DK Eyewitness Books: Presidents: Explore the Lives of the Presidents Who Shaped American History from the Founding Fathers to Today's Leaders

DK Eyewitness Books

by James G. Barber

An informative and visual guide to America's highest office, this DK Eyewitness book explores the history of the White House and the presidents who have served in it, and features a spread about the nation's 45th president, Donald Trump.

Follow the early lives and political careers of the US presidents and see how they came into office, with full-color photographs of campaign memorabilia, family portraits, handwritten letters, mementos, and more. Discover how Abraham Lincoln saved the Union, why teddy bears are named after Theodore Roosevelt, and how Thomas Jefferson doubled the size of the nation with the Louisiana Purchase.

Flip to the reference section in DK Eyewitness Books: Presidents to learn even more fun facts. Read iconic speeches, including Ronald Reagan's Evil Empire speech, John F. Kennedy's inaugural address, Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, and Washington's farewell address. Learn about presidential libraries and homes, national parks, Mount Rushmore, and Washington, DC.

Now revised and updated and available for the first time in paperback, DK Eyewitness Books: Presidents looks at key players, political events, and historic moments throughout each president's term. Learn how each commander in chief led the United States through war, political turmoil, and times of peace with full-page spreads and easy-to-understand information about America's history.

Each revised Eyewitness book retains the stunning artwork and photography from the groundbreaking original series, but the text has been reduced and reworked to speak more clearly to younger readers. Still on every colorful page: vibrant annotated photographs and the integrated text-and-pictures approach that makes Eyewitness a perennial favorite of parents, teachers, and school-age kids.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Politics, Reference, American History, Biography, Science

72 pages, Paperback

First published February 23, 2000

Reviews

[kian · Rating 3 out of 5]

با بچه خواهرم امروز با هم خوندیم.. یه صفحه من. یه صفحه اون :)

خیلی خوب بود...

[Philip · Rating 3 out of 5]

NOVEMBER 2024 UPDATE: Well...#@!$.

ORIGINAL REVIEW: I'm apparently getting addicted to these EYEWITNESS books, as I'm reading some on topics where I only have so-so interest. But this one was actually a lot more interesting than I expected. Turns out I knew NOTHING about almost half our president, so now have at least 1-2 factoids on hand for all my Harrisons, Tylers, Hardings and Fillmores. Plus, the various nicknames were fun; I already knew "Old Rough and Ready," "Honest Abe" and "Tricky Dick," but had never heard of "His Rotundity," "Handsome Frank," "His Accidency," "the Little Magician," "His Fraudulency" and "Old Veto."

Some of the obvious bigshots get four pages here, while most of the rest either get a single spread of are even ganged up with a coupla other lesser lights:



I have to note that as I was getting towards the very end, I was actually surprised for a second when I turned the page and suddenly saw this:



…since I had to remind myself, "oh right, he ACTUALLY WAS PRESIDENT." But then I felt better seeing this on the next page:



…and when I then went back and actually read the text, it was reassuring to note that their comments on Trump included: "frequently tweeted that accurate news stories were 'fake news';" "his handling of the pandemic was widely criticized for ignoring scientific recommendations;" "he denied climate science relating to wildfires;" and "another policy saw young children separated from their families." Meanwhile, they note that Biden "offered calm, compassion and experience to an America weary of controversies."

Can't wait now for the new new edition, where hopefully Kamala gets more than a VP photo on the Biden page!

PRODUCTION NOTE: Kudos to DK's production team here — there is almost nothing more difficult in printing than running an outline around endless two-page spreads, as in the photos above. Without getting too technical, anywhere from 4-16 book pages are printed on a single large sheet of paper and then folded, bound and trimmed, with the inner pages actually being a bit shorter than those around it (makes sense if you think about it) — and so to keep an outline like this straight and centered ON EVERY PAGE is nearly impossible, (trust me, I know: before I really grasped this, I designed one cool-but-ridiculous-to-produce hotel brochure in Taiwan that nearly put us out of business, we had to reprint it so many times). So while I'm not a huge fan overall of the latest DK redesign which (among other changes) does away with this outline, I can certainly understand why they chose to drop it!

