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  • To Dare Mighty Things: The Life of Theodore Roosevelt by Doreen Rappaport
  • Elizabeth Bush
Rappaport, Doreen. To Dare Mighty Things: The Life of Theodore Roosevelt; illus. by C. F. Payne. Disney Hyperion, 2013. [48p]. ISBN 978-1-4231-2488-7 $17.99 Reviewed from galleys R* Gr. 3-5.

Surely there must be a muse in charge of connecting subject with biographer—that would account for such notable pairings as Isaac Newton with Kathleen Krull (Isaac Newton, BCCB 5/06), or Charles and Emma Darwin with Deborah Heiligman (Charles and Emma, BCCB 2/09). Now Theodore Roosevelt, whose outsized life demands an oversized format, and whose audacious pronouncements demand a biographer willing to let him speak for himself, finds his way into Doreen Rappaport’s Big Words series, and the matchmaking goddess scores again.

Roosevelt was arguably the most frenetic of U.S. Presidents, and his renowned energy and multitudinous enthusiasms—both personal and political—are admirably conveyed in the litany of efforts and accomplishments compressed into this fast-moving text. On route to the Big Achievements of TR’s life—San Juan Hill, conservation advocacy, and of course the U.S. Presidency—Rappaport can only pause briefly at such career highlights as his civil service shake-up (“Republican lawmakers … sighed with relief when Teddy left”) and his stint as New York Police Commissioner (a new set of “Republican lawmakers … sighed with relief when Teddy left”). The very speed at which political appointments and elected offices fly past is a vital characteristic of TR’s life, and if readers are left a bit breathless, so much the better.

While the overall tone of the narration could be described as amused awe at Roosevelt’s expansive and largely realized progressive agenda, his questionable judgment concerning war with Spain over Cuba and his overreach of authority in Panama are addressed as well: “Roosevelt wanted to buy land in Panama to build a canal connecting the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. Panama’s government refused. … ‘I took the Canal Zone and let Congress debate; while the debate goes on, the canal does also.’” Political bluster and bravado are balanced with attention to TR’s domestic life, though, and here readers meet a down-to-earth kid to whom they can relate: “He collected animal and bird specimens and created a museum in his room. He smelled. The whole house smelled. ‘All growing boys tend to be grubby; but the ornithological boy is the grubbiest of all.’” It’s no wonder TR would grow into the man known for the rambunctiousness of his White House sojourn: “Evenings often ended with pillow fights, wrestling matches, and throwing water balloons off the roof. [Wife] Edith said that Teddy was her seventh child.”

A strong current of humor also runs through Payne’s grittily textured mixed-media paintings. There’s heroism in the composition of the Rough Riders’ [End Page 253] charge up San Juan Hill, but it’s equally clear that Roosevelt was loving every minute of the battle: “The charge itself was great fun. Oh, but we had a bully fight.” An inventive spread wryly suggests a touch of ambivalence as outdoorsman Teddy approaches his marriage among New York gentility with both feet rooted in a Western scene, while his elbow inches across the gutter into a landscape of urban townhouses. In a clever political satire that again alludes to Roosevelt’s affinity to the West, a tiny TR lassos the money-clutching fist of a Big Trust, and in a scene that’s bound to be a reader favorite, the White House is tipped on an angle as the Roosevelt kids stilt-walk and leapfrog down the hallway while a pet guinea pig sprints off the lower corner of the page.

Appended timeline, quotation sources, and suggestions for further reading will certainly assist readers bent on grinding this title into book report fodder. However, considering Roosevelt’s claim, “I don’t think any President ever enjoyed himself more than I did,” perhaps the greatest tribute readers can offer him is to simply share his delight. (See p. 279 for publication information.)

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