Book Review: The First Ladies by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray

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The First Ladies by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray is a historical fiction novel that spans many years and tells of the friendship between former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt and civil rights activist Mary McLeod Bethune. I don't know if I would have picked up this book if it hadn't been the August selection for one of the book clubs I belong to in my area because I don't read a lot of historical fiction. However, I am so glad that I read it and was able to learn many things I hadn't learned about in any of my history classes.  I don't recall learning anything about Mary McLeod Bethune, and she is an important part of American history. The things she helped spearhead to provide African American people equal rights is quite impressive. One of the things I was horrified to learn about is Franklin D. Roosevelt's resistance to stop lynchings because he was afraid of losing the Southern Democrats backing for his New Deal Bill. Another thing that I fo...

Book Review: Teamwork (Sweet Valley Twins, # 27) Created by Francine Pascal

sweet valley twins # 27Teamwork (Sweet Valley Twins, # 27) created by Francine Pascal is a story about twin sisters, Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield, deciding they want to visit their great aunt, but their parents decide that the girls need to learn a lesson about money and earning the bus fares themselves. Determined to show their parents that they know the value of money and being responsible, they decide to start their own dog walking business, which quickly expands to dog sitting. Taking on a second client for dog sitting, the girls and their friend, Ken Matthews, quickly learn that the dog has been abused and take matters into their own hands to keep him safe.

Sweet Valley Twins is the series that made me an avid reader, and now, that I'm rereading the series as an adult, I love the fact that it teaches kids valuable lessons about serious issues and how to deal with them as a kid. I know some adults might say that Teamwork glossed over the issue of animal abuse, but we have to keep in mind that the target age group of the book series are for kids between the ages of eight and twelve, so you can't go into too much detail about the issue so as to not upset or scars kids for the rest of their lives.

Why didn't the girls and Ken just tell Mr. and Mrs. Wakefield that they thought the dog named Joe was being abused? Well, the girls had been told by their parents that they needed to handle things themselves and not to come to them with complaints, so Jessica and Elizabeth took that as they couldn't come to their parents with such a serious concern because they didn't want to be seen as irresponsible. I actually think that many kids would have done the same thing . . . However, as a kid, I would've immediately gone to my parents if I thought someone was abusing an animal. 

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