3.5

I would like to thank Netgalley and Charlesbridge Publishing for an uncorrected proof of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I have spent a great deal of my life reading history about famous female figures in European history. Recently I have become interested in the women that played a role in what is now referred to as the United States. So when I came across this book about Alice Roosevelt I was very interested. Someone had actually recommended that I read more about her so I jumped at the opportunity to read this book.

I will start by saying that Fraser Mickle's writing is a solid 5 out of 5. I was immediately drawn into the narrative and I was incredibly frustrated when the batter on my Kindle died halfway through because I wanted to keep reading. Fraser Mickle clearly enjoyed researching and writing this book and that clearly showed in her writing so that alone made this book a joy to read.

That being said I think that a more apt title for this book would have been Theodore Roosevelt and His Women. Part of the draw for me was learning about Alice Roosevelt, but I would argue that only a quarter of this book actually mentions her and I honestly feel that is being generous. I completely understand wanting to situate Alice in the context in which she was born, but when Alice does appear throughout the book it feels a bit that these are the times that Fraser Mickle is speculating on what Alice must have been thinking or felt.

Also, the more the book went on the less clear I was about whether or not the author actually liked their subject. That is no way to say that an author has to like the subject of their book to write about them, but my overall takeaway of Alice as a person was that she was a self-absorbed, loudmouth, who wanted people to value her opinion because she was not loved by her father as a child. Frankly, that reading feels reductive, but Fraser Mickle really drove home that Theodore never loved Alice as he did his other children and she resented that, which to be fair is a traumatic thing, but it felt that there wasn't enough nuance in the discussion. Fraser Mickle simply states over and over that Alice wasn't loved as a child by her father (or her stepmother) and as a result, she was stunted emotionally. I'm not sure if this was the takeaway because the focus of the text was Alice's childhood years or because that is an accurate reflection of who Alice was. The use of Alice's diaries and letters was really interesting, but I wish there had been more of them throughout the book. If I was simply rating the book on Alice Roosevelt's content I would rate it 2.5 out of 5.

One thing I am absolutely not ambiguous about in this writing is the author's feelings about Aunt Bye and Theodore Roosevelt (TR). These figures dominate the book and while there is some slight criticism of TR both he and Aunty Bye come off smelling like roses. I will fully admit that next to the snippets about Alice, reading about her Aunt was my favourite part of the book. Bamie lead an incredibly interesting life and the way that Fraser Mickle wrote about her really made me root for her. I was thrilled when Bamie found love and I was sad when she died. I however did not have the same positivity toward TR. He is from the depiction in this book (and likely in life) the perfect picture of toxic masculinity.

As a prime example: TR has a wife who dies and then he NEVER mentions her again, to the detriment of the daughter that he allows to be named after said wife. Every time his second wife has a child he leaves for a hunting trip. Now I get that it was a different time, but Edith was clearly exhibiting behaviours that were not normal for her (would be classified as postpartum depression today) and he just peace out and went west.

Another thing I found interesting is that TR's relationships with the African American community were mentioned (although sparingly) no mention is made of the fact that his push to make national parks dislocated Native communities off of their ancestral lands.

This is a super interesting book if you want to learn more about the first Roosevelt family (i.e., Teddy and not FDR). I'm not sorry that I read this book, but if you are looking to read something that entirely focuses on Alice this might not be the book for you. It's also a good read for some historical tidbits, albeit from the focus of Roosevelt's orbit.

White House Wild Child by by Shelley Fraser Mickle is an examination of possible reasons they led to Alice Roosevelt Longworth being known as the White House Wild Child. Mickle explores Alice’s birth and death of her mother and paternal grandmother on the same day. Theodore appears to have never recovered from losing Alice’s mother and in turned appeared to ignore much of Alice’s life. For a man that history remembers as always playing, exploring and encouraging his children, he missed important milestones where Alice was concerned. Mickle brings to light that TR never called Alice by name and in his book. This could be linked back to her being named after her mother Alice Hathaway Lee. Mickle also points out that in his book “Letters to My Children” there are none to Alice. The majority of the book centers on TR, Alice’s aunt Bamie (Anna Eleanor) Roosevelt and her stepmother Edith. Each of contributed to Alice’s behavior but I wanted to know more about Alice. I would have liked to hear more of Alice’s voice when she was going out every night or on the trip with Taft. I felt like the end was rushed but it leads me to go search for more information on Alice and Eleanor as well as her life with Longworth and Borah. The book provides knowledge of Anna Eleanor Roosevelt who is often overlooked and most likely would have been president if she was born in a different time. Thank you NetGalley, Charlesbridge, Imagine and Shelley Fraser Mickle for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

An intimate portrait of a complex lady....far ahead of her time in pep and attitude. Her father became president in 1901 and this era was the peak of her influence and rebellion.... Alice was out partying and firing pistols.

"White House Wild Child" is the life story of Theodore Roosevelt's eldest child Alice. Life begins in the most tragic way for her with her mother and namesake dying shortly after her birth of Brights disease.

