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...
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Book Review: Choosing Sides (Sweet Valley Twins, #4) created by Francine Pascal

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sweet valley twins # 4 created by francine pascal
The Unicorns have decided to start a cheerleading squad at Sweet Valley Middle School and call it the boosters. The caveat put forth by teachers are they must have open tryouts. Amy Sutton decides she wants to try out for the boosters. While that is happening, the basketball team is holding open tryouts as well, and the shortest boy in school, Ken Matthews, decides to try out.

Choosing Sides (Sweet Valley Twins, #4) deals with bullying yet again. Do you see a theme in this series? Bullying seems to be most prominent in the middle school years, so it isn't surprising that the Sweet Valley Twins books deal with this subject a lot. The underlying themes are friendship and standing up for yourself in this edition.

The Unicorns try to bully Amy because they don't want an unpopular, tomboy on the cheerleading squad. On top of that, Elizabeth is worried that if Amy makes the boosters, she won't have any more time to spend with her. Bruce Patman bullies Ken Matthews just because he is the shortest boy in school and is not the best player. Elizabeth helps out Ken with some suggestions and by having her older brother, who is a basketball player on one of the high school teams, give him some pointers as well. I love the fact that despite being bullied, both Amy and Ken stand up for themselves because they know their self worth, and they do it without getting into a physical fight. Kids need to know how to do this better.

All in all, I enjoyed Choosing Sides, and it had a much better ending than the previous installment of the Sweet Valley Twins. I gave it five out five stars. Don't miss out on our other reviews in this series:  Best Friends (Sweet Valley Twins, #1), Teacher's Pet (Sweet Valley Twins, #2), and The Haunted House (Sweet Valley Twins, #3).

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