It didn’t take Aladdin Paperbacks, a subsidiary of Simon and Schuster, very long to get out a biography of our newly installed president.  Titled “President George W. Bush, Our forty-third President,” the 160 page book is billed as the first children’s biography of the new president.  The back cover claims “coverage of the historic 2000 election” along with “up-to-the-minute information, photos, and quotes.”

If an adult can put aside any cynical suspicion that it seems a bit like a campaign biography, the little book is interesting to read and discloses considerable background information about George W and his famous family.  The author, Beatrice Gormley, makes an honest effort to focus on early events in George W’s life. This focus would help children identify with a son who would grow up in his father’s shadow, yet go on to become a popular governor of a large state, and, in an incredibly short period of time, the president of the United States.  The point is not lost that George W gained the high office that his father had lost just eight years earlier. 

The author presents what appears to be an objective reporting of George W’s life and an even-handed treatment of the bitterly contested election.  The writing is no more “sanitized” than that of any biographical account of a public figure’s life that is intended for children’s reading.  The book provides social studies background on a figure that will be in the public eye for the next four years and, possibly, the next eight.

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“Odd Moments in Sports” is not great literature nor does it have an enduring message that we would want all children to hear.  It does, however, present a series of short vignettes that just about anyone interested in sports would find entertaining. 

For a parent who wants a sports fanatic son to find something to involve him in reading a book, ”Odd Moments in Sports” may help meet that need.  It’s another one of those books that is non-threatening because it calls for just a little reading to get the point of a story or two, and then it can be put down to pick up later. Since the stories are often hilarious and can be retold like popular jokes, the young reader is likely to pick it up and read it until the stories run out. 

The inexpensive paperback is authored by Joel Cohen and illustrated by Tom Payne.  The publisher is Scholastic, Inc.  The publisher reported readability is 4th grade level. 

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Publishers obviously know that many girls like to read stories about horses.  Large numbers of such books can be found in the intermediate books for children section of bookstores. “Taking Chances” is the fourth title in a four book series of such books. The theme of this “Heartland” series of books is “Healing horses, healing hearts...”

The “Heartland” books are recent and are better written than some of the series that have been around for awhile.  The tone is serious.  This is not a light, frothy series of stories.  The main characters are highly principled and set a good example for young readers. In that regard they certainly differ from today’s TV soap opera characters. 

The publisher reports a fifth grade level of readability for the books.  In interest, they would be involving for girls from about eleven to fourteen. They might be just what’s needed for that girl who seems to be resisting some of the books pushed at school for recreational reading. 

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This book would appeal to the kid who likes to identify with academically proficient heroes rather than sports figures.  “Green Thumb” was written by Rob Thomas and published by Aladdin Paperbacks, a subsidiary of Simon and Schuster, in 1999.  Rob Thomas, according to the author information provided, is a television and screenplay writer, as well as author of four previous books. “Green Thumb” certainly qualifies him as an action/adventure writer.

As indicated in the kids’ review, the hero of “Green Thumb” is a thirteen-year-old science genius named “Grady Jacobs”, who is caught in a world between his young peers and the adults who are trying to cope with his intellectually gifted status.  Because of his visibility as a two-time National Science Fair winner, Grady ends up in the Brazilian rain forest, recruited by a world famous plant researcher named Dr. Carter, for a summer research fellowship.  Dr. Carter and his other assistants had expected a young adult rather than a thirteen-year-old kid.  Grady tries hard to prove himself as mature enough to do the work expected.  In doing his job, he finds out that Dr. Carter’s work at restoring the tropical rain forest is not only counterproductive, but also dangerous to all wild life in the forest. 

Grady has encounters with the native inhabitants of the rain forest, some of whom prove to be his allies, while others are bent on killing him with poisoned darts from their blowguns. . Brady makes use of his talent with computers to uncover some of the data that Dr. Carter is trying to hide.  He also conducts his own research on the side to learn how to communicate with plants. It is his newly acquired ability to communicate with plants that ends up saving him from the villains. 

“Green Thumb” is just the book for that young reader who tends to march to a different drummer than most of his peer group.

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