Dream Big Dreams

Dream Big Dreams: Photographs from Barack Obama's Inspiring and Historic Presidency

by Pete Souza

Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2017

Inspirational is the best word for this book.

The introduction explains the job of Official White House Photographer. The table of contents say as much as the photos and their captions about our 44th President:

Be Kind and Respectful
Work Hard
Make Time for Family
Show Compassion
Have Fun
Dream Big Dreams

Would that we all lived lives that could be outlined with those topics.

Presidents' Day

JFK
by Jonah Winter
illustrated by AG Ford
Katherine Tegen Books, 2013
review copy provided by the publisher

I know it's supposed to be President's (singular possessive -- honoring George Washington) Day, but why can't we celebrate ALL the presidents on this day? We've had some great ones, and we've had some lousy ones, but either way, it's certainly not a job I would want to do!

When I received JFK, there was no doubt in my mind who should review it. Judy Hedge, a reading teacher in my building, is a passionate JFK fan. JFK came to visit her county in 1960. Judy's father, Robert Fulton, was a Wickliffe Councilman and running for County Commissioner and attended a fundraiser for Kennedy. Judy had to go to school and miss JFK riding in an open convertible through her community so she gave her father her autograph book. Her father got to shake JFK's hand and had him sign her autograph book. He had his picture taken with Kennedy, too. Judy has an extensive collection of Kennedy memorabilia: newspaper articles, magazines, political buttons and a signed photo from a letter she wrote to him after the election. He is her hero.

About Winter's JFK, she writes:

It’s hard for me to believe that fifty years have passed since the presidency of John F. Kennedy. To me, and many of my generation, the young president inspired us to serve the greater good; that hope and determination will always succeed over fear and uncertainty.

A lot has been said about the Kennedy legacy and “Camelot” in the years since. Some good, some bad and for a while it seemed like that legacy disappeared from an active role in our cultural life. Jonah Winter’s JFK gives me hope that children who will one day face the same issues that President Kennedy faced will know their historical legacy to guide their choices. While not a definitive volume, Winter touches on many of the defining moments of JFK’s administration.

AG Ford utilizes the technique of overemphasizing the light on the main subject’s face to make the illustrations look more dramatic. The illustrations are cartoonish so children can relate better to the events that they depict. My hope of this very well illustrated book is that it will inspire curiosity and allow the young minds to learn about the man and how his legacy still impacts them 50 years later.


EDITED TO ADD: Kindle Daily Deal for Kids has 5 books about presidents for $1.99 each...including George Washington, Abe Lincoln, and JFK!

Presidents' Day Picture Books

Looking at Lincoln
by Maira Kalman
Penguin Young Readers Group, 2012

If I had to pick one word for the feeling I get when I read Looking at Lincoln, it's meditative.

You open the book to Lincoln's Gettysburg Address printed on the endpapers. Then, the story begins in the voice of a small girl telling about seeing a very tall man one day who reminded her of someone, but she could not think who. Of course, it was Abraham Lincoln, sixteenth president of the United States.

The girl goes to the library to find out more about Lincoln. The facts she learns are printed in standard font, but her response / reflection / interpretation of the facts is printed in handwriting. The sort of conversation that the girl has with the facts is absolutely charming. It's like looking over her shoulder as she learns about this great man.

In the end, after Lincoln's death, she says, "But a great man is never really gone. Abraham Lincoln will live forever. And if you go to Washington, D.C. in the spring you can walk through the cherry blossoms and visit him. At his memorial you can read the words he wrote near the end of the war. '...With malice toward none, with charity for all.' And you can look into his beautiful eyes. Just look."

(Looking at Lincoln was more thoroughly reviewed at Jama's Alphabet Soup earlier this week.)

George Washington's Birthday: A Mostly True Tale
by Margaret McNamara
illustrated by Barry Blitt
Random House, 2012

George Washington gets the final word in this book. He tells the truth. He tells us that this book is a work of fiction, even though there's a lot of truth in the story. He goes on to tell us what parts are true, and to point out that "It's funny to think that a story about the truth was actually not true!"

This is the story of a 6 year-old boy who is afraid that everyone has forgotten that it is his birthday. On most every spread is a text box that explains a fact or a myth about Washington's life that is related to what's happening in the story. George gets so frustrated at one point that he loses control of the axe he's using to help his father prune cherry trees and he chops one down. (Myth. The truth, though, is that  Washington was always very truthful.)

At the end of the story, George finds out that no one has forgotten his birthday, and, of course, no has forgotten his birthday for hundreds of years now!



Happy Presidents' Day on Monday!  

Poetry Friday -- Presidential Edition

The President's Stuck in the Bathtub: Poems about the Presidents
by Susan Katz
illustrated by Robert Neubecker
Clarion Books, on shelves February 8, 2012
review copy provided by the publisher

Since 2012 will be a presidential election year, it seems appropriate to start brushing up on our presidential facts and trivia sooner, rather than later.

In this book, every president gets a poem based on sometimes a little-known and sometimes a well-known fact about his presidency. The fact is elaborated briefly at the bottom of the page. There is more information about each president in the back of the book, but it is as bite-sized and kid-friendly as each president's page -- you get dates of the term(s) served, birth/death dates, a quote, the president's nickname, and that president's "first."

I love the poems in this book. Here's an example that highlights one of the most infamous of the eight Ohio Presidents:

The Long and Short of It
(William Henry Harrison, 1841)

Without a hat or gloves or overcoat,
William Henry Harrison stood in driving rain
on the Capitol's east steps to declaim to a crowd
the longest, most meandering inaugural address
of any president in history, 3800 words or so,
that took almost two hours to deliver. That was long.

Harrison
was only
president
one month.

That
was
short.


William Henry Harrison's election campaign was longer than his presidency. He caught a cold at his inauguration and a month later died of pneumonia.

© Susan Katz, 2012



So, yes, I love the poems, but I also love how the facts at the bottom of each page elaborate or illuminate the poem in some way.

And if there isn't already enough to love about this book, I can't wait to read through the presidential notes and quotes with my students to give them an interesting snapshot history of the United States. Here are a few examples that stopped me in my tracks and made me think:

• We were 8 presidents in before we had the first president born an American citizen. (Martin Van Buren)
• Jimmy Carter, president number 39, was the first president born in a hospital. (how could that BE?)
• It took 16 presidents before we had one who had been born outside the original thirteen colonies. (Abe Lincoln)
• And president #34, Dwight D. Eisenhower, was the first president of all fifty states.

Julie Larios has the Poetry Friday roundup today at The Drift Record. Seems she has politics on her mind, too!