ELEANOR
Written and Illustrated by Barbara Cooney
Viking, 1996
Category: Picture book biography
My daughter picked this book off the shelf today. With Christmas behind us and her brothers back to school and no sign of winter anywhere (to a five-year-old the one and only sign of winter is white and fluffy and falls from the sky), I think my little one was in a gloomy mood. I’ve always thought the cover art for ELEANOR gloomy and somber. Could my daughter have picked up on this, too?
The title Eleanor is none other than Eleanor Roosevelt, and this picture book explores her childhood. It was a hard childhood, a very sad childhood. How hard? How very sad? Here is the opening line of the book:
“From the beginning, the baby was a disappointment to her mother. She was born red and wrinkled, an ugly little thing. And she was not a boy.”
Ouch. My daughter wrinkled her brow and dropped her little jaw. “Mothers are supposed to love their babies,” she whispered. Indeed. Thankfully, there were bright spots in Eleanor Roosevelt’s childhood. Throughout the course of the book Father, Uncle Ted and Mlle. Souvestre (one of Eleanor’s teachers and perhaps the brightest of the bright spots) help young Eleanor to blossom. Barbara Cooney’s illustrations are lovely, the likenesses true, and the story, ultimately, triumphant.
My daughter was not interested in the Afterword, and so did not hear that Eleanor went on to become one of the most beloved women of her time. It was enough for her that Eleanor overcame her Mother’s disdain, her many fears and her shy nature … that Eleanor found people who loved her and who she loved in return. Once that happy ending was secure, my little love left me on the couch and headed back to the bookshelf. What was she after? “A book that is really, really, really about snow!”