Theodore Roosevelt is one of the most ambitious and impressive men in American history to me. This graphic novel was framed as a soliloquy of Roosevelt reflecting on his life, telling his own story and inspiring an audience. This was not a speech Roosevelt ever actually gave, but instead tried to capture his tone and voice to retell his life.

The graphics were lovely, all tones of grey and blue. There was a nice balance between poetic ruminations and factual events.

Due to the format of the graphic novel, it was difficult at times for everything to be fully explained. I found myself relying on background knowledge a lot, so I'm not sure if this would be quite as enjoyable for someone who's completely unfamiliar with the Roosevelt family. I'm also not sure that framing the story as a speech worked well; there were many times that it felt like a run on sentence for Roosevelt to elaborate on all aspects of his life and opinion within the same speech.

In July of 1918, Theodore Roosevelt found out that his son had been shot down in France, and died. That much is fact. As to whether he then gave the speech that this book is based on, I can not confirm, but the events that are spoken about in this book all happened, at least as reported by historians. That is to say, in the shape of a speech we get to learn about the life of Teddy Roosevelt, the youngest man to become president of the United States, at age 42.

A life well lived, and this "speech" goes over some of the highlights, as "told" by Teddy himself.

Interesting look at the life a remarkable man. Nicely illustrated, with images from photographs. A good introduction to Teddy's life.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

While I am sure this is far too one-sided, I think this would work as a purchase for the school library shelf. The book loses its structure of a spoken address when it drifts into straight autobiography and talk of key events happening that very day, but the way we get to hear Roosevelt's voice comes across quite convincingly. He seems to have found fault in practically every other politician, or at least political side, but comes across as very hawkish when demanding sacrifice in the Great War and urging people to live to build a country worth laying your life down for. Visually, we're on to a winner, with a great direction and ease with breaking away from the lecture hall, presenting at times almost surreal visual asides to add to the storytelling. The monochrome blues and dark blacks don't add much colour to proceedings, but there's nothing lost when we have dynamism as seen here. So yes, it is a hagiography, and yes it is a bit woolly at times in how the text fails to keep to the remit of being a public talk, but I still think it's worth four stars.

NOTE: I received a free preliminary, and likely unedited copy of this book from Netgalley for the purposes of providing an honest, unbiased review of the material. Thank you to all involved.

"July 1918. Preparing to speak to an eager audience, 61-year-old Teddy Roosevelt receives the telegram that all parents of children who serve in war fear most: His son Quentin’s plane has been shot down in a dogfight over France. His fate is unknown. Despite rising fear for his youngest son, Teddy takes the stage to speak to his beloved fellow citizens. It is, he says, “my simple duty.” But the speech evolves from politics and the war, into an examination of his life, the choices he’s made, and the costs of his “Warrior Philosophy.” --Official description"

Teddy Roosevelt is one of those Presidents that comes to mind when one thinks about the great orators that we have had in the past in that very office. I won’t get too political here, but recent events in the political world make me look back at old speeches and feel some weird sense of nostalgia for a time that is WAYYYY before my time – a time when The President was remarkable and gave intellectual lectures as speeches rather than ridiculous messes designed for sound-bites. This graphic novel, about Theodore Roosevelt, encapsulates this very well as it showcases a oration by Roosevelt that is intertwined with biographical information.

Despite being a history major, I am not 100% certain that this was an actual speech or if its pieced together from various speeches and ideas that Roosevelt espoused. Either way, the storytelling here is remarkable. The speech is right after Teddy has learned that his son is missing fighting Germans during WWI – he was told that giving a speech in his state of mind was likely a bad call, but he does it anyway. He talks about his rough upbringing as he was very sickly as a child. It was only through sheer perseverance and respect for his father that he was able to largely overcome most of his ailments or at least learn to keep them at bay.

Giving the speech as a former President, Roosevelt lashes out at President Woodrow Wilson, the man that unseated his chosen successor William Howard Taft, and himself when he attempted to run for a third term. Wilson is accused of causing deaths of many (including Teddy’s soon, not confirmed dead at this point) and paving the way for German domination of the world. The speech is fairly “hawkish” and really shows the mindset America was in at the time. The speech is peppered with an overview of Teddy’s life, and what it means to be a real patriot as well as other themes.

