol building, the famous cherry trees, the compromise of 1790, the Washington Cathedral, and Arlington National Cemetery, and features an inset quote from Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm. The colorful pen-and-ink with watercolor illustrations add interest and amusing details to each page-the Library of Congress constructed out of books, the Capitol as a bathtub, the Mint made of money, and the National Archives as an overflowing attic. Witty, irreverent quotes and tidbits of information poke fun at politics, politicians, and other amusing historical aspects of the city. In the end, the author points to Washington and its symbols as fundamentally linked to the image of the United States and an ever-changing, important part of U.S. citizens. This book would not necessarily serve well as a major source for a research paper, but the details presented could very well spark interest in some aspect of the metropolis and lead to further investigation. VERDICT A entertaining look at the U.S. capital and a general addition to geography collections.-Theresa Muraski, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point Library © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
This advanced alphabet book identifies and describes people, buildings, sites, and activities associated with the nation's capital. Several examples are given for each letter: L is for Library of Congress, L'Enfant, Lobby, Lincoln Memorial. Zany, stylized ink and watercolor drawings add interest and humor to the cleverly written narrative full of intriguing facts. Endpapers feature a map of the city's main sites for reference. (c) Copyright 2018. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
As with Ben Franklin (2011) and Abe Lincoln (2015), Schroeder and O'Brien employ the alphabet to pair lesser-known tidbits with humorous ink-and-watercolor caricatures to, in this case, present some of the people, places, and politics associated with the nation's capital.Although each letter has multiple entries, some are relegated to a half page while others are assigned two. There are interesting choices for "X," such as the panda Mei Xiang, and the X-1 and X-15 planes in the Air and Space Museum. Humans include Benjamin Banneker, the African-American surveyor of the district's boundaries, and Glenn Sundby, the white acrobat who descended the Washington Monument steps on his hands. A claw-footed, Capitol-shaped bathtub whimsically highlights 1860 amenities in the dusty building's basement. Some details are summarized to the point of misleading; for instance, the statement that when black contralto Marian Anderson was barred from singing in Constitution Hall, she "simply changed the venue" is not accurate. (Eleanor Roosevelt and her husband intervened to procure the Lincoln Memorial.) Also, it is not possible to verify the rumor that underground tunnels stretch from the Capitol to the White House, as O'Brien depicts them. Quotes from figures as diverse as Shirley Chisholm, Groucho Marx, and Dan Quayle provide additional perspectives.Quibbles aside, this will find a receptive audience with trivia buffs, tourists, and residents of all ages. (Informational picture book. 6-12) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
