George Washington, by Genevieve Foster

It seems that Ms. Foster has attempted to abridge her prior Newbery-Honor-winning book for younger readers.  Although the reading level is simple, the book as a whole came across as a series of very disjointed vignettes that touched on the major points of Washington's life, but left the reader with very little sense of who he was.  I realize that for young readers you can hardly overwhelm with information, but so many of the significant events left me wondering why they even mattered when presented in such a stark way.  I've got no idea why this one made the honor list.  At 96 pages with occasional two-color illustrations, this should have been a quick read.  But I found it torture to finish and I'm glad I can finally drop it back into my library bag.