Books like Grover Cleveland, Again! — picked by fans

I have been fascinated with American Presidents since I was ten and visited the Hall of Presidents attraction at Disney World years ago. That one visit opened my mind to American History and sealed my fate as a collector of American History facts. Later in life, I turned into an author of middle grade and young adult, but I knew I’d have to write a book on Presidential facts. I am glad to say that it was a well-received book in libraries and schools and I encourage young readers and hopeful writers in schools to consider writing as a passion and to teach others in the written word about that one thing they are into more than anything else. 

I have been fascinated with American Presidents since I was ten and visited the Hall of Presidents attraction at Disney World years ago. That one visit opened my mind to American History and sealed my fate as a collector of American History facts. Later in life, I turned into an author of middle grade and young adult, but I knew I’d have to write a book on Presidential facts. I am glad to say that it was a well-received book in libraries and schools and I encourage young readers and hopeful writers in schools to consider writing as a passion and to teach others in the written word about that one thing they are into more than anything else. 

I have been fascinated with American Presidents since I was ten and visited the Hall of Presidents attraction at Disney World years ago. That one visit opened my mind to American History and sealed my fate as a collector of American History facts. Later in life, I turned into an author of middle grade and young adult, but I knew I’d have to write a book on Presidential facts. I am glad to say that it was a well-received book in libraries and schools and I encourage young readers and hopeful writers in schools to consider writing as a passion and to teach others in the written word about that one thing they are into more than anything else. 

I have been fascinated with American Presidents since I was ten and visited the Hall of Presidents attraction at Disney World years ago. That one visit opened my mind to American History and sealed my fate as a collector of American History facts. Later in life, I turned into an author of middle grade and young adult, but I knew I’d have to write a book on Presidential facts. I am glad to say that it was a well-received book in libraries and schools and I encourage young readers and hopeful writers in schools to consider writing as a passion and to teach others in the written word about that one thing they are into more than anything else. 

I’ve always been fascinated by power and how people use it. From the time I was tiny, I’ve loved reading about how people left their fingerprint on history, and boy, do presidents leave their mark. Given these interests, it’s unsurprising that I’ve been my career this far examining how early presidents crafted the executive branch. The president’s oversized role in American life is also at the heart of my podcast work (I cohost The Past, The Promise, The Presidency with the Center for Presidential History at Southern Methodist University. Each season we explore a different element of the presidency and its relationship to history). In my future scholarship, I plan to continue this exploration long after George Washington left office. Stay tuned for more, and in the meantime enjoy these great reads!

I love kids' books that humanize historical figures, including our former presidents and first ladies. Extra points for texts that have fresh approaches, lots of lesser-known facts, and a few sentences about social context! Children need a realistic, detailed view of our country’s past leaders and the times they lived in. Writing truthful, inspirational stories is my job, as an author of nonfiction for young people. My books have won several state and national awards, including the PEN Steven Kroll Award for Picture Book Writing, the Jane Addams Book Award, and the SCBWI Golden Kite Award for Nonfiction (Younger Readers). 

I was born in a dormitory town in Kent that serves London, but was brought up in the Midland city of Birmingham. I was an avid reader from my early days and much enjoyed espionage novels of that period, as depicted by Geoffrey Household and Eric Ambler. I was in the insurance industry for 35 years, and have woven stories around insurance investigators who became involved in situations by virtue of a routine investigation that inadvertently uncovered criminal or international activities.

I love kids' books that humanize historical figures, including our former presidents and first ladies. Extra points for texts that have fresh approaches, lots of lesser-known facts, and a few sentences about social context! Children need a realistic, detailed view of our country’s past leaders and the times they lived in. Writing truthful, inspirational stories is my job, as an author of nonfiction for young people. My books have won several state and national awards, including the PEN Steven Kroll Award for Picture Book Writing, the Jane Addams Book Award, and the SCBWI Golden Kite Award for Nonfiction (Younger Readers). 

When I was 16 years old, my father, Burton Kaufman, who is also a historian, took me to the Jimmy Carter Library in Georgia to help him research a book on America's thirty-ninth president. Having had a love of history since the sixth grade, that trip deepened my desire to major in History in college and teach it as a profession. It also made me interested in learning more about the presidency, starting with Carter. Several years ago, I edited a series of essays on both the Ford and Carter presidencies, and realized there was need for an in-depth political biography of our thirty-eighth chief executive. The result was my book on Ford.

During my decades in the corporate world, I traveled extensively and spent months in England, where I became a devoted Anglophile. I am privileged to have met Queen Elizabeth II and Philip, and to have attended a knighting at Westminster. English history fascinates me, but so do gripping spy thrillers occurring in European and Middle Eastern settings. There’s nothing better than finishing a satisfying first book in a series—fiction or not--and deciding to ration the remaining ones so you can savor the experience a little longer!