Eleanor Roosevelt: Her Path to Kindness

by Helaine Becker, Aura Lewis (Illustrator)

Overview

I bet you didn’t know that young Eleanor Roosevelt was: 
– Afraid of most animals as a child.
– An orphan by the age of ten. 
– Taken under the wing of her boarding school headmistress.
– Became an investigator for the Consumer League of NYC and advocated for better working conditions.
 
Discover the early years of Eleanor Roosevelt and how her childhood inspired a life devoted to compassionate public service. 

​Eleanor Roosevelt’s childhood was challenging. When she was young, both of her parents died and she was sent to live with her grandmother, who showed her little affection. Despite her grief, Eleanor persevered: she attended a boarding school in England, where she found a true home under the care of a nurturing teacher.  

Eleanor soon blossomed into a strong leader, supporting her struggling classmates. These formative years inspired her sense of compassion and responsibility, setting Eleanor on a path to a lifetime of helping others.  

With a kind heart and a fierce devotion to hard work, Eleanor Roosevelt became a visionary known for her outspoken activism pertaining to civil and human rights. This thoughtful story honors her groundbreaking life while also celebrating the spirit of her legacy. In Eleanor’s words: “You must do the thing you think you cannot do.” 
 
"This look at Eleanor Roosevelt’s formative years seeks out the moments that defined the woman to come…. A very good purchase for picture book biography collections." —School Library Journal
 
"This picture-book biography traces Eleanor Roosevelt's formative years and how they shaped the famous figure Americans recall today." —Booklist
 
"Highlights how Eleanor Roosevelt's difficult early years served in the development of the fundamentals behind her later work.... Helaine Becker holds up the determined subject as a model: 'She had no time for fear—her work was too important!'" —Publishers Weekly

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316316415
Publisher:	Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	02/28/2023
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	1,112,108
Product dimensions:	8.90(w) x 11.00(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	5 - 9 Years

About the Author

Helaine Becker is the acclaimed author of many books for young readers, including An Equal Shot and Counting on Katherine, both illustrated by Dow Phumiruk. Counting on Katherine won a Bank Street College Cook Prize for nonfiction, as well as many other honors. Helaine lives in Toronto, Canada. She invites you to visit her website, helainebecker.com.

Aura Lewis is an author-illustrator and designer with an MFA from the School of Visual Arts in New York City. She is the creator of Spectacular Sisters, Gloria’s Voice, and The Illustrated Feminist. She invites you to see more of her work at auralewis.com, or on Twitter and Instagram: @auralewis. 

Editorial Reviews

01/23/2023

This whirlwind biography of Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) highlights how her difficult early years served in the development of the fundamentals behind her later work. Opening with Roosevelt’s dramatic rescue from the sinking SS Britannic as a toddler, ensuing scenes describe an anxious childhood marked by further trauma after her parents and brother die. A British boarding school and travel offer an emotional turning point, leading to Roosevelt’s embrace of volunteer work back home: “In the tenements of New York, surrounded by friends and doing work she loved, Eleanor was finally in her element.” A chance encounter with cousin Franklin closes, leaving a detailed author’s note to flesh out the details of the pair’s marriage and accomplishments. Lewis’s pale gouache, watercolor, digital illustrations spotlight the figure as she matures through a mix of vignettes and spreads. Emphasizing overcoming fear, Becker holds up the determined subject as a model: “She had no time for fear—her work was too important!” Resources included. Ages 5–9. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for Eleanor Roosevelt:

"This look at Eleanor Roosevelt’s formative years seeks out the moments that defined the woman to come…. Many biographies focus on Roosevelt’s social activism and public service later in life; this work provides an origin point. A very good purchase for picture book biography collections."—SLJ

"This picture-book biography traces Roosevelt's formative years and how they shaped the famous figure Americans recall today…. Springtime colors prevail in Lewis’ simple, textured illustrations, which help keep the biography’s tone upbeat. A lengthy author’s note expands upon the text, offering more details about Eleanor’s sad early life and social justice service later."
 —Booklist

"Highlights how [Eleanor Roosevelt's] difficult early years served in the development of the fundamentals behind her later work.... Lewis’s pale gouache, watercolor, digital illustrations spotlight the figure as she matures through a mix of vignettes and spreads. Emphasizing overcoming fear, Becker holds up the determined subject as a model: 'She had no time for fear—her work was too important!'"

—Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

10/01/2022

Gr 1–3—This look at Eleanor Roosevelt's formative years seeks out the moments that defined the woman to come. Losing her parents and brother at an early age and sent to live with a distant grandmother, Roosevelt found her purpose first at the Allenswood boarding school in England, where she ultimately found comfort and support and emerged as a compassionate, capable leader with a strong social conscience. Becker briefly touches on Roosevelt's childhood anxiety and sense of isolation, and how there was no affection from her grandmother. When Roosevelt attends school in England, Becker becomes more effusive, with flowing sentences to illustrate Roosevelt's own burgeoning personality: "She was no longer lonely. And for the first time in her life, she was not afraid." Mixed media illustrations speak to young Roosevelt's isolation, often putting her toward the front of the page and set apart; as she becomes more confident, she is pictured in groups of others, with attentive body language. Endpapers are blue on blue with silhouetted icons from Roosevelt's life. VERDICT So many biographies focus on Roosevelt's social activism and public service later in life; this work provides an origin point. A very good purchase for picture book biography collections.—Rosemary Kiladitis

School Library Journal

2023-02-25
How the future first lady overcame her fears.

A misleading subtitle isn’t all that afflicts this profile—which, rather than highlight Roosevelt’s “kindness,” points to an early experience of being tossed off a damaged ocean liner into a lifeboat as the origin of deep anxiety issues and goes on, in the wake of the deaths of her parents and brother, to trace the blossoming of her self-confidence under the tutelage of Marie Souvestre, headmistress at a British boarding school, and her initial involvement in social causes. The author ends with Eleanor’s first chance encounter with Franklin but expands on her career and legacy in an afterword. There’s a condescending tone toward others in parts of Becker’s narrative (“As she approached the settlement house for the first time, a wave of terror threatened to engulf her. What poverty!”) that is reinforced by a later quote from Roosevelt about how “the underdog was always the one to be championed.” People don’t remain quite so anonymous in Lewis’ pale, understated illustrations, though people in group settings do have generic features; in a capping final scene, there are brown individuals among the White ones. Eleanor Roosevelt is hard to top as a role model, but readers will get a more robust sense of her character from Barbara Kerley’s Eleanor Makes Her Mark (2020), illustrated by Edwin Fotheringham. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Respectful (to its subject at least) but a staid, distant picture. (references and further resources) (Picture-book biography. 7-9)

Kirkus Reviews