I was wondering over on Facebook last week about what a series biography of our 45th president might look like, and my prayers have been answered. AS IF. But there is a new biography of Trump and I thought you all would want to know about it. Written by Diane Marczely Gimpel and published by The Child’s World, Donald Trump will be reviewed in the Fall 2017 Horn Book Guide; consider this advance warning.
Let’s face it, there is nothing in this 24pp book that makes it worth its price tag of 27 bucks and change, but that’s par for the course (“He also owns golf courses. He is very rich”) when it comes to this genre. While there is an oddly specific–and dear God we hope not prescient–paragraph about his childhood pranking (“They bought stink bombs at the shop. They also bought smoke bombs. They even bought hot pepper gum”), even more oddly there is not a single mention of his being married or having children. FREE MELANIA. My spot check of other recent volumes in this series reveals that this omission is definitely unusual.
The coverage of the election is fair and as informative as you get in such series aimed at the primary grades (“Clinton and Trump were the two main choices. It was a close race”) and does not go into the intricacies of the Electoral College or the fact that Trump lost the popular vote by almost three million ballots. (That’s for you, @realDonaldTrump, in case you’re reading.) The point of view is scrupulously neutral: “Some people did not like what Trump said. They stopped working with him. Others thought Trump did not tell the truth. They also thought he said mean things. Yet many other people liked him.” Like him or not, this book probably has a place in those libraries where second-graders have to write reports about a President but aren’t allowed to use online sources. (I’m told such schools exist, and this book is evidence they do, but honestly, WHY?)
You know how you read a book in a series and can’t wait for the next one? That’s how I feel today.