George W. Bush: Our Forty-Third President

by Beatrice Gormley

Book Overview

President George W. Bush once said, "I never dreamed about becoming president. When I was growing up, I wanted to be Willie Mays." George W. was born in 1946 and attended Yale University. As a young... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1481446460
• ISBN13: 9781481446464
• Release Date: March 2017
• Publisher: Aladdin Paperbacks
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.1" x 7.6"
• Age Range: 8 to 12 years
• Grade Range: Grades 3 to 7

Customer Reviews

A lesson for kids on Strength and Courage

The attacks of September 11th changed America ! President Bush declared war on terrorism and the advance of human freedom the priorities of his Administration. The United States military has liberated the people of Iraq from the brutal regime. Thousands of terrorists have been captured and operations have been stopped. In the President's words, "our Nation - this generation - will lift a dark threat of violence from our people and our future. We will rally the world to this cause by our efforts, by our courage. We will not tire, we will not falter, and we will not fail."

Great Book!

I really enjoyed the book. It tells of President Bush's whole life. I liked the photos of his childhood. When he was three he had his picture taken on a horse. I am a fourth grade student and I love to read. This was a fun book. I did a book report on it. Get it!Rachel

Great for adults and kids, everyone should own a copy

If you are looking for a book that you can use for your kids' social studies extra credit and your own cocktail party banter, this is the easy read you need. Want to be current on all the little Presidential family tidbits without spending a lot of time plowing through the family history and heavy details? I read A Charge to Keep and some of the other Bush Family tomes, but I really enjoyed this one and my 7th grader grabbed some quick end of quarter extra points toward her "A" by learning about our current Prez.

From party boy to president

Virtually all some people know about our new president is that he was once a party animal; they have very little idea of what he did throughout his life, before he became the governer of Texas -- then the president.It starts at the birth of George W. Bush and chronicles his childhood; a pretty happy one, it seems, marred only by the death of his sister Robin from leukemia. Some attention is paid to George Sr., with relatively little on Jeb and Barbara. The books follows George (called "Georgie" early on) through college and into his moderately successful oil business (when oil was bad, he did poorly; when it was good, he did okay); also into his marriage with smart, serene Laura Welch and the birth of their daughters.Then we go into Bush's entry into politics, where he was running for governer of Texas against a popular candidate. He won by grace toward his apparently shrewish opponent and pleasant charm towards others. Then we shift into the most noticeable of all George W. Bush's actions: running for president of the United States, in the biggest election fiasco of all time.This book is probably the closest thing to an impartial biography that we'll get, simply because the author usually just states the facts and very little else; there is no delving into Bush's mind or analyzation of his actions. We see him bob up and down, with problems and semi-solutions like any other human being.At the same time, we get a clearer view of George W. Bush. We see his fierce loyalty to his father, caring for his wife and daughters, his overcoming of his party days and drinking for both faith and family. We also have some endearing quotes from the man himself: "When I was growing up, I wanted to be Willie Mays." Unlike many bios, this does not have a centerpiece of color glossies. The photos are black and white and printed straight onto the page, so they are sometimes a little too dark and not quite as good as newspaper photos. Some readers may groan when they reach the near-end of the book, when we hear about the nightmarish 2000 election. But Gormley manages to keep it interesting enough that you won't flip to the end, with an explanation of the voting system and why it is the way it is; she doesn's assume that people know these things. Even if you're sick to death of the 2000 elections and the word "chad" you may want to read it. The only thing that could have improved the book can't be helped, as it was finished before the event: coverage of the attack on the US and Bush's response to it.This book is 9-12, but the info on GWB is good for any age, especially as regards the relative impartiality of it. Definitely worth a read.