Zachary Taylor: Our Twelfth President (Spirit of America: Our Presidents) [Hardcover]

Carol Brunelli (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
  
• Hardcover: 48 pages
• Publisher: Child's World (August 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1567668364
• ISBN-13: 978-1567668360
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 7.7 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,450,071 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The story of how a career military officer became President, August 13, 2003

By 

Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Zachary Taylor: Our Twelfth President (Spirit of America: Our Presidents) (Hardcover)

Zachary Taylor is one of the most unusual presidents in American history, since he overly served 16 months in office and was elected without having previously served in public office or even having voted in an election. However, young readers will learn from this juvenile biography of the Our Presidents series that Taylor enjoyed a distinguished military career and is the only president who moved directly from the military to the White House (even Eisenhower, with who Taylor shares many parallels, was President of Columbia). In this volume Carol Brunelli provides the key biographical details of Taylor's life while making the case for remembering this largely forgotten president.

Young students should find a lot more about Zachary Taylor from this juvenile biography than they ever will from their American history textbook (Taylor was a cousin to both James Madison and Franklin D. Roosevelt). But while Brunelli covers the key elements of Taylor's personal life, the main focus of this book is on his military career, carefully detailing each military engagement that led to each of his promotions. However, Brunelli provides a rather truncated account of Taylor's military exploits during the Mexican War, which is of some importance since it leads to his becoming president. Following one battle Taylor allowed the Mexican army he faced to peacefully retreat, which outraged President James K. Polk, who ordered Taylor to stop his advance and gave the honor of taking Mexico City to General Winfield Scott. Ironically, it was when Santa Ana attacked and was repulsed by the smaller American army commanded by Taylor that old Rough and Ready received the national attention that would propel him to the White House.

Even though Taylor was president for less than 500 days two of the four chapters in this book are devoted to his brief time in the White House. The first deals with Taylor's stand on the slavery issue and young readers will find that like Abraham Lincoln here was a president who was committed to preserving the Union rather than extending slavery. Given all the dough face presidents who maintained the status quo as the nation moved slowly towards Civil War, Taylor certainly looks good in comparison. The final chapter tells of Taylor's sudden death, after either drinking tainted milk or eating tainted cherries, and talks about the impact in had on the political climate. His potential outweighed his accomplishments in the White House, but that is still an important lesson to learn from American History.

As always, this Our Presidents volume includes detailed sidebars about key topics, such as Taylor's actions during the Seminole Wars and Lincoln's support for Taylor in the 1848 election. The margins of the volume often having Interesting Facts, such as how Taylor did not learn of his nomination for President for several weeks because he refused to accept mail with postage due, which is how the Whigs sent notification (a second letter was sent with stamps). The book is illustrated with period paintings, political cartoons, and even some very early photographs.