Book People Unite!

Reading Is Fundamental
Inspires Children to be Lifelong Readers by Delivering Free Books and Literacy Resources to Those Who Need Them Most

THE ISSUE
Only 1 child for every 300 living in poverty in the U.S. has access to books. A child without books starts out behind and is likely to stay behind for the rest of his or her life. The books RIF provides can spark a lifetime of ambition. Imagine a world where every child has a book. Where a greater number of students earn diplomas. Where our workforce is larger, smarter, and more innovative. This vision of a literate America is within our grasp.

THE SOLUTION
RIF is sparking a widespread movement in support of reading through a national awareness campaign, “Book People Unite.” RIF has gathered several of the world’s most beloved children’s book characters to create a history-making PSA. The campaign speaks directly to youth and their parents, calling on them to identify as book people. Book People embrace books in all formats. Book People know that reading helps children overcome obstacles—opening a door to a wider world of experiences. Book People Unite because Reading Is Fundamental.

JOIN US
Your voice will help place books into the hands of children who need them most. And, millions of RIF kids throughout the country will see you as a leader in helping them turn the page to a brighter future. 

Take the pledge at BookPeopleUnite.org!

To watch the Book People Unite film featuring Pinnochio, Madeline, Clifford, Babar, and other favorite characters, click here.

Celebrate National Poetry Month

Share a POEM
with the Young People in Your Life!

In honor of National Poetry Month and this glorious season of spring, we share with you one of English Romantic poet William Wordsworth's most beloved poems. Why not take a moment and share it with the young people in your life? Take turns reciting each stanza. Have someone read the poem while driving around town. Ask young people to write their own poems inspired by nature or something else they cherish!

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

1804. 1807.

 

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed--and gazed--but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

 

- William Wordsworth

 

Editor Andrew J. George notes in The Cambridge Edition of the Poets: Wordsworth (1904) that Wordsworth wrote this poem at Town-end, Grasmere.  "The Daffodils grew and still grow on the margin of Ullswater, and probably may be seen to this day as beautiful in the month of March, nodding their golden heads beside the dancing and foaming waves."

MORE Fun with Poetry!

To hear actor Jeremy Irons reading Wordsworth's poem on YouTube, click here.

To discover more ways you can celebrate National Poetry Month, visit Poets.org. 

To find more poems by Wordsworth and other poets, visit your local library or bookstore!

To see a list of recommended poetry books for kids ages 0-9, visit ReadingRockets.org.

To see a list of recommended poetry books for older kids, visit AdLit.org.

Presidential Trivia of the Week

Presidential Trivia Questions to Share
with the Young People in Your Life!

Copyright (c) 2008 Wendell Minor

Are YOU playing presidential trivia?! In honor of this year's presidential campaign, the NCBLA is posting three presidential trivia questions each week. Check out this week's questions and have fun sharing the questions and answers with the kids in your life!

This Week's Trivia Questions 

1. The American Revolution earned America's independence from Great Britain, but in the years after the war, the United States continued to struggle with Britain due to a continued presence of British troops in American territory and the impressment of American ships attempting trade with France. During which president's tenure was war again declared on Britain? 
2. Who was president when the stock market crashed to trigger the Great Depression?
3. Which president is credited with confronting America's energy crisis in the late 1970s by creating the Department of Energy and a national energy policy?

 

A go-to resource for discovering more about America's presidents is the NCBLA's interdisciplinary anthology Our White House: Looking In, Looking Out, and it's coordinating educational website OurWhiteHouse.org! An incomparable collection of essays, personal accounts, historical fiction, poetry, and a stunning array of original art, Our White House offers a multifaceted look at America’s history through the prism of the White House.

Answers and Information for Learning MORE!

