The Look-It-Up Book of First Ladies (Look-It-Up Books)

Rating:
Summary: An solid introduction to the lives of our First Ladies
Review: I immediately recognized First Ladies Laura Bush, Eleanor Roosevelt, Jacqueline Kennedy and Hillary Rodham Clinton, and was pleased to discover I was right and the fifth woman pictured was Dolly Madison. "The Look-It-Up Book of First Ladies" takes advantage of the "HISTORIC Election 2000" which not only added the wife of the forty-third president to the list of First Ladies but saw the then current First Lady elected to the U.S. Senate. From Martha Dandridge Custis Washington to Laura Welch Bush this book talks about the lives of each First Lady with special attention what they actually did while in the White House. Most people know about the First Ladies pictures on the front and those who have been in the White House during their own lifetime. But the chief asset of this book may well be to introduced young readers to First Ladies of the past who deserve their admiration as well, such as Abigail Adams, Julia Dent Grant, and Edith Bolling Galt Wilson. No matter what you already know about some of these First Ladies you will probably learn something new (we have all learned Clinton's maiden name was Rodham, so who remembers her middle name is Diane?). S. A. Kramer's book is illustrated with engravings, paintings and photographs of the First Ladies and their husbands, families and activities. "The Look-It-Up Book of First Ladies" has a foreward by former First Lady Rosalynn Carter that speaks eloquently of the role that unique position occupies in this country. My only complaint with the book is that since it is organized chronologically but without an index, it is, ironically, difficult to just look up things like which First Lady saved the original Declaration of Independence, taught her husband to read and write, or held the first press conference. I like indexes. Indexes are our friends.