Smart About the Presidents (Smart About History)

This is an excellent way to introduce our youngsters to their history. A very clever way to start turning out skilled researchers.

I realize it is intended for a young audience, but when you are giving such a little bit of information about each president, I would have highlighted the most important things. Take for example the entry on John Quincy Adam's which includes the fact that he didn't win the popular vote (important), with mostly other very trivial facts, like his swimming naked in the Potomac and the rather subjective statement that "like his father before him, John Quincy Adams got on many people's nerves." Nothing about what he accomplished for the good of the country is included. I prefer Ken Burns's book Grover Cleveland Again, which is more difficult, but contains more substantial information. Also, I don't like cartoon drawings only. A real picture of each president would help kids remember faces better.

I absolutely love this book about the presidents. It has the right information that keeps my childs interest and even has me learning new stuff. There is a fun fact (or two) about every president. And the illustrations make it fun for the kids too. My kids pick this book as a bedtime book.

I bought this for my 6-year-old son to familiarize him with the presidents before a trip to Washington D.C. We haven't read it together yet, but it's very cute and seems to do a great job of summarizing each president's life and the facts he is best known for. Please be aware, though, the only pictures in the book are caricature-type drawings that will not be as useful for helping children recognize the presidents. With a very few exceptions, most of them would not be recognizable out of context even to an adult who knew what that president looked like. I plan to supplement this book as we read it by showing an actual photo of each president from another source. It is cute, though, just depends what you want to use it for.

Excellent to introduce presidents! My 6 and 8 year old love for me to read a few pages each week. We use this in our homeschool to introduce capital hill before a trip to DC later this year. The facts are interesting and the drawings fun!

I have a young nephew who kept asking questions about the presidents. I bought this book for him and here it's not put it down now for weeks. He is studying it constantly and testing me.

I ordered this for my 1st grade daughter. Since her school doesn't focus on History or science until 3rd grade we've been working on some of this at home. She loved all the trivia information and even took it with her on a recent car trip. This book keeps her busy for quite a long while.I would recommend this to anyone who wants to supplement their childs current education or homeschoolers. It's written in a fun and easy to read format. The illustrations made my daughter giggle quite a bit and held her attention. Great book!

This was on my daughter's required reading for 3rd grade, however I would say it's a bit below 3rd grade level. It's more cartoonish in nature than information driven, which makes it all the more odd the random tidbits of information they do include (such as Clinton's affair, that Taft needed a "special bathtub because he was more than 300 lbs," that Cleveland's wife was "a lot more beautiful than him" or Trump's 3 different wives). I wish they kept the content more factual and related to policies or actions of their presidency, and not pop culture. The author's bias is definitely apparent in the writing and graphics as well... Some Presidents are written about and drawn with obvious adoration and reverence, while others have a dismissive and snarky tone. There are a few typos in the book as well, which is always frustrating to see - especially in educational materials for kids. It's honestly sad that we don't have better options to teach our children about our Presidents.