This February, our guest will be Candace Fleming who, in addition to writing picture and chapter books, also writes historical biographies. We’ll be talking about these biographies, which include Ben Franklin’s Almanac: Being a True Account of the Good Gentleman’s Life; Our Eleanor: A Scrapbook Look at Eleanor Roosevelt’s Remarkable Life; The Lincolns: A Scrapbook Look at Abraham and Mary; The Great and Only Barnum: The Tremendous, Stupendous Life of Showman P.T. Barnum; and Amelia Lost: The Life and Disappearance of Amelia Earhart.
These biographies are packed with information, quotes, images, letters, engravings, and photographs. They flow at just the right pace for readers, without overstating the good parts, shying away from the bad parts, or glossing over the ugly parts of these remarkable peoples’ lives. Woven into the biographies is information about the politics, social landscapes, controversies, and conflicts of the time period, creating a richer context that enables the reader to better understand these historical figures. Each biography is an informative, emotional, and uplifting history lesson crafted by a truly talented researcher and author.
Fleming’s biographies are multiple award winners that repeatedly appear on “best of” lists for national publications, organizations, and libraries. Amelia Lost won the Golden Kite Award for Nonfiction in 2012, and The Great and Only Barnum was one of the American Library Association’s Best Books for Young Adults in 2010 and a finalist for the Excellence in Young Adult Nonfiction award.
Her new biography, The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion And The Fall of Imperial Russia, will be released in the Fall, 2014.
Author photo by Michael Lionstar