[Bernie Ideker · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was perfect for reading the highlights of each president, both good and bad.

[Amirreza Safavinejad · Rating 4 out of 5]

یکی از کتاب های خوبی که می توان با آن تاریخ آمریکا را شروع کرد، دانشنامه مصور روسای جمهور آمریکاست . پر از عکس و خلاصه ای از وقایع خاص دوران هر رییس جمهور . گرچه این کتاب متاسفانه دارای تاریخ انقضاست ! چون فقط تا دونالد ترامپ پیش آمده و خب . . . روسای جمهور بعدی را ندارد . پس تا موقعی که ترامپ رییس جمهور هست، می توان ادعا کرد که این کتاب، کتاب کامل و جامعی است . دلایل رای آوردن هر رییس جمهور، مسایل سیاسی داخلی آمریکا و آنچه که می تواند برای یک آمریکایی درباره تاریخ کشورش جالب باشد، در این کتاب آمده است . تصاویر مربوط به اشیاء، روزنامه ها و پوسترهای قدیمی هم از دیگر موارد جذاب کننده کتاب است . و البته باید اشاره کرد که نویسنده ی کتاب، آمریکایی است و آنچنان به سیاست خارجه پرحاشیه آمریکا نپرداخته است . این کتاب را یک نفس در 8/4/1397 ، دو ساعت پس از پایان کنکور شروع به خواندن کردم و در 5 ساعت تمام کردم .

[Ben Kahn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well written, up-to-date book about the presidents of the United States. Not all is shared in this short synopsis, however, the important things are mentioned. It did feel a little bit like revisionist history as I read through it, but that’s just the way things are these days. I did learn a lot.

[Dane Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Title: Presidents
Series: Eyewitness Books
Author: James G. Barber
Reading Level: ZZ
Guided Reading: 9
Traits: Organization Using the details. The details create pictures in the reader’s mind and are plentiful from beginning to end. The writer’s knowledge about and/or experience with the topic is evident through the use of accurate details, credible information, and believable anecdote. The book has been organized by succession but also related different Presidents through out time. The book includes lots of biographical details.

Presidents is a nonfiction informational text that includes lots of pictures, cool organizing tricks and somehow is still text heavy. The reading level is high for elementary students but because there are somany tidbits that fit multiple reading levels that the frustrsation level remains low even for students in lower grades. I decided to include this book along with a few others of the eyewitness series because even though some of the reading is above level for many of our students, it remains popular. This text would also be a wonderful resource dor reserach because it includes lots of biographical detailds about the Presidents and their many accomplisshments over our history.

[Dan Castrigano · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stuff I Learned: 4 deaths, 4 assassinations, 1 resignation; Van Buren is the 8th president because "Van Buren" has 8 letters in it; John Tyler is known as "His Accidency" because he was the first one who took over after William Henry Harrison; There were 3 Civil War Union general presidents in a row: Grant, Hayes, Harding; Buchanan was the only bachelor.

[Jason Freng · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty easy read with good context for each of the presidencies thus far.

The section on Biden written during his term and the section on Trump's first term will need to be rewritten and that can improve this book. Doesn't mention Trump's impeachments somehow. Does mention Trump getting COVID which is a keeper for the next go around for sure.

[Sandy Carmichael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting facts around all the presidents up to and including Trump.

[Susie Shircliff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hated the ending

[R.a. · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars


“You get what you pay for . . .”
So, the saying goes . . .

And, these days, the commoner gets less, it seems,
ensuring that money for profit,
always flows.

So, when a true bargain appears, how can it not delight?

And, this little presidential picture book simply is that:
a delight.

