213 pages
"Did you know that the man behind Hershey's chocolate used to work in an ice cream parlor? Or that he had to try over and over again to get his now-famous chocolate to taste as delicious as it does today? Milton Hershey's life wasn't always a bowl of chocolate Kisses. When he was in fourth grade, he even had to drop out of school and work to help his poor family make ends meet. Read all about how the man we know as the famous young chocolatier finally struck it rich--in money, love, and chocolate!" -Back Cover
Coming off of reading Fablehaven for our 8 O'Clock Club, my kids were not too gung-ho about reading a biography. They complained for the first several nights, but then pretty soon their comments turned into, "This book is sort of good," "Can we read a few more pages?" and "I can't wait to see what happens next." This is a fictionalized biography, the first in the series of Childhood of Famous Americans that we've read, but it won't be the last. I already have Walt Disney's, Dr. Seuss's, Elizabeth Barton's and Neil Armstrong's stories in my collection and I plan on getting more. I'm assuming they're historically accurate.
What made this book so fun is that we used to live an hour away from Lancaster. We've been to Hershey, toured the chocolate factory, and driven the streets named after chocolate with the Kiss-shaped streetlights. We learned several things that we didn't know before, which was the whole point of reading a biography: Milton's father was a dreamer, but an unsuccessful one; Milton's mother and aunt and uncles supported Milton's dreams financially for quite awhile; Milton never gave up even after he failed several times; he made caramels before entering the chocolate business; he was generous with his wealth, among others. There are illustrations throughout the book which is a bonus when reading to kids.
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