Wackiest White House Pets
Grade 2-4–Davis has chosen 15 presidents, briefly summarizing their terms of office and highlighting the unusual animals they kept, as well as the quirky behavior of both the creatures and their owners. While some of the pet facts are mildly entertaining, the book is replete with sweeping generalizations that are often unfounded or misleading. For example: "Jefferson was a true democrat.… [he] not only believed in equal rights for people, he believed in equal rights for animals, too." Jefferson as a slaveholder is ignored. President Buchanan "was too old and cautious to make hard decisions." The relationship drawn between age and decision- making is ridiculous. "World War I was a time of plots and spies under every bed." Will the intended audience recognize the hyperbole here or take it literally? A section presenting some information about the other presidents is included, but with the same difficulties in terms of generalizations. Johnson's watercolor illustrations are amusing, but cannot compensate for the problems with the text. For a humorous, eclectic, but more accurate peek at the presidency, stay with Judith St. George'sSo You Want to Be President?(Philomel, 2000).–Grace Oliff, Ann Blanche Smith School, Hillsdale, NJCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.