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  • Master of His Fate: Roosevelt's Rise from Polio to the Presidency by James Tobin
  • Elizabeth Bush
Tobin, James Master of His Fate: Roosevelt's Rise from Polio to the Presidency. Ottaviano/Holt,
2021 [272p] illus. with photographs
Trade ed. ISBN 9781627795203 $19.99
E-book ed. ISBN 9781627793315 $9.99
Reviewed from digital galleys R Gr. 5-9

Middle school readers will associate Franklin Delano Roosevelt with his terms of presidency spanning the Great Depression and World War II, and they will probably know that poliomyelitis caused mobility issues for him throughout much of his life. Here Tobin delivers a tightly focused biography that begins with FDR's infection at the age of thirty-nine—startling family, acquaintances, and himself, all of whom believed the disease also known as infantile paralysis only struck the young—and culminates with the achievement of his life-long personal goal, being elected United States president. Tobin allows the particulars of FDR's struggle to emerge organically, supplying pertinent information about the disease and the treatment throughout the text, and depicting both Roosevelt's unflagging determination to move on his own and the stubborn drive that caused setbacks to his rehabilitation and may have ultimately impeded further recovery. There's plenty of politics woven in , but even here Tobin stays on track, emphasizing how distrustful the mid twentieth century public was of the ability of a person with paraplegia to have any challenging career, much less a high profile position of leadership. Plenty of photographs assist readers in observing and assessing how FDR chose to minimize, rather than hide, the appearance of his condition. A note on sources and an index are included.

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