When I was in school, the last thing that I wanted was to sit through a history lesson. A couple months ago, my daughter said the same thing. She then asked, "Mom, why is history boring in school but interesting when Dad explains it?"

I couldn't help but grin. It is difficult for a child to understand why the things that people did ages ago should be important now. However my husband is a champ at laying out the facts in a manner that relates history to things that are going on now. So when he explains things, my daughter is, at the very least, entertained and can see why history matters so much.

So I have been looking for books that are equally entertaining and informative. Recently, I found a book that she absolutely loves, U.S. Presidents: Feats & Foul-Ups. Subtitled The Good, the Bad, and the Silly, the book is designed for children in the elementary grades. A page or two is devoted to each president to date, with those presidents who were in office the longest or during critical times in American history receiving more coverage. Each president is listed with some vital statistics including date of birth, birthplace, where (and if) the president went to college, religion, profession, political party, vice-president(s), the name of the First Lady, the most common nickname for the president, and date of death. A famous quote from the president is also shown in a fancy script. The remaining information is presented in bulleted lists, rather like a trivia book that only addresses U.S. presidents. This data is divided into four categories: Feats, Firsts, Foul-Ups, and Personal.

Each of the presidential profiles is complemented with a caricature of the president, with the heads about two or three times larger than they should be. The look is similar to that of pictures created by amusement park artists. But the poses for the presidents are simply hilarious. John Quincy Adams is depicted wearing nothing but a barrel (because, according to the book, he "liked to take a nude swim in the Potomac, and once had to ask a passing stranger to bring him clothes from the White House when some boys stole the ones he had removed"). Andrew Jackson is shown with a parrot on his shoulder (because his pet parrot cursed loudly at his funeral). And George W. Bush is shown wearing a Texas Rangers uniform and standing next to a long horned steer. The picture has a camel in the far background.

My daughter loved the manner in which the information was presented, and even I have to admit that I was absolutely fascinated with some of the trivia in U.S. Presidents: Feats & Foul-Ups. Here are a few things that were revealed:


1. Who never belonged to a political party until he ran for office at the age of 62?

2. Which president banished squirrels from the White House grounds?

3. Which president had to borrow money to attend his inauguration?

4. Which president had the first Siamese kitten in the U.S.?

5. Who was the first president to use the phone as a campaign tool?

6. Which president proposed to his future First Lady the day after they met?

7. Which president avoided being drafted into the Union army by hiring a substitute?

8. Which president got stuck in the presidential bathtub and needed six men to pull him out?

9. Which president invented the swivel chair?

10. Which president accepted no salary for his term in office and assigned the Presidential Yacht to the Navy?


U.S. Presidents: Feats & Foul-Ups isn't all silly trivia and frivolity. Along the way, it refers to a number of important historical topics, covering the whole span of American history from the Revolutionary War, through the growth of the country, and all the way up to September 11th. While these topics aren't discussed in any great detail, the references do encourage the young reader (and even the older less-informed parent like me) to read more about them.

Whether it intends to do so or not, U.S. Presidents: Feats & Foul-Ups does makes an excellent point about all of the presidents. They were just human beings! Like everyone else, they acted on the information that they had at the time. Some screwed up. Some succeeded in spite of themselves. But none of them were absolutely perfect. The quote that was included for Harry S. Truman's profile is very true: being a president is like riding a tiger. It's a tough job, one that is impossible to do perfectly. And if it's done wrong, someone will get hurt.

U.S. Presidents: Feats & Foul-Ups also reminded me that hindsight is 20/20. Flipping through the factoids for past presidents, I saw a number of cases where, if things had gone just a little differently, what was considered a "foul-up" just might have been deemed a "feat". The reverse is true as well. As an adult, I couldn't help asking questions like, "What if that president hadn't been assassinated?" and "What if they had pushed this issue?"

This leads me to my picky issue with this book, and admittedly, it was something that I might not had considered had it not been for recent events with Iraq. For the most part, the book provides a fairly unbiased view of history, attributing "foul ups" where they were richly deserved. The book notes which presidents owned slaves, ignored problems with child labor, and worked to promote foreign powers who later turned out to be dictators. However, not a word was mentioned when it comes to the issue of World War II and the "ostrich with his head in the sand" philosophy of the US prior to the bombing of Pearl Harbor. It's hard to believe that wasn't considered a "foul-up"! Yes, it is something that we can only see as a "foul-up" in retrospect, but the same could be said of many of the mistakes of other presidents as well.

We also found one small editing error in U.S. Presidents: Feats & Foul-Ups. John C. Calhoun is listed as being Andrew Jackson's Vice-President between the years of 1929-32. My daughter quickly spotted this error. Since Jackson was president between 1829 and 1837, there was no way the Vice-President could serve one hundred years later. She thought it was appropriate for the book about "foul-ups" to have at least one goof somewhere, but I hope the publishers fix the error in the next printing.

Picky gripes aside, U.S. Presidents: Feats & Foul-Ups is a wonderful book. My daughter enjoyed learning about the quirkier side of history and is eager to learn more about some of the people, places, and events that were mentioned in the book. And I found that it can be entertaining and thought provoking to parents too!




Recommended: Yes