George Washington: A Revolutionary Life, by Tim Grove

     This new biography was released in coordination with the 250th birthday of the United States, which you've likely heard about by now! This book was published in partnership with The Mount Vernon Ladies' Association, the private non-profit group founded in 1853 that oversees George Washington's Mount Vernon home. The Association works to preserve, restore, and educate the public about Washington's life in all of its aspects.

    The highlight of George Washington the book is the color photography throughout - of paintings, drawings, maps...every page is beautiful to look at. It took many pages before the issue of slavery became more part of the overall story, and I admit to being interested from the start about how author Tim Grove was going to address this (or not address it, as happens in some books about our nation's earliest founders). But by the end of the book I was satisfied with the coverage this difficult topic received - Grove did not hide the fact that Washington was a slave owner, which has to be included if we are to understand his life and its successes.

    In all, there is a lot to learn here about our first president, and much of it was new to me as well (and I'm a well-read pup!). Starting his young adult life as a surveyor, he would also be a soldier, a farmer (the area of his life where he spent the bulk of his years and creative thinking, it seemed), and, of course, become involved in politics. He certainly had his struggles along the way, but from this book it seems that Washington was a bright man interested in making the world a better place in many areas (owning slaves not being one of them). I don't come across many biographies for young readers about our nation's presidents, but I mostly enjoyed this one and recommend it to anyone curious about Washington and his contributions to our country. 4 paws!