Who Was Annie Oakley?

May 1, 2002
Gr 3-5-Annie Oakley was born Phoebe Ann Moses in 1860 in Ohio. Her life story is told here-from her fatherless childhood through her marriage to Frank Butler and glory days traveling with Buffalo Bill's show to her death, 18 days before her husband's, in 1926. "Little Sure Shot," as she was nicknamed by Sitting Bull, truly had a one-of-a-kind life. She raised herself up from a poor, abused baby-sitter to a sharpshooting show woman who enchanted Queen Victoria out of her post-Albert funk, no less. However, while her biography is presented in full here, the prose is rather dry and uninviting. The black-and-white cartoons that pad the book are no better. Although two time lines are appended, there is no index. Sue Macy's Bull's-Eye (National Geographic, 2001) is a wonderful photobiography of Oakley that will be far more helpful for reports and is more enjoyable reading.-Anne Chapman Callaghan, Racine Public Library, WI

Copyright 2002 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2002
The fast-paced biographies in this series do a good job of revealing the personalities and significant achievements of their subjects. Plentiful black-and-white illustrations and simple prose make the books particularly appealing to reluctant readers, and the brief sidebars never overwhelm the main texts. Each volume has two timelines--one for the subjects life, the other listing concurrent world events. [Review covers these titles: "Who Was Albert Einstein?, Who Was Ben Franklin?, Who Was Sacagawea?, Who Was Annie Oakley?". ]

(Copyright 2002 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)