Don’t You Dare Shoot That Bear! A Story of Theodore Roosevelt by Robert Quackenbush (1984)

I’ve been on a turn-of-the-century kick, what with my readings about The Wright Brothers and Earnest Shackleton and all, not to mention the entire Laura Ingalls Wilder series and a few books on Theodore Roosevelt. So when I found this book at a garage sale, it was a no-brainer for me.

This is not a book that could possibly get published today. It’s a book of history that lightens the political mood for children with some talking Teddy Bears that are only slightly less cheeky than the kids in Family Circus. Still, I think this book covered more of Teddy’s life than I think any other children’s book would, but more too than any child would ever care about.

Show me a fourth grader who cares about Roosevelt’s brief role as Police Commissioner of New York City, and I’ll show you a kid who needs some friends. And some sunshine.

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That this book was published only five years after the Pulitzer-Prize-winning The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt and only three years after the equally informative Mornings on Horseback wasn’t lost on me. Robert Quackenbush did his research, whittled the great President’s life down into a few quick segments, tossed in a couple of cutesy bears, and published a brand new book! Super easy.

Why don’t more authors get their feet in the door this way? I wonder.

Of course, Quackenbush set his youthful biography apart by filling every page with creative and sometimes goofy illustrations, and not only illustrations of talking Teddy Bears. His five-tone, brown-themed illustrations make Roosevelt’s story what it is, since the text itself is otherwise merely dry information. As occurs in most children’s books, the pictures make the story, which I suppose is just fine.

As a children’s-book author myself, I can attest to the fact that the words I’ve written meant nothing without the dummy-pictures I produced. Real artists improved on my dummy pics, but the images in my mind mattered first and foremost. The words themselves would never have been published alone, for they only supported the pictures. While Quackenbush’s process of developing this book likely differed greatly from my own, the end result is nearly the same. Pictures illustrate words, but sometimes they even communicate better than words could.

Quackenbush’s book proved to be a youthful introduction to one of he most interesting Presidents in history, but I doubt it will stand the test of time. I have to admit, however, that the pic of Teddy on page 32 depicting his accomplishments in Panama will stick with me for a long, long time.

©2020 E.T.

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Read More Books Written by and about U.S. Presidents:

Abraham Lincoln

• Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer by James L. Swanson (2006)
• Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination that Changed America Forever by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard (2011)

Teddy Roosevelt

• Murdering McKinley: The Making of Theodore Roosevelt’s America by Eric Rauchway (2003)
• Mornings on Horseback: The Story of an Extraordinary Story, a Vanished Way of Life, and the Unique Child Who Became Theodore Roosevelt by David McCullough (1981)
• Don’t You Dare Shoot That Bear! A Story of Theodore Roosevelt by Robert Quackenbush (1984)
• The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris (1979)
• Theodore Rex by Edmund Morris (2001)

John F. Kennedy

• Killing Kennedy by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard (2012)

Jimmy Carter

• Our Endangered Values: America’s Moral Crisis by President Jimmy Carter (2005)

Ronald Reagan

• Abortion and the Conscience of the Nation by Ronald Reagan (1983)
• When Character Was King: A Story of Ronald Reagan by Peggy Noonan (2001)
• Ronald Reagan: a Life in Pictures, 1911-2004 by LIFE Magazine (2004)
• The Notes: Ronald Reagan’s Private Collection of Stories and Wisdom by Ronald Reagan, ed. Douglas Brinkley (2011)
• Killing Reagan: The Violent Assault that Changed a Presidency by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard (2015)

Bill Clinton

• The President is Missing by Bill Clinton and James Patterson (2018)

George W. Bush

• The Faith of George W. Bush by Stephen Mansfield (2004)
• Decision Points by George W. Bush (2010)

Donald Trump

• How to Get Rich by Donald J. Trump and Meredith McIver (2004)
• The Mueller Report Graphic Novel by Shannon Wheeler and Steve Duin (2020)