Although it appears to be a book for children / young adults, the NC 1080 Lexile level of Presidents testifies to its sophisticated prose and consequently reveals it to be a book
for all ages.

With a blurb-sized narrative for each president, author Barber also presents a historical journey through United States history via photographs and captions which accompany each presidential entry. Major events, too, receive individual blurb-sized narratives.

Although deeper explications of the darker sides of various administrations seem wanting, this little book nevertheless reviews the major events and controversies of each president within his time.

The accompanying visual CD provides .jpeg files for printing and viewing, though the images are duplicates from the hard copy text. Particularly wonderful, though, is the listing of additional resources and websites presented at the end.

This “modest” little tome, then, becomes a “quick” reference to the presidents, events, and
a surveying arc to United States history.

A delightful, quick read that spurs a desire for more.

[Debra Millan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book provides biographical facts regarding the first 42 American Presidents. Information provided within the text includes; general facts regarding their upbringing, family, political campaigns, contributions, national and world events, national climate during their term, and any scandals they were associated with. Information regarding each President is presented over one to three pages. Factual information is broken down and presented in small blocks. Accompanying the informational text is an array of images including; photographs, campaign material, maps, cartoons, and other images of artifacts relating to the President. The emphasis on pictures makes this book accessible for younger readers and an excellent way to capture reader attention.

[Elly Squire · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a great informational book and I learned a lot about our past US presidents. It had a main blurb about each president, but the sides of every page had facts about their families, campaigns, and lives. There were also tons of pictures, and most of them were pictures of the real artifacts which can mostly be found in the Smithsonian museums in DC. I found this book very interesting and loved learning more about the men who have led our country.

[Shelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has a nice collection of information on each of the U.S. Presidents in chronological order with several images of actual products, documents, campaign posters and memorabilia that match up well with the corresponding text. I would recommend having this book in any household or classroom for quick reference when curious about who was president during a time in history or for an addition resource on the topic.

[Brittany White · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a great component of any classroom- no matter the grade. With information and pictures for each of the American presidents, the book serves to assist any lesson! We have been using it in my 5th grade class as an accompaniment to our Social Studies lessons to give the kids background information about the presidents during each time period we have studied.

[Markesha Mccombs · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great informational text of past presidents. Every fact that a child may need to know for a report, lesson, etc... will be in this book. The book contained presidents starting from George Washington to Bill Clinton.

[Angie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love these books! Really informative and fun!

[Kristin B · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good introduction to each of the presidents- provides interesting facts to pull in students and a totally neat-o poster!

[Ebookwormy1 · Rating 3 out of 5]

A solid reference that is full of engaging illustrations and pictures typical of the DK style. The narratives are brief and standard presidential fare. Recommended.

[Natasha Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Weighing over 300 pounds, William H. Taft was the largest president. A special bathtub had to be installed for him as the White House”. (pg 36) This Eyewitness edition features facts and photographs of all 45 presidents. Although our country is without a president for the next 4 years *joke* this children’s encyclopedia allows children to learn about our past leaders.

I give Eyewitness: Presidents 3 stars because it is an encyclopedia so it is boring in content but the author doesn't phrase the facts in a way that loses my attention. I am a little disappointed in the Obama page but I realized this book came out before he had his second term. Still, I think it is important to know that one of his daughters goes by a nickname. This makes me question all other facts presented. The author also mentioned that his father was a “black African from Kenya” but the author could eliminate the “African" or the “Black” in the statement and have it still mean the same. Aside from that, I was shocked to see that multiple presidents died on July 4. Two presidents died on the exact same day, another died 5 years later. Another shocker within this book came when I saw multiple pictures of historical documents, none of which I can read due to tiny font size, but the fact that they are there does more than just mentioning their existence.

As a future teacher this book, like any encyclopedia, is a great way to introduce a new way to receive information. We are so quick to jump to Google to find information but I think children need to master the skill of reading to find answers.