1. James Madison. Madison's term as president was overwhelmed with the ongoing problem of the war between France and Britain. Shipping rights continued to be denied and trade thwarted as America's ships were constantly attacked. The U.S. declared war on Britain, and continued to lose many more ships. In 1814 the British launched an oppressive assault against the U.S.: fifty ships carrying 4,000 troops landed 35 miles from Washington. The Americans were not prepared, and the British aggressively attacked and burned Washington, D.C., including the White House. An observer noted that “not an inch, but its crack'd and blacken'd wall remained” of the White House the day after it was burned. Victory for the U.S. at Baltimore was then followed by the decisive victory in New Orleans, at which time the peace treaty had already been signed to end America's second war of independence and ensure Madison's term ended with the nation at peace. Learn more about James Madison and his legacy in the Presidential Fact Files on OurWhiteHouse.org. AND, read all about the War of 1812 in the essay "The White House Prepares for War: 1812" by Ralph Ketcham in Our White House: Looking In, Looking Out.
2. Herbert Hoover. Hoover was president for less than a year when the stock market was seized by the most devastating crash in American history, plunging the U.S. into the period known as the Great Depression and initiating an international economic crisis. The consequences of the crash were devastating as businesses went bankrupt, banks failed, and millions became unemployed. People lost their homes, farmers lost their land, and many lost their life savings. By the end of 1930 more than 1,300 banks had closed across the country. Ultimately the Great Depression witnessed the failure of 10,000 banks and the loss of $2 billion in deposits. Nearly five million Americans were out of work by January 1931. Unfortunately, the economic situation continued to deteriorate and by 1933 nearly 13 million people were unemployed.
   
   In the days following the crash, Hoover announced his intention to maintain a balanced budget, but to also cut taxes and increase public works spending as a means of providing employment. Though Hoover attempted to rally the people, he firmly believed that providing direct aid to the destitute was not the job of the federal government. Rather, he believed that local communities should take charge of administering assistance to those in need.
   
   Hoover did intervene, however, through the creation of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) in January 1932, an independent federal agency authorized to lend money to rebuild the U.S. economy. The RFC distributed $1.5 billion by the end of 1932 in the form of aid to state and local governments and loans to banks, railroads, farm mortgage associations, and other financial institutions. The RFC also lent money for public works projects, such as hydroelectric plants and toll bridges, that would eventually pay for themselves. Many blamed Hoover for the Depression, and he was easily beaten by Franklin Roosevelt in the following election. Today many historians believe that Hoover could not possibly have solved the economic crisis, though he might have eliminated human suffering by authorizing direct relief. Learn more about Herbert Hoover and his legacy in the Presidential Fact Files on OurWhiteHouse.org. AND, check out the comic strip titled "Hoover's One Term" by Matt Phelan in Our White House: Looking In, Looking Out.
3. James Earl Carter.  Carter attempted to control the energy crisis by creating the Department of Energy and a national energy policy. He appealed directly to the public regarding the need to reduce consumption on an individual level. Carter also strengthened environmental protection laws, expanded the national park system to protect 103 million acres of Alaskan wilderness, and signed legislation to ensure the financial solvency of Social Security. Learn more about Jimmy Carter and his legacy in the Presidential Fact Files on OurWhiteHouse.org.
   

Our White House is available
in both hardcover and paperback from Candlewick Press.
Ask for it at a library or bookstore near you!

And be sure to check out the companion educational website, OurWhiteHouse.org, which provides expanded book content that includes additional articles, resources, activities, and discussion questions related to book topics as well exclusive resources and articles regarding the presidency, presidential campaigns, and presidential elections.

 

Bankstreet College of Education Announces Best Children's Books of the Year, 2012

Extensive Lists of Best Books 

Categorized by Age Group and 

Available in Easy-to-Print Format

THE CHILDREN’S BOOK COMMITTEE at the Bank Street College of Education strives to guide librarians, educators, parents, grandparents and other interested adults to the best books for children published each year. The all-volunteer committee includes educators, librarians, authors, parents and psychologists who share a passion for and expertise in the world of children’s literature. Young reviewers from all over the country, ages 2–18, read and evaluate many of our books as well.

In choosing books for the annual list, reviewers consider literary quality and excellence of presentation as well as the potential emotional impact of the books on young readers. Other criteria include credibility of characterization and plot, authenticity of time and place, age suitability, positive treatment of ethnic and religious differences, and the absence of stereotypes. Nonfiction titles are further evaluated for accuracy and clarity. Each book accepted for the list is read and reviewed by at least two committee members and then discussed by the committee as a whole.

