Basher History: US Presidents: Oval Office All-Stars (Basher History) by Simon Basher

Basher History: US Presidents: Oval Office All-Stars (Basher History) Reviews

• 
  Jon Nakapalau

  What a fun book! Just enough information for children to look into the presidents that they are interested in learning more about.
• 
  The Reading Countess

  I'm a sucker for the "Hey, do you know who..." kind of stump-your-teacher/fellow party goers kind of trivia that holds people captive. I've got boys at home, after all. Oval Office All-Stars is sure to please that kind of crowd.
  
  Excellent example of how nonfiction text can be combed through for areas of interest, or cover-to-cover (as I did), US Presidents will be sure to keep the attention of even the most diverted reader. Who can resist knowing which president was the first to go in an undersea submarine (Teddy Roosevelt), or who was the last president to teach himself to read (Andrew Johnson)?
  Highly recommended.
• 
  Terry

  I thought the format was excellent with facts, cartoon type art, and interesting tidbits about each president. The art will draw in young readers, but the great content will keep them reading. The first person approach is unique for a book of this type.
  
  To read our full review, go to
  The Reading Tub®.
• 
  Alice Rachel

  Very bad humor making it sound like all the presidents did positive things. A sense of humor meant for adults as children cannot begin to understand it without context. Awful book.
• 
  Sue

  I hated it, and it's too bad: it had potential. I detested the humor. One does not refer to all the presidents as "smarty pants" or a "squirt". This author had a derisive name to call everyone, or his actions or his characteristics.
  
  I wasn't about to waste my time pointing them all out. Basher History? Bad idea. ugh
• 
  Jenna

  I am in love with this book! It boasts wonderful features like a quote from each president, fun facts in easy-to-read bullets, the number and years of each president's presidency, and the cutest illustrations that young and old students are sure to love. In the back of the book there is a photo gallery of each president with additional facts on each (birth/death dates, first ladies, vice presidents, political party) as well as a glossary and index. In the front is a brief rundown on the White House.
  
  I think this book would be great in the classroom as a read aloud leading up to President's Day. It would also be a great text to use for identifying text features like glossaries and indexes. It would be a great go-to for US social studies units to get a brief introduction to the president(s) at any given time. Or a teacher could simply choose to pick a president of the week throughout the school year for students to learn about.
• 
  J

  It's a quick, cute, and easy read about our presidents. Nice to get some perspective and realize that the problems we face today are all problems of history too. Questionable and unpopular presidents, they all had a role in shaping the present United States of America to what it is today.
• 
  Amit

  Sort of the book you must always have on a flight.
  A nice and easy, trivia filled read on the most powerful office and its occupants for over two centuries. Without burdening the reader on history and events, the book is replete with humour, lesser known facts and superb sketch work.
• 
  Amy

  What a FUN book about our U.S. Presidents. Chalk full of interesting facts and a little humorous facts added for each President. Will and I read this one together. I’ve definitely learned some things I never knew before and Will pushed through some challenging vocabulary.
• 
  Karen

  My son loves this book because of the entertaining writing and the quirky illustrations. I love this book because he is learning History -- for fun.
• 
  Juliana Lee

  Quick one page synopsis of each of the 45 presidents of the United States of America written in first person. Simple facts, interesting quirks, and the 'Basher History' slant, followed by a quote from each man. For example:
  "Like Humpty Dumpty, when I fell, no one could put me back together again." (R-R.Nixon)
  "When I bungled the rescue of U.S. hostages in Iran, people decided they'd had enough of me." (D-J. Carter)
  "Well, they didn't call me the 'Teflon president' for nothing - dirt just didn't stick to me." (R-R. Reagan)
  "I was impeached and although I was acquitted, my reputation paid a price." (D- B. Clinton)
  
  Find out for yourself what he says about D-B. Obama and R-D. Trump.
• 
  Amy

  This book presents each of our 44 U.S. Presidents in a different light (from normal). The layout is fabulous! For each president, the reader is given his formal name, his number, i.e. 17th President, and the years he served.
  
