I found this version very scant of Jefferson's life. It was a picture book format and geared for very young readers. There has been a since new reprint yet I haven't seen it yet to review it. I was benchmarking this against other biographies about Jefferson especially with his relationship with Sally Hemings which I can understand why very young readers would not be privy to this detail.

This book first of all, has wonderful illustrations that are almost like a window to a childlike tone of the book. It tells of Thomas Jefferson and his life, starting in Virginia when he was born on April 13, 1743. When Thomas's father died, he inherited his father old desk and bookcase, which was Thomas's first library. These books were later sold to the US Congress and joined the Library of Congress. The book tells of Thomas's endeavors in school and how he became a lawyer after college, and later in life was elected to the Virginia legislature. As we go along in this book, through his many accomplishments, the Declaration of Independence is talked about and how Thomas wrote it for the freedom and equality of all people. Overall, the book covers the life of Thomas Jefferson very well and the author concludes the story with the sentence, "That is why he has been called the Father of our Democracy." This really stood out to me because I myself, has no realized how much he has accomplished for a future we have now. ( )

Thomas Jefferson was born April 13, 1743 in Virginia. He is the third of ten children in his family. As a young boy Thomas Jefferson became friends with Indians that lived near by and taught him skills he did not know. Thomas Jefferson's father ,Peter Jefferson, died when he was 14. Thomas Jefferson was left with all his fathers possessions. He read many of his fathers books and eventually sold more than ten thousand books to the United States Congress. Thomas Jefferson believed slavery was wrong and he hated it. However, Thomas Jefferson still had slaves as servants his entire life. Thomas Jefferson became a lawyer after graduating from college. He also accomplished many other things politically throughout his later years in life. Additionally, Thomas Jefferson was one of the first Americans to take a vaccine to prevent small pox. Thomas Jefferson wrote the Deceleration of Independence and is one of Americas founding fathers.

This biography is significant because it goes into detail about Thomas Jefferson's life, accomplishments, and some of his view points. This book informed me about things I was not taught in school about Thomas Jefferson. I had no idea Thomas Jefferson graduated college and was a lawyer.

The organization of this book is from Thomas Jefferson birth,to teen years, young adult years, and then finally his adult years. The book skips over some of his childhood years. However, the book does provide good information about his life as it progressed in throughout the years. The biography is accurate it just misses some pieces of information. ( )

This biography was pretty cool, and I liked how the audience got to gain some knowledge about history as well. In this biography, Adler mentioned George Washington, John Adams, the Deceleration of Independence... I feel like we got a lot out of this.
This story was written in chronological order, from the moment Jefferson was born until the day he passed. I can see this being a good story to use for students in 3-5th grade trying to maybe do research on Thomas Jefferson, just because the facts are listed more clearly. ( )

This book was a brief description on Thomas Jefferson's life and accomplishments. For example, his father died when Thomas was 14 and left the entire land to him. He invented things like a swiveling chair and a folding ladder. He also wrote the Declaration of Independence. He also was Vice President to the second President of the United States, and then he later became the third president of the United States with two terms. After he retired, he moved back to his home and had visitors over all the time. He died on July 4th, exactly 50 years after the Declaration of Independence was signed. ( )