TIPS FOR PARENTS FROM BANK STREET

• Share your enjoyment of books with your child.
• Talk over your reading.
• Continue to read aloud to your child even after he or she reads independently.
• Encourage your child to choose a book to read aloud to someone else.
• Broaden your child’s horizons by helping to select from a wide range of subjects.
• Encourage your child to read whatever he or she enjoys even if it appears to you to be too easy or too hard.
• Let your child see your enjoyment of your own reading.

The best books are categorized by age group. To review the winners for each category, click here.  Each list of books is annotated and provided in a PDF file, making it easy for you to print and take to your local library or bookstore!

In Case You Missed It!

Columnist Maureen Dowd Talks to Photographer Diana Walker Regarding Powerful Hillary Clinton Photographs

Photograph by Diana Walker for Time.

In the New York Times op-ed column "State of Cool," Maureen Dowd discusses how one iconic photograph of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has endowed Clinton with "Clint Eastwood cool."

Time Photographer Diana Walker, who took the black and white photo of Clinton on a C-17 flight last fall from Malta to Tripoli, told Dowd she got a letter from a young woman, a friend of her son’s, who said she stared at the image for a long time. “It truly sent chills down my spine,” the woman wrote, “and I immediately shared it with my daughter because of the power it portrayed.”

To read the entire column, click here.

Photographer Diana Walker has been a contract photographer for Time magazine since 1979. She served as one of Time’s White House photographers during the Reagan, Bush, and Clinton administrations.

Check out some of Walker's phenomenal work in Our White House: Looking In, Looking Out, which features photographs of President Ronald Reagan and President George H. W. Bush. Our White House: Looking In, Looking Out, an anthology produced by the National Children’s Book and Literacy Alliance and featuring the work of 108 authors and illustrators, has been making headlines since it was published in September 2008. An incomparable collection of essays, personal accounts, historical fiction, poetry, and a stunning array of original art, Our White House offers a multifaceted look at America’s history through the prism of the White House. 

Our White House is available in both hardcover and paperback. Learn more at OurWhiteHouse.org.

Ask for Our White House at a library or bookstore near you!

Use "Our White House" Book and Website to Connect Kids with Current Events

Finalists in the National Mall Redesign Competition Have Been Announced!

Help Kids Delve into Our Past with Stories and Illustrations in Our White House Explaining the Earliest Plans for Designing D.C.

Diller Scofidio Renfro + Hood Design for Union Square

According to the Trust for the National Mall, "The National Mall has been loved to death. It is our country’s most visited national park, with more than 25 million annual visitors and 3,000 annual permitted events. This 700-acre park was not built to withstand this level of use and has not received adequate resources to be restored and maintained to a level befitting its role as an irreplaceable piece of our American fabric.

The Trust for the National Mall is the official non-profit of the National Park Service dedicated to restoring and improving the National Mall. Our mission is simply to make the National Mall the best park in the world.

To accomplish these goals the Trust for the National Mall is sponsoring a design competition for three key areas on the National Mall. Together these locations illustrate the cohesive approach necessary to prepare the National Mall for the types and levels of use it receives today and prepare it for greater use in the future." 

In the AP article "Finalists emerge to redesign National Mall sites,"  Donald Stastny, an architect hired to oversee the competition, says, "The face of the mall is going to change quite dramatically. ...The designs will bring the next evolution of the mall as a place that has changed significantly over the decades through war time and with the addition of new memorials."

The finalists' concepts are now on display through this coming Sunday at the Smithsonian Castle and National Museum of American History. To see the design ideas, click here.

To learn more about the design competition, visit NationalMall.org.

Take Kids Back to the Beginning!

Copyright (c) 2008 Bagram Ibatoulline

You can help kids learn more about the early days of our nation's capitol city in the NCBLA's award-winning anthology Our White House: Looking In, Looking Out.

Have you ever imagined what George Washington saw as he looked over the Potomac Valley to consider his vision for the new capitol city? So has artist Bagram Ibatoulline in his breathtaking landscape featured on the opening pages of Our White House. Have you ever wondered about the experiences of the craftsmen and stone cutters who left their homes to contribute their skills to the construction of the White House?  Be sure to read Mary Brigid Barrett's imagined memoir "Testimony of Padraig Tomas O'Deorain 1801" and look at its coordinating illustration in Our White House. And be sure to learn all about how slaves helped build the White House in the essay written by our nation's current National Ambassador for Young People's Literature Walter Dean Myers!

