Dolley Madison: First Lady Book

Briefly describes the life of First Lady Dolley Madison, including her accomplishments and her impact on American history.

Leslie Rounds - Children's Literature

Dolley Payne was born to a North Carolina Quaker family in 1768. After moving to Philadelphia as a teen, she met and eventually married John Todd, Jr. He and one of their two children died in the Yellow Fever epidemic of 1793. The following year she married James Madison, who was a congressman from Virginia. She served as a hostess for the widower Thomas Jefferson during the eight years of his presidency, and then as First Lady during Madison's two terms as President. She was considered to be an outstanding and fashionable hostess, and remained so even after Madison's death in 1836. She is credited with heroically rescuing valuable documents and the Gilbert Stuart painting of George Washington from the White House just before the building was burned by the British during the War of 1812. This brief biography chronicles Dolley's life and includes informative sidebars about James Madison, Montpelier, the Madison home, and the White House fire. Photographs and period illustrations are included on every page. The book also includes a timeline, a glossary, an index, and a short list of references, and places to visit. The only Web site mentioned is the publisher's Web page which then links to three Dolley Madison sites. The publisher promises to keep the links list up to date. If so, this would be an improvement over links included in the text of a book, which have the potential to quickly become outdated. This interesting book, one of the series "Our People," is a welcome addition to the rather limited field of lower reading level biographies. 2003, Child's World,