The Buck Stops Here: The Presidents of the United States

Title: The Buck Stops Here: The Presidents of the United States
Author: Alice Provensen
Informational Nonfiction

     This is an interesting book with many facts about the presidents of the United States, and the version I read was updated through President Bill Clinton's first term.  There is a more current version in publication up through Barrack Obama's current term, however this is the copy I had to read.  It is organized by order of the presidents, and for the majority, each president is displayed on a single page (however a couple have two or even share a page).  There is at least two lines about each president, that includes their name and the number president they are, and it is written in rhyme.  The poem throughout the book stays fairly short, only mentioning one or a couple important characteristics about each president or his presidency.  On the other hand, the drawings are very detailed with much more information.  I found myself spending much more time looking at the pictures and captions learning about each president than it took to read the couple lines of text on the page.  I thought this was a very effective book for children just to give them a brief idea of what happened when each of the forty-two men held office.  In the back of the book, it very neatly goes over each president again, giving more depth of information and explanations of the pictures.  This part of the book is very helpful and full of information.  It also includes a selected bibliography in the back to provide more resources and credit the information used.  I would recommend this to teachers to have in their classrooms of upper elementary students because it is a great and credible reference for the presidents of the United States.