On the companion educational site OurWhiteHouse.org, you can find extensive articles, primary sources, discussion questions, activities, and resources all about the land and location of the city and Washington's ideas for the city buildings and architecture:

"The Land of the Potomac and Anacostia Rivers"

"The Location of the New Nation's Capitol: North or South?"

"George Washington's Dream of a New National Capital"

"Primary Sources: The New Federal City"

And teachers and homeschoolers won't want to miss "From the Foundation Up: The Illustration by Bagram Ibatoulline," which includes not only a discussion of the painting, but also art activities and discussion questions to share with young people.

Our White House: Looking In, Looking Out is a masterpiece of poetry and prose, art and photography, created by over 100 of America's most gifted storytellers and artists as a project of the National Children’s Book and Literacy Alliance designed to encourage young people to read more about America’s rich history and culture; to think more about America’s future; to talk more about our nation’s leadership; and to act on their own beliefs and convictions, ensuring this great democratic experiment will survive and thrive. Our White House is available in both paperback and hardcover from Candlewick Press.

Ask for Our White House at a library or bookstore near you!

Celebrate National Library Week!

You Belong @ Your Library!

Take Advantage of the Diverse Resources and Programs Offered at Your Local Library!

Whether you are a job seeker looking for resources to land a new job, a parent looking for free activities for children, or a student searching for your next favorite book, you belong @ your library.

Today’s libraries help level the playing field by making both print and digital information affordable, available, and accessible to all people.  Libraries provide cultural heritage and genealogical collections, materials in print and electronic formats, job seeking resources, English as second language and citizenship classes, and many other creative and resourceful programs.

Libraries have historically served as our nation’s great equalizers of knowledge. The strength of libraries has always been the diversity of their collections and commitment to serving all people. This National Library Week, join our nation’s libraries and librarians by celebrating the place where we all belong.

First sponsored in 1958, National Library Week is a national observance sponsored by the American Library Association (ALA) and libraries across the country each April. 

For more information, visit your local library!

Presidential Trivia of the Week

Help Your Kids Learn About American History by Playing Presidential Trivia

Are YOU playing presidential trivia?! In honor of this year's presidential campaign, the NCBLA is posting three presidential trivia questions each week. Check out this week's questions and have fun sharing the questions and answers with the kids in your life! 

If you are traveling or always on the go, print the questions and answers before you leave or use a smartphone, tablet computer, or laptop to read them on the spot. You can quickly find all our previously posted questions by typing Presidential Trivia in the search box at the top of this blog.

This Week's Trivia Questions

1. Who is the only vice president to have assumed the presidency for a reason other than the president's death? 
2. Who was the first and only president to serve as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court? (Hint: He served from 1921 through 1930).
3. Before she became first lady, this American minister's wife accompanied him to France at the height of the French Revolution. While there, she visited Marie-Adrienne Lafayette (wife of the Marquis de Lafayette) in prison. Lafayette, her family, and others of noble birth had been imprisoned and were awaiting death by the guillotine. As a result of this visit, the French leaders released Madame Lafayette. Who was this brave American woman who later became first lady?

A go-to resource for discovering more about America's presidents is the NCBLA's interdisciplinary anthology Our White House: Looking In, Looking Out, and it's coordinating educational website OurWhiteHouse.org! An incomparable collection of essays, personal accounts, historical fiction, poetry, and a stunning array of original art, Our White House offers a multifaceted look at America’s history through the prism of the White House.

Answers and Information for Learning MORE!