  Underneath are three (3) formal facts about the president, a couple of paragraphs about the president told from that president's point of view, in a more relaxed version of the English language. For example, let's look at Grover Cleveland, the 22nd and 24th president. "I was a man of great conviction -- a bit punchy and a bit paunchy, but I always told the truth."
  
  At the bottom of the page are three (3) QUIRKY facts about the president. For this example, let's look at Herbert Hoover, the 31st President (1929-1933). He was the first president to give his salary away (JFK did, too), he was the last Republican president for 20 years, he was the only president who was fluent in Mandarin Chinese.
  
  On the opposite page, is an illustration of that president in a way that shows him best. For example with Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President (1933-1945), we see him in a wheelchair with fire behind him, holding little American flags in both hands, with a radio mic near his mouth, and a radio (much like you saw in the 30's and 40's) on a small table next to him. Roosevelt was known for addressing the American people via radio in his "Fireside Chats."
  
  Underneath the illustration is a quote by that president. For example, James K. Polk, 11th President (1845-1849) said "No president who performs his duties faithfully and conscientiously can have any leisure."
  
  At the end of the book is a section entitled "Portrait Gallery". Here, the presidents are shown in chronological order, along with their official "presidential" black & white photo, when & where they were born, when & where they died (if applicable), their political party (George Washington's is listed as None), the name and years served of their vice president, the name and birth and death (if applicable) dates of their spouse(s).
• 
  Stephanie

  Priming ourselves for the upcoming election, I bought The Kid another Basher book and she loved it so much that she took it to school, she shared presidential trivia with strangers at Wal-Mart...she asked why there wasn't a book about 1st ladies (surely, there is one somewhere, right Basher?).
  
  I love that this book has a caricature of each president and that we could use that as a jumping off place to guess what each one was known for, I also love that the book talks about both the professional and private life of each man and that at the end there's a list of each with their terms in office, VP and so on with their White House portrait.
  
  Very cool book! :)
• 
  Anna

  I am collecting books for my activities this summer with the grandsons. We are going to learn about money and U. S. Presidents.
  
  This book is really fun. The presidents are presented in a fun way, with caricatures and important as well as interesting or odd facts. At the end of the book, there are real pictures of each president.
  
  The book is up to date, with 2012 election results and includes a removable wall poster.
• 
  Shelli

  This is a quick peek into the lives and administrations of each of the 43 men who were the president. A fun way to add to your random knowledge, or reinforce what has already been learned; a nice addition to any school library or classroom.
• 
  Abraham Ray

  nice childrens book about the presidents
• 
  Danielle

  Really cute pictures and interesting facts at the presidents.
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  Shelley

  Has a little first person bio page for each president. Cute.
• 
  Kathy Eiferle

  My son was excited to learn about the presidents because of this book. Nice layout, just enough description.
• 
  Adam

  A very interesting quick read for anybody that wants to know more about little tidbits of information about the presidents. More of a quick read.
• 
  Rebekah

  Enjoyed the overview this gives of each leader. Includes the good done as well as the bad choices and what the public thought of them. A good place to start to look more into US history.
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  PottWab Regional Library

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• 
  Karen

  My son loves these books, and learns from them. This particular book, however, is not one of my favorites. The humor seems to cross over to irreverence.
• 
  Kari

  The genre for this nonfiction book could be any of the following: biography, history, and creative nonfiction. The book is a biography about each of the presidents, history about the past, and is written in a creative way. The target audience for this book would be middle school (grades 5th and 6th) because this is the prime time that students start to learn about the presidents and the writing is more developed.
  
  I chose to pair "US Presidents: Oval Office All-Stars" with the fiction book called "The Kid Who Ran For President". This fiction has a lot of important information on how presidents are elected and what they do in office, but is fiction because it is based on the fiction story line. I think these two books go together well because after learning about the presidents and what the did in office, it would be fun and exciting for the students to read the fiction book and relate the two together.