The Leather Apron ClubBenjamin Franklin, His Son Billy, and America's First Circulating LibraryBy: Jane Yolen / Illustrated by:Wendell MinorWelcome to the USA's first lending library, where it's love at first page!When Billy's father Benjamin Franklin anno
The Leather Apron Club
Benjamin Franklin, His Son Billy, and America’s First Circulating Library
By: Jane Yolen / Illustrated by:Wendell Minor
When Billy’s father Benjamin Franklin announces that Billy and his lazy cousin James will soon have a tutor, Billy is . . . not thrilled. His tutor is up to the challenge. Billy is thrilled to discover that books are full of adventure and that stories can change the world. When Billy accompanies his father to the Leather Apron Club,he’s inspired to do more with his education and his life.
Co-founded by Benjamin Franklin in 1727, not only was the Club the first successful lending library in the United Statesit also exists to this day as the Library Company of Philadelphia! Careful readers will notice that the story cleverly incorporates famous sayings from Ben Franklin’s Poor Richard’s Almanack,emphasizing the lasting impact of words.
If you like this book, youll enjoy these:
Eat Your US History Homework
Plymouth Rocks!
[TABS]
Download the Cover
Jane Yolen,author
Jane Yolen is the award-winning author of over three hundred children’s books including Last Laughs: Prehistoric Epitaphs and Last Laughs: Animal Epitaphs; Bad Girls (with Heidi E. Y. Stemple); Owl Moon, a Caldecott Medal Winner; the How Do Dinosaurs . . . ? series, Sea Queens, and Plymouth Rock. She has been called the Hans Christian Andersen of the Americas. Jane lives in Western Massachusetts and Scotland.
Read more about Jane.
Wendell Minor, illustrator
Wendell Minor has designed more than two thousand book covers and written and/or illustrated more than fifty children’s books, including many in collaboration with Jean Craighead George. Recent titles include Night Train, Night Train; Trapped!; How Big Could Your Pumpkin Grow?; and If You Were a Panda Bear.
Read more aboutWendell.
Publishers Weekly
Inspired by the life of William Billy Franklin, son of Benjamin Franklin, this first-person account conveyed in lengthy free verse opens in Philadelphia, 1739, when rowdy Billy is eight years old; eventually, a new tutor inspires a love of reading, and the elder Franklin allows the younger to bear witness to a meeting of the Leather Apron Club, 12 friends who meet weekly to discuss issues of morality, philosophy, and politics, as well as read at the Clubs library, the first free lending library in the United States, per an authors note. Interspersing quotes from Poor Richards Almanack, Yolen makes Billys emotions relatable to young audiences: Pappy… has written the best-known Book/ in all of Philadelphia,/ printed on his own Press/Poor Richards Almanack./ It is full of sayings to make people wise,/ though if you ask me, I think it is a little boring. Muted watercolors by Minor offer sketch-like, realistic white figures in this historical fiction, which may appeal more to adults. Front matter includes a note about capitalizations; back matter includes more historical context and information, as well as an authors note.
Hardcover
ISBN: 978-1-58089-719-8
E-book
ISBN: 978-1-60734-935-8EPUB
Ages:7-10
Page count: 32
9 x 11
[/TABS]
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.