1. Gerald R. Ford. Following the resignation of President Nixon, Gerald Ford took the oath of office on August 9, 1974, and declared, “I assume the Presidency under extraordinary circumstances . . . This is an hour of history that troubles our minds and hurts our hearts.” Ford was also the first vice president to have been chosen under the terms of the 25th Amendment. Learn more about Gerald Ford and his legacy in the Presidential Fact Files on OurWhiteHouse.org. 
2.  William Howard Taft. Not only was Taft the first and only president to serve as Chief Justice, he was also a president of many other "firsts:"  the first president to own a car, the first president to throw the first ball on opening day of baseball season, the first president to play golf, and the first president whose funeral was broadcast on radio. Learn more about Taft and the other American presidents in the Presidential Fact Files on OurWhiteHouse.org. 
3. Elizabeth Monroe.  Elizabeth served as first lady throughout her husband James Monroe’s presidency in 1817-1825, yet one of her most noteworthy acts occurred before she became first lady. When Monroe was serving as minister to France, Elizabeth accompanied him to Paris at the height of the French Revolution. Elizabeth made a daring visit to Marie-Adrienne Lafayette, the wife of the Marquis de Lafayette, a French military officer and aristocrat who had been inspired by America’s revolt against the British and subsequently came to America to serve under General Washington. The Marquis and his family were imprisoned, along with others of noble birth, and were awaiting death by the guillotine. Elizabeth went to the prison to visit Madame Lafayette, and as a result of America’s perceived interest in her, the French revolutionary leaders released her. Learn more about Monroe and the other first ladies in the First Lady Fact Files on OurWhiteHouse.org.

Our White House is available
in both hardcover and paperback from Candlewick Press.
Ask for it at a library or bookstore near you!

And be sure to check out the companion educational website, OurWhiteHouse.org, which provides expanded book content that includes additional articles, resources, activities, and discussion questions related to book topics as well exclusive resources and articles regarding the presidency, presidential campaigns, and presidential elections.

Take Your Kids to the Art Museum!

Exhibit Features Artwork Inspired by the Surrealist Exquisite Corpse Game

Now Through July 9 at MOMA

She Could Hardly Wait. Steve Gianakos. 1996.
(c) 2012 Steve Gianakos

In a collaborative, chance-based drawing game known as the exquisite corpse, Surrealist artists subjected the human body to distortions and juxtapositions that resulted in fantastic composite figures. The "Exquisite Corpses: Drawing and Disfiguration" exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York considers how this and related practices—in which the body is dismembered or reassembled, swollen or multiplied, propped with prosthetics or fused with nature and the machine—have recurred in art throughout the 20th century and to the present day. On view are works by modern artists from Masson to Miró and contemporary ones from Robert Gober to Nicola Tyson. For more information, visit MOMA.org.

Before You Go!

Share the history of the Exquisite Corpse art form with the young people in your life and have fun creating your own exquisite corpse artwork or story! For information and instructions, refer to the NCBLA's following articles:

"The History of the Exquisite Corpse Art Form and How It Is Played" by Marilyn Ludolph.

"Creating Your Own Exquisite Corpse Story Adventure" by Marilyn Ludolph

"A Guide to Progressive Stories" by Mary Brigid Barrett

"The Progressive Stories Game" by Marilyn Ludolph

 

AND, be sure to read with your kids The Exquisite Corpse Adventure, a progressive story game played by 20 celebrated authors and illustrators as a collaboration between the National Children’s Book and Literacy Alliance and the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress. 

 

The Exquisite Corpse Adventure is a buoyant, spontaneous experiment; a progressive story game just like the one many families play on road trips and at home when there is a power outage and kids play at camps and parties. It is a game in which one person begins a story, stops at a cliff-hanging moment, and the next person picks it up and continues until everyone in the group has the opportunity to contribute. And just as in those games, the contributors to The Exquisite Corpse Adventure invented characters that spontaneously erupted out of their imagination; plot lines that tumbled forth, some realized, some lost; and conflicts with no logical solution in sight.

The contributors to The Exquisite Corpse Adventure are some of the most gifted artists and storytellers in our nation: M.T. Anderson, Natalie Babbitt, Calef Brown, Susan Cooper, Kate Di Camillo, Timothy Basil Ering, Jack Gantos, Nikki Grimes, Shannon Hale, Lemony Snicket, Steven Kellogg, Gregory Maguire, Megan McDonald, Patricia and Fredrick McKissack, Linda Sue Park, Katherine Paterson, James Ransome, Jon Scieszka, and Chris Van Dusen.

Published by Candlewick Press in August 2011, The Exquisite Corpse Adventure is available in paperback and hardcover. It is also available on audio. Ask for it at a library and bookstore near you!

In Case You Missed It!

