Book review: 'Alexander Hamilton: The Fighting Founding Father!' hypes up drama

Two of my kids got their hands on, "Alexander Hamilton: The Fighting Founding Father!" before I could and both of them absolutely loved it. So I was prepared to love it too.

But I didn't.

Which is so disappointing.

Image from Portable Press

Before I go on, I feel obligated to put a disclaimer out there in www land: I have not seen "Hamilton," the musical. I know, I know; I'm basically a barbarian who lives under a rock. I have a degree in history and I love U.S. history especially, but I haven't seen the play and, after reading this book, I wondered if the reason the interpersonal relationships of Hamilton and others were spoken of so much was because they've been hyped up in the play. Maybe? Am I even close here?

With that in mind, let's start off with some historical discrepancies that bothered me.

I'm not sure why Mark Shulman deemed it necessary to talk about the supposed relationship of Jefferson with his slave. And if anyone wants to talk about that, I suggest you first read Jefferson's writings and then go to his Monticello home and talk to the historians there; they have some incredible views of Jefferson and slavery. But really, why did he deem it necessary to bring it up twice in a book about Alexander Hamilton? It really felt like he was reaching way beyond the subject (Hamilton) in order to drum up drama for the book.

However, I will admit that when my son read that, and asked me about it, we had an interesting discussion that went kinda like this:

Son: "Mom, is this true? Did Jefferson really marry his slave?"
Me: "We aren't really sure. There are a lot of theories out there. However, what if he did? His previous wife had died. He was probably lonely. The reason it made headlines back then was because he was white and she was black. Should it be a big deal if a white person marries a black person?"
Son: "No."
Me: "So then it's not really a big deal, right?"
Son: "Right" Returns to the book.

This page from the book has nothing to do with what I'm talking about, but I wanted to add it so you all could see an example of the fun art work my kids have loved. Image from Portable Press

Moving on to a slightly different topic that still bothered me....

Historians aren't entirely sure that Hamilton's sister-in-law had the hots for him. But Shulman's writing makes it sound obvious that she did. And seeing a married woman pining for her sister's fiance in a children's book was not my favorite thing of the week.

So, with the two aforementioned suppositions being written as facts, I'm now wondering what else in "Alexander Hamilton" was blown out of proportion and escaped my notice. I took a look in the back to see where Shulman got his info and was surprised with the paltry bibliography.

All that being said, this book has wonderful illustrations, all in graphic novel format, and really moves readers along plot-wise. Kids can learn a great deal about the difficulties faced during the Revolutionary War, the Constitutional Convention, and the Federalist vs. Anti-Federalist debates. My kids got a lot out of this book and, at one point, were even sitting side by side just so they could read it (they were reading! and sharing! win win for the day).

Another image from Portable Press because graphic novels are so fun.

So, if you aren't picky about kids' history books being 100% accurate, but would rather focus on helping them grow their love of learning and history, then this book could work for you. At least it has clean language. Also, how the "Show Me History" series teaches using graphic novel format is quite successful.

The author of more than 150 books, Shulman lives in New York with his family. Illustrator Kelly Tindall lives in his native Canada with his family.