Theodore Roosevelt Larger than Life, by Matt Donnelly is a book I found interesting. The genre is biography. The copyright date is 2003. The author covers Roosevelt's life from when he was born until the day he died.



I would recommend this book to middle school students who like to read about history. Another reason middle school students would like this book is because some of Roosevelt's adventures are inspiring. The length of the book is just right and students are learning about him in American history. It also has photographs which help you picture how things were during that time period. Roosevelt has affected our lives in the 21st Century as well. Mr. Donnelly does a good job of making the book clear. He writes detailed explanations of events in Roosevelt's life and shows what made Roosevelt do some of the things he did.



There are many reasons I think make this book amazing for middle school students. One reason is that Roosevelt was a very energetic and eccentric person who was fun to be around. But Roosevelt was not always energetic and fun. As a child Roosevelt had bad asthma and sometimes could barely breathe. But when he was 12, he started working out to make his body and mind stronger.(12) Another reason middle school students would like Roosevelt is because he had so many achievements in his life. A high achievement was winning the Noble Peace Prize for his contributions to end the Russo-Japanese War.(131) He also won the Medal of Honor for his charge up San Juan Hill but that was not awarded to him until Bill Clinton's presidency. These are just a few of Roosevelt's stories that Donnelly shares which make this book a great read for middle school students.


Roosevelt was one of the greatest presidents of all times. One of his biggest achievements was building the Panama Canal.(127) It took America 11 years to build the canal. Another achievement was breaking up many of the trusts. A trust is a group of companies that come together to control one industry. In total Roosevelt broke up 44 trusts including Standard Oil and Northern Securities Company. Roosevelt used the Sherman Anti-Trust Act to break up those companies. Donnelly writes both those events and more that took place during the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt.



In conclusion, Donnelly does a great job of describing the most important events in Roosevelt's life which made him the person he was. Reading this book, you can see Roosevelt was one of greatest presidents America has ever had. Last, I wonder if Roosevelt would have done things the way he did them then or would he have changed his ideas if he were president today?