Even if you don’t pay much attention to the news, you must know we have a new president of our country.  There is a paperback book for children about the life of this new president.  The title is “President George W. Bush, Our Forty-third President,” written by Beatrice Gormley. 

George Walker Bush was born on July 6, 1946, in New Haven, Connecticut, shortly after the end of World War II.  His father, George Bush, was a student at Yale University when the new baby, “Georgie,” was born.  George Bush, the father, had been a fighter pilot, a war hero, during World War II.   He had also been a baseball star during his school years.  So Georgie, the Bush’s first child, had a lot to live up to. 

He had a little sister, Robin, who died of an incurable disease when Georgie was seven years old. He also had three younger brothers, all of whom are grown men today. As Georgie grew up, he came to be called “George W,” so he wouldn’t be just “George,” like his father’s name. 

George W’s grandfather, Prescott Bush, a Republican, had been a congressman and a senator from the state of Connecticut, as George W. was growing up.  George W’s father had been successful in the oil business in Texas. He, too, wanted to enter politics.  However, in Texas at that time, Republicans, especially ones who came from the East, had a hard time being elected to office. 

George W, as a young man, worked hard in his father’s campaigns as his father ran for office.  Yet George W never saw himself as one who would ever run for political office.  He worked in the oil business.  Later, he became visible throughout the state of Texas as the spokesman for a group of investors who owned the Texas Rangers, the popular major league baseball team. 

George W’s father, in the meantime, had held a number of positions in the national government.   After serving as Ronald Reagan’s vice-president for eight years, he had been elected the forty-first president of the United States in 1988. In 1992, the senior Bush was defeated by William Clinton, who became the forty-second president of the United States. 

In November 1994, George W was elected governor of Texas. A popular governor, he was reelected for a second term.  As a successful governor of a large state, he came to be viewed as a strong Republican candidate in the presidential campaign of 2000.  After one of the closest elections in the history of the nation, George W became the forty-third president of the United States.

This little paperback tells some of the details of George W’s growing up.  It tells about his close ties with his family and how he met Laura, his wife and the country’s current first lady.  Some of the details of his disputed election to the presidency are also presented.
 
 

“Odd Moments in Sports” is a collection of short descriptions of strange things that have happened in sports over the years.  We’ve all heard of the football lineman who picked up the loose ball and ran for a touchdown – the wrong way!  We are less likely to have heard about the basketball player who got down on his knees and barked like a dog.  His team was throwing the ball in and hoping to score in the final moments of a game. Since all the members of the other team were looking at the “barking dog”, his team was able to get the ball inbound and score the winning basket.

If you like stories about strange plays, superstitious ball players, and practical jokes that ball players play on one another, you will love this book. 
 
 

“Taking Chances,” by Lauren Brooke is the final book in a series of four paperbacks published by Scholastic, Inc. The setting is a horse farm located in Virginia.  It differs from other horse farms in that it specializes in healing horses that have become unmanageable because of mistreatment or some kind of accident.  Sixteen-year-old Amy is the heroine.  She has inherited her mother’s gift for being able to reach horses that others cannot train. Unfortunately, Amy’s mother is killed in a terrible accident in Book One of the series.  Amy is helped in running the horse farm by her older sister, her grandfather, and a young hired hand named Ty. It is clear, though, that it's Amy’s talent with horses that keeps the horse farm in business.

In “Taking Chances,” Ben, the son of the rich owner of a competing horse farm, comes to Heartland to learn Amy’s approach to retraining horses that have been mistreated.  Even though Ben’s mother is paying for his time at Heartland, Ben is supposed to be working as a stable hand.  He doesn’t pull his weight in working around the stables, and, in other ways, causes trouble between Amy and the usually friendly and hard-working Ty. 

For young readers that like to read about horses, teen-age romance, and the resolving of conflicts – all in one little book – this is the book for them.  Reviews of the first two books in the series, “Coming Home” and “After the Storm”, can be found in the June 2000 issue of Young Saint Louis.com.
 
 

Start out with a thirteen-year-old loner named “Grady Jacobs.”  Make him a genius who has been grand champion for two years running in the National Science Fair.  Also make him a wisecracking smart alec. He uses his wit to protect himself against the fact that he is not accepted by his classmates, who tend to be older than he is. At the beginning of the book, he is being terrorized by a couple of bullies at school who resent his being so much smarter than they are. 

Grady’s work in plant biology has brought him to the attention of the world famous researcher, Dr. Carter.  Carter is engaged in research to restore the tropical rain forests in Brazil. Carter hears of Grady’s science fair research and offers him a short-term chance to work with the Brazilian research team.  Grady travels deep into the jungles of Brazil only to find out that Dr. Carter expected to be hiring a helper who was much older than thirteen years of age. 

Grady finds himself in a situation where he must use all of his talents and intellect just to survive.  In addition, he finds out that Dr. Carter is a mad scientist who really is going to destroy the tropical rain forests, rather than save them.  The trees he is planting are poisonous and ultimately will completely upset the ecosystem. What can a thirteen-year-old do in such a situation?

A knowledge of science and computers plays a part in this story.  However, it is Grady’s sense of humor and his falling into one implausible adventure after another that makes the book as much fun as a roller coaster ride.