What Are You Figuring Now?: A Story About Benjamin Banneker

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Grade 2-4 Banneker, born of free black parents near Baltimore in 1731, is remembered for his skill as an astronomer, mathematician, and surveyor. He worked with Andrew Ellicott, the surveyor appointed by George Washington, to lay out the boundaries of Washington, D.C. A great deal of information and a long period of time have been compressed and simplified in an attempt to make Banneker's life and contributions accessible to young readers. Dialogue has been added, most likely for the same reason, although it is sometimes jarring. For example, when Benjamin begins the Quaker school, his grandmother's musing portends the boy's future: " 'Benjie,' she said, 'I wonder what great things you're going to do some day. And I wonder how you can do them on a tobacco farm.' " Little information is given on the restrictive laws of 18th-Century America which would help place Banneker in an appropriate context. No sources are cited with the exception of an acknowledgement to Silvio Bedini, the author of a definitive adult biography entitled The Life of Benjamin Banneker (Landmark, 1984). Bedini and others are noted for further reading in Lillie Patterson's biography for children, Benjamin Banneker: Genius of Early America (Abingdon, 1978; o.p.). Maria B. Salvadore, District of Columbia Public Library
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