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If the Walls Could Talk: Family Life at the White House by Jane O'Connor (Author), Gary Hovland (Illustrator); Simon & Schuster/ Paula Wiseman Books, 2004

Ages 9-12

The cartoon illustrations by Gary Hovland drew me to this book. The big heads and dialogue balloons are eye-catching and make it fun to read the interesting facts related to all of the Presidents' stays at the White House. From George Washington to George W. Bush, O'Connor lets readers know that George Washington is the only President who never lived in the White House, William Howard Taft was so large that he had to have a jumbo-size bathtub installed- one big enough for four people, and Abraham Lincoln didn't mind that his sons kept pet goats in their bedrooms. A great resource to use not only during an election year, but all year round.


Pair it up with. . .
So You Want to be President? Revised and Updated Edition by Judith St. George (Author), David Small (Illustrator)



Lives of the Presidents: Fame, Shame (and What the Neighbors Thought)
by Kathleen Krull (Author), Kathryn Hewitt (Illustrator)







Hop over to Anastasia Suen's picture book of the day blog for the Nonfiction Monday roundup!

STATUS: TGIF! I concluded a negotiation today which always feels good. The author is, of course, thrilled.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? AIN’T NOBODY BUT ME by Supertramp

This isn’t a publishing rant per se but it’s rather indirectly related. On Monday, the office lobby floor was retiled. In order to do that, the workers moved our mailbox center.

Let’s just say it was resting sideways on the stairs when I came in on Tuesday morning. I thought it a little odd but I certainly wasn’t able to move it so there it stayed. Well, Tuesday afternoon, the mail person comes to deliver the mail (and with MLK in there, more than the usual stack). He was in a huff because he had to come to each office instead of putting mail in the box like normal. Just to clarify, my office building isn’t large. On the second floor, there are only 8 suites—several of which are currently empty and awaiting new tenants. I understand that it was an inconvenience and outside of what a mail person would normally have to do to deliver the mail but it wasn't a big deal either and probably took all of 8 minutes to do.

But I guess it was because since then, I haven’t received another piece of mail all week—even though the mailbox center was put back.

Now, I know we do everything electronically here but seriously, not a day goes by where we don’t get a piece of mail. And we are expecting royalty statements and checks.

We had to call today and find out why mail hasn’t been delivered. I guess I’ll have to tell my clients that it was circumstances beyond my control on why their monies are late!