Dan Gutman - Teddy Roosevelt Was a Moose?

illustrated by ALLISON STEINFELD

To kids who like to learn cool stuff.

Photograph on courtesy of National Park Service,
Manhattan Historic Sites Archive.

Copyright 2022 by Dan Gutman
Illustrations copyright 2022 by Allison Steinfeld

All rights reserved
First Edition

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Cover artwork:Allison Steinfeld

Cover design: Patrick Collins
Book design by Patrick Collins
Production manager: Anna Oler

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available

ISBN 978-1-324-01564-2
ISBN 978-1-324-01708-0 (pbk.)

W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
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Who cares about that ? Ill tell you whats really interestingfamous people. Ive read a bunch of biographies for kids, but they always leave out the good parts. The cool stuff. The strange things. So Turner and I decided to learn about famous people and write about them. But we leave out the boring junk and just include the good stuff.

Oh yeah. I guess famous people are interesting too.

Like Teddy Roosevelt, for instance. He was one of the most famous men of the twentieth century. He was one of our presidents, of course, but he was also a cowboy, a cattle rancher, an explorer, a war hero, and an environmentalist. He was the father of the United States Navy. He almost died a bunch of times. And over a hundred years later, people are still arguing about whether he was a good guy or a bad guy. We could probably fill two books about Teddy Roosevelt.

October 27, 1858 Born in New York City. The building where he was born is now a museum dedicated to him.

1880 Marries Alice Hathaway Lee.

1882 Member of the New York State Assembly. Serves in the New York Army National Guard. Writes his first book, The Naval War of 1812 .

1884 His first child, Alice Lee Roosevelt, is born. His wife, Alice, dies two days later.

1886 Marries Edith Carow. They will have five children together.

1895 President of the New York City Board of Police Commissioners.

1897 Assistant Secretary of the Navy.

1899 Governor of New York.

1901 Serves as vice president. Becomes president of the United States.

1904 Wins reelection.

1906 Wins the Nobel Peace Prize.

1912 Runs for president again. Loses. Survives assassination attempt.

1919 Dies at the age of sixty. He is buried in Youngs Memorial Cemetery, in Oyster Bay, New York.

2001 Wins the Medal of Honor.

2020 It is announced that his statue will be removed from the front of the American Museum of Natural History.

Still awake? Great! Okay, lets get to the good stuff, the stuff your teacher doesnt even know about Teddy Roosevelt...

We should probably start by getting the guys name right. It was Theodore. Most people called him Teddy, but he hated that name. He said, No one in my family has ever used it, and if it is used by anyone it is a sure sign that he does not know me.