As an adult, I often look to children's nonfiction for an introduction to a subject that I'm not familiar with. The maps and house plans provided in this book are quite good. Large photographs also provide a good sense of Monticello. This book is partially written as the daily experiences of contemporaries at Monticello in Jefferson's time. These stories seemed fragmented and uninteresting to me. Inventions and tools, such as a dumbwaiter, could have been explored in more depth. ( )