Horn Book Dishes Up Some Literary Humor to Celebrate April 1st

Looking for a literary laugh? Be sure to check out Roger Sutton's April 1st blog posting, "Well this bites," in which he shares the new marketing strategy of publisher Hexwood Books, whose goal is to get more kids to read Newbery Medal winning books by incorporating blood-thirsty characters into their plots. Sutton shares the following snippet from Hexwood's "publicity release:"

As demonstrated by the popularity of Stephenie Meyer’s “Twilight” series, kids today want to read stories about sexy vampires…stories about fangs poised above the neck of a young innocent…stories about blood slowly seeping into the bodice of a white ruffled nightgown. Our new series, “Vamped-up Newberys” will satisfy both young people and their teachers – featuring the plots and characters of your favorite award-winning novels, slightly altered to include today’s most popular subject matter among young people: vampires!

The first five volumes in the series are based on the 2012 winner DEAD END IN NORVELT, last year’s winner MOON OVER MANIFEST, 2007’s THE HIGHER POWER OF LUCKY, JACOB HAVE I LOVED (1981) and that classic from 1945, JOHNNY TREMAIN.

Titles in Hexwood's new satiric series include: Deadened in Norvelt, Full Moon Over Manifest, and Jacob Have I Bitten.

Click here to read the entire blog post.

April Is National Poetry Month

Share a Poem with the Kids in Your Life!

National Poetry Month is a month-long, national celebration of poetry established by the Academy of American Poets in 1996 with the ultimate goal of widening the attention of individuals and the media—to the art of poetry, to living poets, to our complex poetic heritage, and to poetry books and journals of wide aesthetic range and concern. The Academy offers a list of 30 ways (one activity for each day of the month!) you can celebrate National Poetry Month. Here's ten from their extensive list:

1. Read a book of poetry.
2. Memorize a poem.
3. Revisit a classic poem. Maybe a Shakespearean sonnet?
4. Put poetry in an unexpected place...perhaps the bathroom mirror?
5. Bring a poem to your place of worship.
6. Attend a poetry reading at your bookstore, library, or coffee shop.
7. Support a literary organization.
8. Take a poem out to lunch.
9. Recite a poem to family or friends.
10. Add your favorite verse to your email signature.

Visit poets.org to discover the remaining 20 ways you can celebrate National Poetry Month! Which is your favorite? What other ideas can you come up with? How can you integrate poetry into your family's daily life?

MORE Poetry Resources!

Poetry lovers who also enjoy American history may delight in reading Gregory Maguire's poetic metaphor about the White House titled "Looking In, Looking Out" and Nikki Grimes' poem about a blind student's visit to the White House titled "Staking Claim." Both are available exclusively on OurWhiteHouse.org.

Also be sure to review the diverse poetry included in the printed anthology Our White: Looking In, Looking Out, which is available in libraries and bookstores. Included in the Our White House collection are Jane Yolen's imagined conversation between John and Abigail Adams titled "The White House First Residents," Jack Prelutsky's humorous poem about the Clinton's cat titled "I Live in the White House," Jon Scieszka's rhyme titled "The White House," Lee Bennett Hopkins' poem titled "Good Nights," Kate DiCamillo's touching piece about Lincoln's death titled "In Early April," and Paul B. Janeczko's haunting "Mary Todd Lincoln Speaks of Her Son's Death, 1862."

Learn more about Our White House at OurWhiteHouse.org.

Presidential Trivia of the Week

Presidential Trivia Questions to Share with Your Class, Family, or Friends!

In honor of this year's presidential campaign, the NCBLA is posting three presidential trivia questions each week. Why not take a few minutes to share these trivia questions with your family, class, or group of young people and see what they know?!

This Week's Trivia Questions

1. Which first lady hired a French chef to run the White House kitchens?
2. Our 43rd president, George W. Bush, is the son of former President George H. W. Bush, who served as America's 41st president. Who was our country's first father and son pair to both be elected as president?
3. Which president, having been thrust into the position following the death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, made the decision to drop two atomic bombs on Japan as a means to end World War II?

A perfect resource for discovering more about America's presidents is the NCBLA's interdisciplinary anthology Our White House: Looking In, Looking Out,  and it's coordinating educational website OurWhiteHouse.org! An incomparable collection of essays, personal accounts, historical fiction, poetry, and a stunning array of original art, Our White House offers a multifaceted look at America’s history through the prism of the White House.

