Kid Presidents
True Tales of Childhood from America's Presidents
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
Hilarious childhood biographies and full-color illustrations show how George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Barack Obama, and other presidents-to-be faced kid-sized problems growing up in America.
Every president started out as a kid! Forget the legends, tall tales, and historic achievements—before they were presidents, the future leaders of the United States had regular-kid problems just like you.
John F. Kennedy hated his big brother. Lyndon Johnson pulled pranks in class. Barack Obama was bothered by bullies. Bill Clinton was crazy clumsy (he once broke his leg jumping rope).
Readers 8 to 12 years old will learn all of their stories and more with full-color cartoon illustrations on every page. History has never been this much fun!
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
"Every president in United States history started out like you and me," writes Stabler (a pseudonym for author Robert Schnakenberg), before going on to prove it. The stories he's assembled show how the young lives of the men who became president encompassed nearly everything that kids go through today, including blended families (Lincoln), helicopter parenting (F.D.R.), crushes (Nixon), bullies (Eisenhower, Kennedy), being the new kid (Obama), and odd obsessions that drive parents crazy ("Herbert Hoover once ate nothing but pears for two whole days"). The text is straightforward, upbeat, and resolutely apolitical, organized into easy-to-digest sections that alternate between stories of individual presidents and roundups on themes like chores, jobs, and what teachers thought of the presidents as students. "When you grow up, you're either going to be governor or get in a lot of trouble," said Bill Clinton's sixth-grade teacher (though no citation for this or any other quotation is provided). Horner's spot cartoons ensure readers won't mistake this for a history textbook and contribute some funny metafictional moments: "We need strawberries!" says Theodore Roosevelt's mother in one drawing. "Stop waving to the readers and go!" Ages 8 12.