I have looked up images of Alice....she was a beauty and stood tall and proud. But her antics were legendary too....This qoute from her father says it all "“I can do one of two things, I can be President of the United States or I can control Alice. I cannot possibly do both.”—Theodore Roosevelt

Shelley Fraser Mickle's research provides a deep dive into a long life lived to the full....possibly Alice's life was most "lived" in her early life but the most rewarding elements came in later years, when she realised that she could be a mother figure.

Thanks to NetGalley, Shelley Fraser Mickle and Charlesbridge for my copy of this book, which was a fascinating read and an introduction to the Roosevelt family.

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Publish Date: October 3, 2023

Teddy Roosevelt once said of his daughter “I can do one of two things, I can be President of the United States or I can control Alice. I cannot possibly do both.” Alice was her own women, headstrong and independent. She’s a fascinating historical figure. Alice was known for carrying a gun, a copy of the Constitution, and a green snake in her purse. When her father told her she couldn’t smoke under his roof, she climbed to the top of the White House and smoked on the roof. She became the most famous woman in America—and even the world—predating Princess Diana and Jackie Kennedy as an object of public obsession. I highly recommend this book. Her antics alone are worth the read!

#whitehousewildchild #femalehistorymaker #aliceroosevelt #theodoreroosevelt #shelleyfrasermickle #charlesbridgepublishing #imagine #roosevelt #history

I found this hard to read. It felt like a textbook and I like my nonfiction to still feel like someone telling a story with the emotion of the events. I didn't get that from this book.

I received an advanced reader’s copy from netgalley in exchange for my honest opinions.
This one was neither hit nor miss for me. TR is my favorite person in history to read about. There was never a dull moment with him. Alice is no different. The fact that he could say look I can either control Alice or run the country but not do both tells you all you need to know about her. She’s always going to be fun to read about.
It felt a little like 70 percent of the book was split between TR, Bamie and Alice. Which is fine, but didn’t really tell what was going on specifically with Alice- but what was happening around her. There were plenty of stories that could have been told but were sorta glossed over- The entire trip with Taft going to Japan and Russia could be an entire book in itself! Her love affair with either Longworth or Borah would make for a good summer read. The election of Harding- where Elenore Roosevelt drove around in a car with a paper machie tea pot to humiliate Ted, You can be Alice had things to say about it! This was sorta a Meh read for me, I know about Alice so I wanted more/ deeper. If this was your first introduction to Alice it’d be enough to wet your whistle to search out more about her

It was ok and had a hard time holding my attention. Alice is an interesting character but not u inquest enough to get excited about.

White House Wild Child isn’t a full biography of Alice Roosevelt, but rather a focused, partial biography of her childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood during her father Theodore Roosevelt (TR)’s rise to and occupation of the office of the Presidency. Ostensibly this serves a twofold purpose, Mickle’s aim being to illustrate Alice’s impact on her father’s Presidency and the impact of a father’s Presidency on a love-starved child. Unfortunately, I never felt as though these points were adequately illustrated or examined, and I found myself wishing I had just picked up a full biography of Alice Roosevelt instead. Much is made of Alice being a rule-breaker who was able to escape consequences for her daring, but I wish we were given more context about the usual consequences for breaking ‘the rules’ of Victorian society that Alice was risking, and about other contemporary women who were breaking those rules successfully that Alice may have known about.

Mickle also spends a great deal of time on Bamie (Anna Eleanor) Roosevelt, Alice’s aunt, and seems to have realized midway through the book that she’d rather have chosen to write about Bamie instead. I think I might have enjoyed the book better if it were a history of the Roosevelt women (Bamie, Alice, Eleanor, and more) and not merely focused on a limited period of Alice’s life (and regularly taken over by the indomitable Bamie).

That said, I did enjoy my time with this history. Mickle’s narrative voice is engaging and easy to read, almost like listening to gossip imparted by a well-spoken friend. I liked her descriptions of the private lives of the Roosevelts and how she addresses and illuminates common anecdotes and myths about the family. Her affection and enthusiasm for her subject (Alice, and Bamie as well) is infectious, and I certainly learned a great deal about TR’s politics and Alice’s personality. I simply wasn’t sold on the intersection between the two as the driving force of the book. There is a lot of speculation about how Alice and TR may or may not have felt about various things; I would have liked more history and footnoted explanations as to what led Mickle to draw these conclusions about the Roosevelts’ thoughts.

It’s a quick read, informative and enjoyable, though not as comprehensive as a history buff may wish for. I’d recommend it to anyone with a passing interest in Victorian-era American women or the Roosevelt family who isn’t looking to dive into a brick of a biography.

This is a wonderful story about Teddy Roosevelt's oldest daughter Alice! She was quite a fascinating person! After reading other books about the Roosevelt's, I was very happy to see one that focused on Alice. The author did an outstanding job of writing about her life. I thoroughtly enjoyed this book!
Thank you to Net Galley, the publisher and the author for the chance to read and review this book!

This book is really well done, it gives a great account of Alice's life and her relationship with her father. It does not get bogged down in a lot of details, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I loved reading about Alice and all the obstacles she faced in her life.