Answers and Information for Learning MORE!

1. Jacqueline Kennedy. In the OurWhiteHouse.org article "A Taste of the Past: White House Kitchens, Menus, and Recipes," Mary Brigid Barrett writes, "Rene Verdon was the French chef hired by Jacqueline Kennedy to work at the White House. He received the title Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur for his contribution to French cuisine. During the Kennedy administration, he became an American citizen." Be sure to check out his recipes for Strawberries Romanoff and John F. Kennedy's Favorite Boston Clam Chowder in the article!
2. John Quincy Adams served as our sixth president. He was the son of our nation's second president, John Adams. Learn more about each of our presidents in the "Presidential Fact Files" on OurWhiteHouse.org.
3. Harry S. Truman. Truman had been vice president only 83 days when President Roosevelt's untimely death thrust him into the presidency. Though World War II was in its final days, the weight of the world was laid at Truman's feet. In early May of 1945, the World War II Allies formally accepted the unconditional surrender of the armed forces of Nazi Germany. However, Japan still refused to surrender. Truman consulted with his advisers and then ordered that two atomic bombs be dropped on Japan. The consequences were devastating as tens of thousands were killed immediately. The Japanese surrendered quickly, bringing the war to an end. Learn more about President Truman in the "Presidential Fact Files" on OurWhiteHouse.org.

Our White House is available in both hardcover and paperback from Candlewick Press. 

Ask for it at a library or bookstore near you!

And be sure to check out the companion educational website, OurWhiteHouse.org, which provides expanded book content that includes additional articles, resources, activities, and discussion questions related to book topics as well exclusive resources and articles regarding the presidency, presidential campaigns, and presidential elections.

Take Your Kids to a Local Book Festival!

Maine Festival of the Book Starts Today, Continues Through April 1

Meet Over 75 Authors and Artists 

Join book lovers, authors, and artists for the Maine Festival of the Book, March 29 – April 1, 2012, in Portland!

Each year communities large and small across America host book festivals at which book lovers of all ages gather to learn about new books, listen to favorite authors and illustrators talk about the creative process, and get books signed. A book festival is a fabulous outing for families that enables you to share the joy of reading with kids!

If you are in the New England area this weekend, be sure to check out Maine's Festival of the Book in Portland. Most events are FREE and unticketed (with the exception of Opening Night), and available first-come, first-served. Four days, more than 75 authors, artists, and performers! Programs provided for ages 3 to 100! Loyal attendees will notice an added day to include a special program Thursday night presented in collaboration with Maine Humanities Council and the Kate Cheney Chappell ’83 Center for Book Arts at USM. Opening Night will be Friday night, March 30. Enjoy a free day of programs for all ages (and free parking) on Saturday, March 31 at the Abromson Center, University of Southern Maine — readings, panel discussions, film, signings, book sales and kids programs too.

Programs are designed to appeal to a variety of interests and many touch on the the writing process. Discussions this year will range from romantic fantasy to the biography of Kurt Vonnegut to an insider’s view of crime scenes, presented by a veteran NYPD undercover police detective.

The Maine Festival of the Book brings together writers and readers to enjoy readings, panel discussions, book signings, and performances. With the exception of Opening Night and Youth Outreach, festival events are first-come, first-served, unticketed seating, and are free.

For more information, visit MaineReads.org. 

If you can't make it to Maine this weekend, check out the dates and places of other upcoming book festivals:

April 27-28, Newburyport Literary Festival

Newburyport, Massachusetts

Learn more:  NewburyPortLiteraryFestival.org

May 18, San Francisco Book Festival

San Francisco, California

Learn more: SanFranciscoBookFestival.com

September 21-23, Burlington Book Festival

Burlington, Vermont

Learn more:  BurlingtonBookFestival.com

September 22-23, National Book Festival

National Mall, Washington D.C.

Learn more:  LOC.gov/bookfest

October 27-28, Texas Book Festival

Austin, Texas

Learn more: TexasBookFestival.org

October 27, Boston Book Festival

Boston, Massachusetts

Learn more:  BostonBookFest.org

October 27, Children's Literature Festival

Keene, New Hampshire

Learn more: Keene.edu/clf