From Booklist
Reviewed with James Lincoln Collier's The Frederick Douglass You Never Knew.Gr. 3-6. These illustrated biographies provide succinct accounts of the lives of famous Americans. Despite the series name tagline, You Never Knew, there are no surprising revelations here. Perhaps Collier, well known for both his fiction and nonfiction, expects that young readers know practically nothing about these historically significant figures. He's probably right. In Hamilton, he makes a case for Alexander Hamilton as one of a few key figures who shaped the U.S. Born poor and orphaned as a child, Hamilton proved himself courageous in battle, persuasive in speech and writing, and visionary in his planning for America. Douglass tells of the slave whose intelligence and determination led him to escape to freedom, and to speak and write about his personal experiences to help the abolitionist cause. Illustrations include period photographs (Douglass) , portrait paintings (hamilton), prints, and documents as well as color illustrations created to further the narrative in each book. The writing is at times uneven, with some long, complex sentences and many short, choppy ones. Still, these are readable and informative. Carolyn Phelan
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