This is a wonderful and well researched biography Alice Roosevelt Longworth, the daughter of President Theodore Roosevelt. Her mother , Alice Hathaway Lee died just two days after she was born and her mother was the love of his life. He would not even say young Alice's name as she was growing up. This affected her greatly and she always seems to resent him for it and often did outrageous things to get his attention.
When she grew up some of these outrageous actions included Smoking which was not done by ladies in that day. When President Roosevelt forbid her to smoke in the White House she climbed upon the roof with her best friend and smoked..She also carried around a small green snake with her which often frightened and disgusted
those she was around until one day she found him dead and often believed someone had deliberately killed him.
When it was time for her to marry she chose Nicholas Longworth a young congressman who her father liked but her stepmother , Edith, did not due to his reputation for drinking.
Alice did marry Longworth but her happiness did not last long. Longworth was an alcoholic but was an effective politician and Alice was enthralled with politics. Alice had a daughter but had trouble relating to her because of her own upbringing but her father adored her. When he died Alice did try to love and support her daughter but unfortunately. tragedy ensued
I highly recommend this book to those who like biographies .

Shelley Fraser Mickle does a great job in bringing Alice Roosevelt to life, it was really well written and I was never bored when reading this. It left me wanting to read more from Shelley Fraser Mickle. It worked overall and I was glad I got a chance to read this.

I could really catch the author, Shelley Fraser Mickle's, enthusiasm for the Roosevelts, especially for Theodore (T.R.) and his daughter Alice. It became rather exciting, for a biography, that is.

My expectations of this book were that the main focus would be on Alice since, after all, part of the title reads, "Wild Child". However, I realized there was so much about T. R. but that to understand the child, the father and his treatment of her had to be investigated and examined, as the author has brought to the reader's attention. Knowing these bits and pieces of the Alice jigsaw puzzle allows the reader to gain a better grip on her personage especially as she came to espouse that label, "Wild Child".

I'm really happy to have read this book as my grandfather was a fan of T.R. and I got to know more about this former US president. Interestingly enough, grandpa never ever mentionted Alice, as far as I can recall. She must have been "too much" for him but I found her amusing and fascinating. She also has my sympathies but you'll have to read the book to know what that is all about.

In my opinion, any reader will feel privileged to be privy to the 'secrets' of the lives of these Roosevelts as revealed within this biography's pages.

A 4-Star rating from me.

~Eunice C., Reviewer/Blogger~

May 2023

Disclaimer: This is my honest opinion based on the complimentary review copy sent by NetGalley and the publisher.

It's amazing how the definition of "wild" back in the days of Teddy Roosevelt wouldn't even raise an eyebrow today. However, Teddy's daughter, Alice, certainly lived up the the title of this book, White House Wild Child by Shelley Fraser Mickle.

The book is ostensibly focused on Alice but a fair amount of the page count does cover the lives of Teddy, his wife Edith, and his sister nicknamed Bamie. Mickle points out that she is normally a novel writer which gave me pause. Often, someone used to writing novels will try to "spice up" history books and it comes off very forced. Luckily, Mickle's prose is easy to read without feeling like she is desperately trying to keep me entertained. She has an eye for details and the highlights she needs to hit are here.

I will say the book falters in two places. Mickle tries to interject both a bit of psychology and today's norms into the story. What is on the page does not really support the paths Mickle tries to go down. This leads to the second problem which is when Mickle tries to get into the head of one of the characters. There are a few times where I wholeheartedly disagreed with her projections and it could be distracting. That said, this is still a fun read and Alice certainly deserves the spotlight she so desperately craved.

(This book was provided as an advance copy by Netgalley and Charlesbridge Books.)

White House Wild Child by Shelley Fraser Mickle is a biography of Alice Roosevelt, the eldest child of Theodore Roosevelt. Alice was very famous in her day, making headlines for her beauty and scandalous behavior. This book is an examination of how her dysfunctional family affected her development into a dysfunctional adult. The main focus is on her childhood and adolescence. She was a complicated person who could not really overcome her tragic childhood. The background of Theodore and his sister Bamie are integral to understanding Alice’s life so a great deal of the book is actually about them, their behavior, motives, and political ambitions. Shelly Fraser Mickle explores the entire Roosevelt family’s psychology and the events, large and small, that affected Alice, in order to understand her personality and wild behavior. She does a wonderful job in describing their life in the Gilded Age, the politics and intrigues that became a part of American history. I was surprised by just how little I knew about this time in American history. A fascinating look at a fascinating family. Perfect book for anyone interested in the Roosevelts.

Thank you NetGalley and the publishers for letting me read this fantastic biography!
I will upload my review on social media one month before the pub date.

A very interesting and complex woman. Definitely affected by her beginning and how she was treated by her father and stepmother, she was clearly one of a kind. You will find yourself laughing at her and with her, getting angry at her and with her, feeling sad and happy for her and with her. The author does an amazing job of bringing Alice's complicated story to life. Thanks to Netgalley, the author and publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

I absolutely loved reading this book. I was completely drawn into the topic and could not stop reading it.

A wonderful book. Alice Roosevelt is one of those people from history who I wish I had known. What a firecracker. A great book about a wonderful lady.