One of the major events of a child's February is President's Day and the celebration of the lives of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and other American presidents. And I don't think this is just because they get a day off school! I still remember my son visiting the Lincoln Memorial at two and being awestruck by feeling the power of the man he then called "Abraham Linconham". On the other hand, I remember from my own early adolescence the dull cut-outs of the presidents that lined the blackboard and meant very little to me and the lifeless stereotyped stories that went along with them.
Times have changed and books have changed. Happily now parents and teachers have new ways of acquainting their children with American presidents. I have introduced these men to my children in an animated way because there are so many wonderful books available about these men. I've discovered that many of the books themselves present very rounded pictures and others imply or hint at the philosophical beliefs of these men. The President's birthdays have now become a time for me to talk about the values the presidents held dear, examine the beliefs of our country, evaluate how family beliefs mirror these ethics and to really bring history alive.
I am grateful that younger to David Adler for making presidents more accessible to the young. He has written A Picture Book series which includes the biographies Lincoln, Washington and Jefferson. These profiles are written simply enough that they could even be shared with an older attentive pre-school child. Adler's tellings have the main events of the men's lives with a subtle feeling tone that I found I could easily extended with my children. The illustrations by John and Alexandra Wallner are straight-forward and uncomplicated and accent text well. (Holiday House)
One of my joys of parenting is sharing stories about our family and my children love listening to them. For that reason I love reading them books with a strong affective tone that bring across the real man as well as the milestones of his life. I have found that historical figures have become almost as real to my children as their familial ancestors. When I stopped to pause, I realized suddenly that I was giving them a sense of their connection to community and to country through this involvement.
One of the best ways to bring these historical figures to life is reading stories that recreate them as full-blown people, rather than the cardboard cut-outs that perched above the blackboards I remember as a child. Jean Fritz is one of my favorite historical writers for children for this very reason. George Washington's Breakfast is the story of George W. Allen who shares name and birth date with the first president. George feels "almost related" to the first George and wants to know everything about him. His questioning what Washington ate for breakfast, leads this young researcher on an quest that takes him back and forth to the library, sets his parents reading and initiates a trip to Washington D.C. All the while, Ms. Fritz tells really interesting things about George Washington, like that he ruined his teeth cracking walnuts and that he loved to count things. The kinds of things that intrigue children. Along with the story, we get a subplot of George Allen's grandma who has tired of his many research missions and her agreement to cook the breakfast if he discovers it. Humor abounds, the Allen family is made very real, and George Allen's questing makes us feel his admiration and allegiance to George Washington and how very real he is to the young boy. Fritz has also written a biography of Madison and many other important historical figures. She is a consistent biographer that you can always trust. Fritz, like George Allen is an impeccable researcher and yet you don't have the sense of that in her writing because it is so child-friendly. Ages 8-12. (Coward McCann, 1969)
I found it difficult at first to translate the experiences that happened centuries ago when reading biographies to my children. I realized how foreign these lives must seem to children. For this reason I was very glad to discover Ruth Belov Gross' If You Grew Up With George Washington and Ann McGovern's If You Grew Up With Abraham Lincoln (along with numerous titles which cover other events and times of our country). The format of these books are a series of questions and answers about the times of these illustrious men, spiced with specific detailing from each man's life. Both books have an uncanny ability of taking a child back in time to those other eras. The authors cleverly ask and answer questions children would be interested like games, foods, schools, and clothing. The detailing is so specific that I found myself transported. I could feel, smell and see what life must have been like in times gone-by. Both books are filled with vignettes of these men's lives that round the pictures of them so often stereotyped by history. Ages 7-10. (Scholastic Books)
Another way to make history come alive is by being there. Russell Freedman's Newberry-winning Abraham Lincoln: a Photobiography of is filled with amazing photographs and spirited details give readers a strong sense of how it must have felt to be Abraham Lincoln. The amazing black and white photos show everything from dead soldiers on the Antietam battlefield to photos of Abraham which show the strains of war reflected in his face. This is a feeling biography, giving us introspective glimpses of what went on behind Lincoln's inner life, his reasons for making the choices he did and the turmoil some of his choices cost him. After you read this book, you make like me become a Russell Freedman fan and have to search out his other books such as Franklin Delano Roosevelt or Indian Chiefs. Ages 10 and up. (Clarion, 1987)
The last way I would suggest enlivening history for your children is through play. The Buck Stops Here by Alice Provensen is primarily a pictorial review of presidents. It is accompanied by a rhyme that characterizes each president, but it is the illustrations and the notes in the back that really define the men. Provensen's illustrations are a tease to excite and inspire young readers to find out more. Campaign slogans, American events, and a sense of the times are all to be found in the pictures. Ages 10 and up. (HarperCollins, 1990)
Our family is getting ready for Spring Vacation, taking a long-promised trip to Williamsburg and Washington, and I am discovering another facets of reading about presidents. They are a wonderful way to prepare my children for the monuments, museums, and buildings we are soon to see.
I have found too that wars faced by Americans in other times, a tragedy of many president's offices, give some historical perspective to the difficulties we are living through now. I have now discovered through my sharing president books that they are not just for February, but can be enjoyed and read all year round!