This is the year of political conventions for the Republicans and the Democrats.  The country is getting ready for another presidential election.  It’s a good time to think about past campaigns and the presidents who served since our country began.  A new book has just been published that can help bring those past presidents to life for us. 

“Presidents,” was written by James Barber in association with the Smithsonian Institution.  It is a 64-page book containing brief biographies of all the presidents from George Washington to William Clinton.  The book is loaded with pictures not only of the presidents but also of campaign buttons and artifacts from each of their presidential campaigns and terms of office. 

At first glance this large and colorful book looks like just another picture book.  It is loaded with pictures. But, in addition, there is a surprising amount of information about each of the 41 presidents and the times in which they served in office. 

Some presidents, such as Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, or the two Roosevelts, are given three or four pages of coverage because of their accomplishments or the major events which occurred while they were in office.  Others, such as Van Buren, Harrison, and Tyler share pages. 

The publisher of the book is the British publisher Dorling Kindersley, which has published other titles in the “Eyewitness Books” series. This publisher has offices in London, England;  Auckland, New Zealand;  Delhi, India;  Johannesburg, South Africa; Munich, Germany;  Paris, France; and Sydney, Australia.  It is interesting to note that kids all around the world may be reading this same book about American presidents. 
 
 

“Bud, Not Buddy” is the story of a 10-year-old boy, who just happens to be African-American, and his growing up during the years of the Great Depression of the 1930’s. 

Bud, as he prefers to be called, lost his mother when he was six years old. He had never known his father.  He had gone back and forth between various foster homes and the orphanage after his mother died. 

She had left an old suitcase with some advertising flyers in them.  The flyers pictured a small group of musicians and featured a bandleader that Bud suspected was his father. 

After being placed in a foster home where he was mistreated, he decided to run away and go looking for his father in a city hundreds of miles away. 

This was a time not too many years ago when money was scarce and people were without jobs.  Men who were out of work were sneaking on freight trains in order to get rides to other parts of the country, where they hoped to find jobs. 

Sometimes, entire families were “riding the rails.” Camps, close to the railroad tracks, where these people banded together were called “Hoovervilles.” These camps were named after the president, Herbert Hoover, who happened to be in office when the country’s economy collapsed.  Bud, during his search for a home of his own, shares life with these desperate people. 

While reading about Bud, the reader learns about a period in history that many older people still remember as part of their actual lives.  “Bud, Not Buddy” was published in 1999 and has won many awards as an excellent book for older children and young adults. 

The author is Christopher Paul Curtis, who grew up in Flint, Michigan, and had worked on an automobile assembly line before becoming an award-winning author.  Published by Delacorte Press, the hardback version of the book sells for $15.95. 
 
 

The amazing popularity of the Harry Potter books has led to a lot of interest in the author of the series.  A  new arrival in the bookstores is “J. K. Rowling, the Wizard Behind Harry Potter,” an unauthorized biography by Marc Shapiro.  Published by St. Martin’s Griffin in August 2000, the 105-page paperback sells for $4.99. 

Shapiro has written other celebrity biographies.  In the front of the book he lists all the sources from which he drew the information presented in this bio.  He brings together details of the early life of Joanne Kathleen (J. K.) Rowling and describes how her childhood experiences led her to come up with the ideas for her Harry Potter books. 

Joanne had enjoyed making up stories to entertain herself and her younger sister from a very early age.  She was an avid reader and kept collections of stories that she had written throughout her pre-teen and teen-age years. 

Even though she wanted to be a writer, she was afraid she could not make a living as an author.  She did office work and, later, became a teacher. 

When she first began writing about Harry Potter, she read parts of it to the same younger sister she had told stories to as a child.  Luckily, her sister, Di, liked the story about the young wizard and laughed at the right times.  Joanne was encouraged to finish the first book about Harry Potter and submit it for publication. 

And now, of course, almost overnight, her books have made her one of the most successful authors in history.  The biography contains a number of photographs of Joanne as she toured Britain and the United States, signing autographs for fans of Harry Potter. 
 
 

This 234-page paperback is an exchange of letters between two girls who have long considered themselves to be best friends.  They are separated as seventh graders when one family moves several hundred miles away.

The girls try to keep their friendship alive through their letter writing.  At the beginning of the correspondence, the family of one of the girls lives in an expensive home with a swimming pool and hired servants. The family of the girl who moves away lives much more modestly.

The girls write about such things as holidays, hobbies, pets, clothes, jewelry, little sisters, boys, and teachers.  But along with all the chatter, family problems unfold and each of the girls tries to cope with quite different sets of problems.

During the period of letter writing, the economic position of the two families does a flip-flop.  The friendship is strained to the breaking point.

The book is titled “P. S. Longer Letter Later.”  Published by Scholastic, Inc., the authors are Paula Danziger and Ann M. Martin.  The price is $4.99.