about the book
From George Washington to Barack Obama, these 43 poems celebrate 43 presidents! (There have been 44 consecutive new presidents, but one guy won twice separate times, so really there’s only been 43 people as president…)
Each man’s character and historical acts and significance are given a rhyme. For example, Washington’s honesty is highlighted, as is Woodrow Wilson’s peace-loving: “The most peace-loving leaders give up their credos / when faced with attacks from German torpedoes.”
Teddy Roosevelt gets this poem: “He took on greedy corporations / and foreign powers with this trick: / A president should speak quite softly / but always carry a very large stick.”
Taft, of course, is famous for his bathtub, and perhaps for getting stuck in it sometimes.
Illustrations accompany each poem, and material at the end of the book provides a bit more information on the office of the presidency and a few longer biographies of the more important presidents.
about the author
Marilyn Singer was born in Manhattan New York and grew up in North Massapequa on Long Island. Encouraged by her grandmother, she began writing at a very young age. Poetry was her favorite.
What started out as a carefree childhood became traumatic when she had heart surgery at the age of eight. The fact that her parents had never told her she was sick was far more unsettling than the surgery and would later inspire a book.
With a bachelor’s degree from Queens College and a master’s from University of New York, Marilyn majored in English and education. She taught high school English in New York City and, during that time, met her husband, Steve Aronson, an actor. They live in Brooklyn with their poodle Oggi, cat August, two doves, and a talking starling named Darling.
One day Marilyn was sitting in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden looking for inspiration for a poem when she began to play with a story idea. It turned into several stories about animals, which eventually led to her first book. Marilyn Singer is now a prolific children’s writer with over 80 books published for kids from toddlers to young adults. She writes everything—poetry, fiction and non-fiction, mysteries and fantasies, picture books, and novels.
Sources:
Author website
Author interview: Cynsations
Also by Marilyn Singer:
Follow Follow : A Book of Reverso Poems. Dial. 2013.
Mirror Mirror : A Book of Reversible Verse. Dutton Juvenile. 2010.
Twosomes : Love Poems from the Animal Kingdom. Knopf Books for Young Readers. 2011.
First Food Fight This Fall and Other School Poems. Sterling. 2008.
Eggs. Holiday House. 2008.
Cats to the Rescue : True Tales of Heroic Felines. Henry Holt & Company. 2006.
about the illustrator
If you asked John Hendrix, he would much rather have been drawing the whole time he was writing his so-called “self-aggrandising bio” on his website. But they (whoever they are) said he should do it, so he did.
John was born in a gritty suburb of the mid-western city of St. Louis, Missouri. He grew up to attend the University of Kansas, where he studied illustration and graphic design. His degree, once he graduated, was officially in Rock Chalk and Visual Communication.
John spent a few years in Kansas as a designer, but he really wanted to do more with his art, so he moved to New York City to attend the School of Visual Arts MFA, specifically the “Illustration as Visual Essay” program, which was a new way of looking at art as a way of telling a story or making a point. John graduated from this in 2003, and then worked a few years by teaching at the Parsons School of Design, as well as working at The New York Times as Assistant Art Director for the Op-Ed page.
Soon after this John began illustrating picture books. His first book, Abe Lincoln Crosses a Creek, won the Comstock Award for read-aloud books. From then on he has been an illustrator and loves it! He now lives back in the St. Louis neighborhood with his wife Andrea and their children, Jack and Annie.
Source:
Illustrator website
read more!
Lives : Poems About Famous Americans by Lee Bennett Hopkins
Sixteen Americans who have greatly influenced history are given their very own poems in this collection! There’s Sacagawea, John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., Babe Ruth, Paul Revere, and more. Poet contributors include Nikki Grimes and Jane Yolen. The power of poetry is on full display.
Mirror Mirror : A Book of Reversible Verse by Marilyn Singer
There’s nothing wrong with being traditional. Go ahead. Read these fairy tale poems—like “Sleeping Beauty,” “Rapunzel,” and “Beauty and the Beast”—forward, like usual poems. But if you feel adventurous, try reading the last line first, and going backwards… It will still be a poem, but it tells a totally different story!
The President’s Stuck in the Bathtub : Poems about the President by Susan Katz
The title comes from William Taft, who did indeed get stuck in a White House bath tub—but Taft is not the only embarrassing or interesting president in U.S. history. For example, there is a poem about Leslie Lynch King, who (understandably) changed his name to Gerald Ford. And old John Quincy Adams? He skinny-dipped in the Potomac!