Noah McCullough

Epiphany-OviedoELCA library section 10 D: Youth (grades 6-8), Character Building/Service. This nifty book, written by a brainy ten-year old, covers facts about all the presidents. For each president, Noah assembled a list of facts such as parents' and children's names, education, political party, religion, nickname, etc. Then there is a short description of the president's administration, followed by exhaustive "Did You Know..?" lists. At the end of the book is Noah's Ultimate Political Quiz, with questions ranked in order of difficulty from "Governor" level to "Hail to the Chief" level. Answers are included.
The author's acknowledgements section is excellent. My favorite is his thanks to his elementary school librarian who allowed him into the nonfiction section in first grade! This section shows readers just how many people and contacts went into producing this book.
There is also a bibilography with lots of book sugggestions for further reading, online sources, and presidential libraries.
This is an amazingly well-researched book on the presidents. Both kids and adults will enjoy it. At times it is hilarious; because, after all, presidents are people first, living in a very public White House, and when we learn their habits and customs, we can understand them more fully, and appreciate the challenges of being the President of the United States.… (plus d'informations)

Interesting compilation of presidential offspring factoids. Though the author was 13-14 years-old when he wrote this book, I was torn by the quantity of research put into the book and the immaturity of the writing. Often it seemed to me that he was dumbing down his writing to make it appear it was being written by a 4th grader. And just as often, I would forget he was anything except a writer of interesting presidential trivia.

I thought this would be a fun book to put in my guest room book case. I hope some great-nieces and great-nephews will enjoy it some on some future visit.

Complete through the Obama administration.… (plus d'informations)

Reviewed by Me for TeensReadToo.com

Besides the fact that FIRST KIDS is just an amazing, well-researched, totally interesting tome about the children of the U.S. Presidents from George Washington to George W. Bush, it's even more remarkable that it was written by 13-year-old Noah McCullough. Noah, who vows to run for President in 2032, is obsessed with everything political. Good thing, too, or we'd never have such a resource as FIRST KIDS.

Filled with biographical information, outstanding photographs, and fun-filled "Fast Facts" section on each First Family, this is a non-fiction book that reads like a great novel. Kids and teens can use it for school reports, parents can use it as a resource guide, teachers could use it as a teaching instrument in the classroom - basically, its worth can't even be measured.

I personally loved the "Fast Facts" section, where I learned things such as:

The Carter family had a dog named Grits and a cat named Misty Malarky Ying Yang.

The McKinleys once served a meal in the White House that consisted of 71 courses.

JFK and his family never called John, Jr. John-John, although he was dubbed the nickname by the press and repeatedly referred to by that name.

Mrs. Taylor, Zachary Taylor's wife, spent most of her time in the White House in her room, knitting and smoking her corncob pipe.

There are tons more interesting facts included in FIRST KIDS. The whole family will have a great time reading through this truly interesting book, which I recommend for every home and school library!… (plus d'informations)