I absolutely loved the story here, and despite being skeptical of the format initially, it works very well. The art style, minimalist with blacks and blues, is great and not something you see too often. I’d love to see more of these made from other well-known speeches in the future. This is honestly a great book, as one could toss this into a school library or assign it as a class project, and I think kids would really gain a bit of extra understanding that merely just reading a speech or textbook does not allow. Definitely recommended!

I wasn't quite sure what to expect when I started this. The narration style was Theodore Roosevelt at a podium telling a speech but often the art would follow his speech's storylines and then weave back to him standing at the podium. Roosevelt's speech covered his own life, his family's life, American history, politics & war. Some of the language around politics was a little hard to follow but I got the gist of things. It was really interesting that they kept Roosevelt's own voice during the narration, often using his own terms like "bully!". I learned a few things but it would have been nice to have an afterward that covered the facts of Roosevelt as a person. This is very much from his point of view so if it were to say something like Roosevelt claimed to be for equality and preservation but in creating the Panama Canal really destroyed a natural landscapes or something like that. I'm not an expert on history or Roosevelt but since it is his story it would have been nice to have more information at the end. I think this book would make a great lesson plan, there's a lot of information that could be pulled out and expanded on. It wasn't terribly boring and was easy to understand and could be appropriate for most ages.

Conversational autobiographical comic about TR that starts with the conceit that he is giving a speech close to the end of his life the morning after learning his youngest son has died in WWI. The narrative quickly spins of into flashback and fantasy across his life, but what this novel ends up being is a meditation on the late 19th and early 2oth century conception of manhood ( physical toughness, honor, war, duty, and country over family) and America that TR exemplified. It's an interesting biography and there are some heart wrenching moments close to the end that hit me hard as a parent. The art is serviceable and while there aren't easy answers to the questions that the comic asks, I'm enjoying mulling them over days after I first finished the story.

I haven't read many historic or nonfiction graphic novels. I need to make it a point to read more of them. This graphic novel was wonderful. I learned so much more about Mr. Teddy Roosevelt. I think it was pretty great to see history drawn out before me.

This graphic novel starts with Teddy's childhood and how his father pushed him to overcome all obstacles. It goes into this rough rider days. It follows him through his first marriage and his first daughter. This novel goes into his vice presidency to presidency. I got to watch his children grow up. We got a sneak peak of Franklin and Eleanor. We seem Teddy work with the Navy. We see Teddy's heart get broken from the news that his son passed during the war.

My only dislike was the time jumps. We start with Teddy giving a speech. It goes back and forth from the speech to the past and back to the speech.

I am convinced if more history was told in graphic novel form, no one would say "I hate history".
Teddy is a history book that is beautifully illustrated. Teddy himself will tell the tale of his life's story. He started telling us the story of his son that was just killed in WWI, but he transformed this speech into his life's story and how grand it is to live life for the USA.

The only thing I wish was that the dramatic illustrations had more color to emphasize certain points.

Thank you to #Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read a digital ARC of the graphic novel Teddy by Laurence Luckinbill. This book will be published in February 2021. All opinions are my own.

The narrative is set up as a speech given by Teddy Roosevelt in July 1918. This speech is delivered shortly after Roosevelt received the news that his son, Quentin, who was fighting in the war, had been shot done in an air fight over France. The speech evolved to not only cover politics, but also a reflection of his life, the choices he made, and the cost of his "Warrior Philosophy." The speech depicted in the novel, isn't an actual speech given by Roosevelt, rather it is a conglomeration and reflection of his thoughts, speeches, and philosophy.

I found this graphic novel to be very interesting. In school, I got the highlights reel about Roosevelt. While this book doesn't go super in-depth into his life, it does present events that I did not learn about it. It is a reflection of Roosevelt's life and choices and the effects they had on himself, the United States, and his family. The color choices for the graphic novel, at least the ARC version, are a little drab, but don't detract from enjoyment. I love learning about history and found the graphic novel format of this book to be appealing. This was a very quick and informative read.