All But My Life: A Memoir - Gerda Weissmann Klein

All But My Life: A Memoir by Gerda Weissmann Klein


I was familiar with parts of Klein's story through a documentary I showed my 8th graders each spring when we teamed up with the social studies teacher for a unit on the Holocaust. So it was both interesting and heart breaking to read her story completely.

I am starting to have a hard time rating memoirs because while the stories are usually important, I've found they're not the best written books. And my stars are usually based on both aspects. So I'll just say this one is worth the read.

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The Good Neighbor: The Life and Work of Fred Rogers - Maxwell King

The Good Neighbor: The Life and Work of Fred Rogers by Maxwell King
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

It pains me to give this book 1 star. I was so looking forward to reading it and am a fan of Mr. Rogers and his work. This book does not do him justice.

I was a bit put off straight from the prologue where King refers to Fred Rogers as being feminine in nature. He does this several times throughout the book in different ways. I just don't see Rogers as that way. Caring? Yes. Calm? For sure. But not feminine.

The book is poorly organized and could have used a good dose of editing. The timeline is sort of chronological but also bounces back and forth some. Dates are mentioned randomly in some parts where as other sections where a date would be helpful to the reader, there is none. SO. MANY. Redundancies. The book would have been half the length if all the unnecessary repetition of information was deleted. Some sections and details were inadequately or poorly explained. Others the author went into overdrive on details and explanations that didn't add anything to the narrative of Fred Rogers life and work.

Had this not been the book chosen for both my book clubs this month, I would have quit it before I was halfway through. In fact, if you're in my local book club I give you full permission to quit it and still come to the meeting.

I wanted to love it. It is Mr. Rogers, after all. Disappointed.

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