Through this biography of Teddy Roosevelt's life, I learned a significant amount. I will admit that I am not big on biographies and rarely (if ever) read them. However, I enjoyed this book, probably because I while I learned new things, it felt as if I was just reading a children's book about someones life. Teddy went through a few difficulties as a child; asthma, needing glasses, being small for his age, all which lead him to be bullied. He rose about it all and became the second youngest president of the United States. I'm glad this is the first picture biography book that I read because I'm now interested to read more. ( )

I would say that I knew a decent amount about Teddy Roosevelt before reading this biography; most of what I knew was about his presidency and nature conservation. Through reading this biography, I would say I learned much more about Roosevelt's life. As a child, Teddy (called Teedie at the time) was extremely frail and sickly. He had frequent asthma attacks that would leave him gasping for air. His wealthy parents would take him to the country and on trips around the world frequently in an attempt to lessen his asthma attacks, but this only managed to help a small amount. Teddy and his siblings loved visits to the country, however, and this was where Teddy explored his love for nature. He wanted to learn about every animal, insect, and plant he found, and he read many books on nature to expand his knowledge. Eventually, his father recommended that Teddy take up exercising regularly to strengthen his body and hopefully lessen his asthma. After suffering at the hands of bullies, Teddy begged his parents to let him take boxing classes, and they agreed to let him attend. He eventually entered a boxing competition and won, to the surprise of everyone, Teddy included. By 1876, he began his schooling at Harvard, after which he considered careers in science, writing, history, law, and politics- he decided politics was his best choice, and was elected to the New York Assembly. After his first wife died, he traveled to Dakota, where he lived the life of a cowboy; he eventually returned to New York in 1886. There, he remarried and had five children, and was appointed New York City police commissioner. His work here caught the eye of the president, who made Teddy assistant secretary of the navy. During the war between America and Spain in 1898, he formed a volunteer cavalry called the Rough Riders; his efforts during this war made him famous and he was recommended for the Medal of Honor. Once the war ended, he was elected governor of New York, and then vice president of the United States. Finally, in 1901, he was elected president of the United States at the age of 42. During his presidency, he policed corporations, protected the environment, built the Panama Canal, and ended the Russo-Japanese war, which won him the Nobel Peace Prize. He died on January 6, 1919, at the age of 60. Needless to say, I learned quite a bit from this book. I had no idea about half of his accomplishments, and it was very interesting to learn about his life. Compared to the other picture book biography I read on Theodore Roosevelt, this book seems geared toward slightly younger children due to the writing and illustrations. It doesn't go as in-depth to Teddy's childhood as the other biography, but it includes much more about his adulthood, which I really enjoyed learning about. ( )

This book presented Teddy Roosevelt as a larger than life character. It seems like everything he did, he did it the best. I learned that he was the police commissioner of New York City and the Vice President under McKinnley. After McKinnley was assassinated, Roosevelt became the President. He definitely had a privileged life but rose to the presidency through his own hard work. ( )

A young boy Teddy Roosevelt deals with a great amount of health issues preventing him from doing a lot of things. Although he was a weak boy as described in the book he did have a strong mind.Teddy enjoyed reading and being creative as described in the book. Don Brown, the author, shows us how a sickly boy like Teddy could overcome being disabled to do may things he wanted to do and was able to transform into the person he became eventually which was the President. ( )

This is a great starter biography for kids - especially kids who might be weaker physically or sick (as Teddy Roosevelt himself had been). Lots of quotes and facts presented simply and with good flow. ( )