  | Leather Apron Club : Benjamin Franklin, his son Billy, & America's first circulating library Author: Yolen, Jane | |
| Price: $22.58 | ||
Summary:
Billy Franklin discovers a love of learning and books through the Leather Apron Club library, run by his father, the famous Benjamin Franklin.
| Illustrator: | Minor, Wendell |
Reviews:
Kirkus Reviews (08/15/21)
Booklist (09/01/21)
Full Text Reviews:
Booklist - 09/01/2021 In this fictionalized tribute to one of Ben Franklin’s many accomplishments, the inventor’s eight-year-old son, Billy, describes how his “Pappy,” hearing that his wayward boy’s interest had been captured by a reading of The Iliad, takes him to a meeting of what was then called the Leather Apron Club in a rented house stocked with books. “They smell of Stories, at once musty and new,” marvels the dazzled narrator, and his life is changed by the “magical” experience. Yolen fills the first-person narrative with capitalized nouns and with sayings from Poor Richard’s Almanack to lend an antique flavor to the prose, and though Minor’s illustrations are done in a less finished style than usual, they are still filled with authentic-looking period dress and details. Closing notes, preceding a brief bibliography, fill in more details about both Franklins, including (a throw-in, but good to know anyway) Franklin senior’s evolving views on slavery. “Either write something worth reading, or do something worth writing,” he wrote, and here’s a reminder that he did both. - Copyright 2021 Booklist.
