Carolyn Phelan (Booklist, July 2000 (Vol. 96, No. 21))
Portraits of the presidents can be generally described as staid, stodgy, and dull. Throw these adjectives out the window when describing this book's group portrayal of American presidents. St. George leads her audience, ostensibly young presidential hopefuls, through the good points of the presidency (big house with its own bowling alley and movie theater) and bad points (lots of homework). Then she offers a spiffy presidential history with comparisions and contrasts: most popular names, log cabin origins, ages, looks, backgrounds, pets, musical abilities, favorite sports, and personalities ("William McKinley was so nice that he tried to stop a mob from attacking the man who had just shot him"). The book holds out the possibility that someday a woman, a person of color, or a person who is neither Protestant nor Roman Catholic might be elected president. The discussion ends with the oath of office and the thought that most presidents have tried to do their best to fulfill it. David Small's delightful illustrations, usually droll and sometimes hilarious, will draw children to the book and entertain them from page to page. Memorable images include the comical sight of the obese President Taft being lowered into a bathtub by a crane and a powerful scene showing two figures, Nixon (looking disgruntled) and Clinton (looking dejected), descending the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, under the shadow of impeachment. Thoughtful composition and layout both contribute to the lively visual presentation of this most original look at the presidency. The light tone of the book makes it possible for readers to absorb a great deal of information, some of it silly, but underlying the treatment is a sense of the significance and dignity of the office and the faith that children still aspire to be president. Category: Middle Readers. 2000, Putnam/Philomel, $17.99. Gr. 3-5, younger for reading aloud. Starred Review.

Susie Wilde (Children's Literature)
Today's children are future American voters and there is no better time to view government in action than around an election year. Here is a new book that earns my vote of confidence as discussion starters. The presidential office is the best place to start with younger children. It is currently getting the most attention and is most familiar to them. A playful, ebullient explanation of what the office really means is provided. St. George puts the presidency in the context of children, observing, for example, that there are both good and bad things about being President. One of the good things is that the President lives in a big white house called the White House. St. George goes on to share more good news (there is a bowling alley at the White House and you don't have to eat vegetables) and some bad news (you have to be polite and do lots of homework). She describes the office through the personalities and characteristics of past presidents with the kind of trivia children like. She discusses categories like size (and Taft's four man tub), age, personality (Andrew Jackson was a big brawler), siblings, and athletics (John Quincy Adams liked to skinny-dip). Her tone is light and Small's accompanying illustrations are rendered in a political cartoon style, showing presidents of different eras cavorting across the pages together. St. George and Small make history seem fun, the office attractive, and America's presidents human. 2000, Philomel, $17.99. Ages 4 to 8.

Charles Wyman (Children's Literature)
What could be better for an election year than a tongue-in-cheek look at our forty-one Presidents? Judith St. George has provided the facts--an amazing assemblage of tidbits, such as the frequency of names (six were called James) and the fact that eight were born in log cabins. The best news for those who have presidential aspirations is that size doesn't matter. Presidents have ranged in height from five feet four inches (James Madison) to six feet four inches (Abraham Lincoln). Looks also have not been a great issue, but truthfully in this reviewer's opinion, television has probably changed that. Each page offers amusing information and it is made even more delightful with David Small's caricatures. His scene of the presidential band accompanied by Martha and George Washington on the dance floor and Abraham Lincoln asking Mary Todd to dance is quite funny. Lincoln, as the text notes, was not much of a dancer, but Washington and Wilson look like they could really cut the rug. The scene of Jesse Jackson and Geraldine Ferraro waiting in the wings is a reminder that neither a person of color nor a woman has yet to become President. Kids and adults will enjoy the fun and come away with plenty of good information and fuel for their own presidential aspirations. 2000, Philomel/Penguin Putnam, $17.99. Ages 7 up.

CCBC (Cooperative Children's Book Center Choices, 2001)
This hilarious romp chronicles arcane characteristics of the men elected to office through the end of the 20th century. If you want to be president, Judith St. George comments, it might help if you name is James, because so far six presidents have had that name. However, the name John or William might be an advantage, too. She remarks that presidents have to dress up every day and be polite to everyone, but don't have to eat what they don't like. David Small's mischievous drawings show White House advantages, such as the bowling alley. In the picture, President Nixon raises both arms in a victory gesture after knocking down all the pins. St. George points out that so far all presidents have been white, male, and Christian, while Small paints characters resembling Geraldine Ferraro and Jesse Jackson waiting to be admitted to a president's party. A key in the back identifies the presidents in each picture, and a chronology provides biographical notes. This account is sure to entertain kids--and their grown-ups, too. Winner, CCBC 2001 Caldecott Award Discussion CCBC categories: Historical People, Places, and Events; Picture Books for Older Children. 2000, Philomel, 52 pages, $17.99. Ages 7-12.

Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, July 1, 2000 (Vol. 68, No. 13))
Just in time for the presidential election, St. George ("In the Line of Fire: Presidents Lives at Stake", 1999, etc.) uses the experiences of our 42 presidents to counsel youngsters harboring that uniquely American desire-to be president. Reflecting on the "good things about being President and . . . bad things about being President . . ." she offers a pleasingly diverse slate of facts and figures for her readers' consideration: age (the oldest-Reagan; the youngest-Teddy Roosevelt), size (the smallest-Madison-at 100 lbs., contrasting with Taft, at over 300), career choices (generals, lawyers, haberdashers, farmers), first names (six Jameses, four Johns, four Williams, two Georges, two Franklins), education (nine presidents never went to college, while one-Andrew Johnson-"didn't learn to write until after he was married"). At the close of this sometimes wry, sometimes sober survey (including impeachments, wars, and assassinations), St. George encourages: "If you want to be president-a good president-pattern yourself after the best . . . [those who] have asked more of themselves than they thought they could give . . . They [who] have had the courage, spirit, and will to do . . . [what's] right." Small's ("The Huckabuck Family", 1999, etc.) pitch-perfect caricatures, rendered in a mix of watercolor, ink, and pastel, expand on the personalities and support the narrative's shifting moods. There's a helpful key to every illustration and a presidential chronology from Washington to Clinton. Even a few "non-presidents" are featured: Pat Nixon and Henry Kissinger watch (with future President Ford) President Nixon bowl in the White House lanes, and there's a wonderfully wry glimpse of two "also-ran's"-Jesse Jackson and Geraldine Ferraro-excluded from an across-the-centuries presidential reception by a velvet rope. A superb, kid-centered survey and a perfect way to enliven the perennial class unit on the presidents. 2000, Philomel, $17.99. Category: Nonfiction. Ages 7 to 12. Starred Review. © 2000 Kirkus Reviews/VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.

A. Braga (Parent Council Volume 8)
This unique book discusses curious and interesting information about past presidents. The book is highly respectful of the presidential office, yet it is candid about the faults of many of the presidents. The language is accessible, interesting, and humorous. I loved it! It would make a really good gift. The cartoon-style style illustrations are a riot! 2000, Philomel Books, $17.99. Ages 5 to 12.

Kate McDowell (The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, July/August 2000 (Vol. 53, No. 11))
While accounts of particular presidents abound, rarely are they as entertaining as this collective biography of chief executives. St. George interweaves facts and anecdotes in a breezily informative style in this tongue-in-cheek guide, which gains additional appeal by directly addressing the reader (“You probably weren’t born in a log cabin. That’s too bad. People are crazy about log-cabin Presidents”). Political accounts of presidencies are found elsewhere; this is primarily a personal history, presenting a cleverly arranged array of the most entertaining characteristics and habits of commanders-in-chief throughout American history. Eschewing chronological order, St. George chooses instead to survey the presidents as a group of people with certain commonalities and distinctions. Topics include common first names for presidents (“If you want to be President, it might help if your name is James”), as well as the great variety of presidential stature (from 5’4" James Madison to 6’4" Abraham Lincoln) and girth (from 100 lb. James Madison to over 300 lb. William Howard Taft). Such facts are interspersed with intriguing and pithy anecdotes about presidential personalities (“Our first President did a mean minuet”), as well as most embarrassing moments (“Once when [John Quincy Adams] was skinny-dipping in the Potomac River, a woman reporter snatched his clothes and sat on them until he gave her an interview”). Small’s line-and-watercolor illustrations draw from the tradition of political cartooning, showing caricatured figures with enlarged heads and exaggerated features; these illustrations complement the jaunty text with kid-appealing images of some of the most outrageous presidential behaviors described, such as Andrew Jackson’s fourteen duels, brawls, fights, and shootings, the victims of which are shown sprawled out into the distance behind a fist-swinging Jackson. Illustrations are also chock-full of jokes for adults, as in one scene showing Richard Nixon bowling a strike in the White House bowling alley, hands raised in victory signs, with Pat Nixon and Henry Kissinger clapping politely in the background while Gerald Ford steps up to bowl next. While most of the tone is humorous, St. George and Small do not neglect darker moments in the history of American presidents. In a smooth segue from a discussion of presidential looks, St. George writes about the contrast between Warren Harding’s physical attractiveness and his severe shortcomings as president, while Small’s illustration shows a royally robed Harding strolling alone down a fashion-show runway. In the most somber spread in the book, St. George emphasizes the necessity for honesty as chief executive while the artwork depicts Clinton and Nixon walking down the shadowy steps of the Lincoln Memorial, their heads bowed in shame as Lincoln stares searchingly after them. Since presidents from various time periods appear together (often humorously) in the illustrations, a presidential identification key appears in the back, along with a bibliography and a chronology including dates and major events of each presidency. Although St. George’s approach tends to emphasize the diversity of presidential personae, she does not neglect to note that the group has been unleavened by variation in gender, race, and creed (“No woman has been President. No person of color has been President. No person who wasn’t a Protestant or Roman Catholic has been President”). Despite a slightly rambling conclusion, St. George’s final pages sum up inspiringly with the president’s oath of office (“Only thirty-five words!”) and the affirmation that most presidents, “tall, short, fat, thin, talkative, quiet, vain, humble, lawyer, teacher, or soldier,” have done their best to follow that oath, working to “faithfully execute the office of President of the United States.” Future presidents in classrooms and libraries everywhere will giggle at and then applaud the quirkily inspiring individuals who have served as president of the United States. Review Code: R -- Recommended. (c) Copyright 2000, The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. 2000, Philomel, 53p, $17.99. Grades 3-5.

