Martin Van Buren: Our Eighth President (Spirit of America: Our Presidents) [Large Print] [Library Binding]

Steven Ferry (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 9 and up | Grade Level: 4 and up | Series: Spirit of America: Our Presidents

A thorough, illustrated biography discussing the president's childhood, his career, his family, and his term as President of the United States. Includes a time line and glossary.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 4-6-Presidential biography becomes more accessible with these appealing volumes. An uncluttered layout, large-type font, and high-quality illustrations invite children to delve into each page. Oil portraits and photographs capture each man's likeness at various stages of his life, while period paintings, posters, maps, and political cartoons provide the social and political backdrop of the United States as he knew it. The authors discuss the people and events that shaped each individual before and during his presidency, and they establish his impact on the office as well as on the nation. Frequent sidebars of "Interesting Facts" are just as engaging and informative as the main text. All three books contain a page of presidential facts and a chronological listing of all of our nation's leaders with thumbnail portraits, birthplace, term of office, life span, party affiliation, and First Lady. These are worthy alternatives to titles in the "United States Presidents" series (ABDO/Checkerboard), which are notable for their basic texts but are narrower in scope.
William McLoughlin, Brookside School, Worthington, OH
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9 and up
  
• Library Binding: 48 pages
• Publisher: Child's World (August 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1567668372
• ISBN-13: 978-1567668377
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 7.7 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,965,464 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

There's a lot that has been written in this world, and some of it by Steven Ferry.

He has a command of the language that can be laid squarely at the door of the English schools that did their best to suffer his presence, and the forthrightness learned in the Americas in which he has lived most of his adult life.

The result: about twenty books and hundreds of articles on no matter what subject or genre, although most of it intended to educate and enlighten entertainingly, rather than entertain alone.

He travels much but is still based in Florida with his wife of many years, where he continues to bang away on his MacBook Pro.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The troubled one-term presidency of Martin Van Buren, October 22, 2003

By 

Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Martin Van Buren: Our Eighth President (Spirit of America: Our Presidents) (Library Binding)

Martin Van Buren's political fortunes are certainly tied to his support of Andrew Jackson. Van Buren managed Jackson's 1828 presidential campaign and although he was elected governor of New York that same year he only served 71 days before "Old Hickory" named him secretary of state. Jackson also appointed Van Buren minister to Great Britain and eventually made him his running mate in the 1832 election. Consequently, when Jackson declined to run for a third term it was Van Buren that he supported as the Democratic nominee. However, Steven Ferry sets the stage for Van Buren's troubled presidency by establishing in the start of this juvenile biography that in terms of political philosophy the 8th President of the United States was raised on the principles of Thomas Jefferson, primarily in placing power in the hands of the citizens and in limiting the powers of the Federal government.

This volume in the Our Presidents series does a nice job of characterizing each stage in Van Buren's life and political career, starting with his early years as The Young Politician. Ferry then develops his rise in Democratic-Republican politics as The Red Fox of Kinderhook, showing him to be a shrewd but principled politician (there is a choice political cartoon showing Van Buren as an opossum who carries other politicians in his pouch). This second chapter covers a lot of ground, from being elected to the New York state senate in 1820 to being elected president in 1836.

This allows Ferry to devote the last two chapters of this juvenile biography to Van Buren's term in the White House and his rather interesting career after leaving office. Ferry presents President Van Buren as The Careful Dutchman, who never made quick decisions but whose careful approach to leadership proved detrimental when the nation entered a depression. This book does a better job of covering the key issues and problems of Van Buren's term in the White House than it does his early political career. The final chapter, Standing Firm, covers his failed re-election bid and his 1848 campaign for the Free Soil Party, which opposed slavery.

As is the case with these Our Presidents volumes, this look at Martin Van Buren has informative sidebars in each chapter about key topics such as the Peggy Eaton Affair and the Second Bank. The margins usually have Interesting Facts about the life and times of Van Buren and the back of the book has a Time Line and four pages of Glossary Terms. Illustrated with mostly historic pantings, etchings and political cartoons, the strength of this volume is the chapter covering Van Buren's trouble term in the White House. While not the most informative juvenile biography of Van Buren, it does provide young readers with the basics of his life and political career.