John Peters (The Five Owls, March/April 2001 (Vol. 15, No. 4))
By happy coincidence, here in the wake of the recent controversial national election is an hilariously irreverent--but not, in the final analysis, disrespectful--collective portrait of our newest chief executive's forty-one predecessors. While suggesting to readers with that certain dream that being president might not be all fun and games ("The President can't go anywhere alone. The President has lots of homework. People get mad at the President."), Judith St. George shows the men who have held the office not as remote, Olympian figures, but as human beings: short, tall, plain, handsome, proud, humble, with favorite or despised foods, "pesky brothers and sisters," pets, personal foibles, and various levels of competence. Eight, as it turns out, were born in log houses, no fewer than ten were generals, one (Andrew Johnson) was trained as a tailor, one (you know who) was a professional actor. Some were the very image of dignity and reserve; others--well, a friend of Teddy Roosevelt once commented, "You must always remember that the President is about six." Combining well-honed skills as a caricaturist and a broad streak of mischief to such good effect that he earned this year's Caldecott Medal for these illustrations, David Small pays tribute to political cartoonists everywhere: outfitting squads of easily recognizable former presidents as cheerleaders in one scene; suspending William Howard Taft, our heftiest president, in a sling over his custom-built bathtub in another; depicting feisty Andrew Jackson decking an opponent, Richard Nixon flashing his "V for Victory" in the White House bowling alley, and again, slinking with Bill Clinton, like a pair of schoolboys caught in the act, down the steps of the Lincoln Memorial beneath the sixteenth president's huge, frowning visage. In the end, below a somber view of Lincoln standing solitary and pensive in a darkened office, St. George quotes the simple, thirty-five-word oath each president has recited, and while noting that some fulfilled their charge less successfully than others, invites readers to pattern themselves after the best, who "asked more of themselves than they thought they could give," and "had the courage, spirit, and will to do what they knew was right." Children--including a handful who will be occupying the Oval Office one day--will come away from this not only with a heightened sense of how important, and demanding, the job of president is, but with a feeling of connection to the men who have held it, for better or worse, over the course of our nation's long history. 2000, Philomel, $17.99. Ages 8 up.

Horn Book (The Horn Book Guide, Spring 2001)
The presidential faces on Mount Rushmore are depicted in a jovial cartoon style on the cover--an encouraging invitation to the witty observations within. Arranging historical tidbits in an attractive buffet, this well-timed book offers anecdotes both cautionary and guaranteed to attract attention and arouse interest. Appended are brief biographical sketches of the presidents and a short bibliography. Category: Nonfiction-History. 2000, Philomel, 53pp, $17.99. Ages 5 to 9. Rating: 2: Superior, well above average.

Colene Hoermann (The Lorgnette - Heart of Texas Reviews (Vol. 13, No. 4))
Who doesn't love trivia? Little known facts about famous people have always fascinated the public. The tidbits in this book are entertaining and informative. For instance, there have been Presidents who could dance and some who could play a musical instrument. Some have loved being President and others hated it. The facts are presented in a humorous manner that adds a new dimension to our past Presidents. They seem to be human after all. What can one say about David Small that hasn't already been said? His humorous cartoon-type illustrations add a whole new dimension to the text. Don't miss Andrew Johnson fitting Ronald Reagan for a new suit. Each illustration must be studied carefully by the reader since he/she will not want to miss a thing. This is a wonderful book to introduce students to the Presidents before they begin in-depth research. Grades 2-5. 2000, Philomel Books, 52p, $17.99. Ages 7 to 11.