The White House, a Pop-up Book of Our Nation's House by Robert Sabuda

Tomorrow is President's Day and this is a presidential election year so what better time to take a tour of the White House.  Can't make it to Washington DC?  No worries!  Expert paper engineer Robert Sabuda has created a White House pop-up book that takes you through some of the more famous and important parts of the house where the President lives and works.

You will visit such areas as the Lincoln Bedroom and find out why it's called that (Hint: Lincoln never slept there), or the Rose Garden where press conferences and important announcements are sometimes held, weather permitting, or the Oval Office to discover why it's oval, among other rooms in the White House.

I love a good pop-up book and Sabuda is one of my favorite paper engineers, so I was pretty excited to see this book.  As always, the pop-ups open smoothly, although the first time I read the book, I had to gently help them along, but after that, there was no problem.

As you turn the pages, you will notice that each one has a few lines of poetry.  They are from a poem  called "Inauguration Day" which was written sometime in the latter half of the 19th century by Richard Watson Gilder.  I thought the poem was a little too old fashioned for today's young readers, but it does fit into the context of the book.  For convenience, I've included the text of whole poem below.

The White House is a wonderful addition to any pop-up book collection, whether that would be your young readers collection, or your own.

This book is recommended for readers age 6+

This book was sent to me by the publisher, Orchard Books Scholastic

INAUGURATION DAY

On this great day a child of time and fate

On a new path of power doth stand and wait.

Tho' heavy-burdened shall his heart rejoice,

Dowered with a nation's faith, an empire's choice.

Who hath no strength, but that the people give,

And in their wills, alone, his will doth live.

On this one day, this, this, is their one man,

The well-beloved, the chief American!

Whose people are his brothers, fathers, sons:

In this his strength, and not a million guns.

Whose power is mightier than the mightiest crown,

Because that soon he lays that power down.

Whose wish, linked to the people's, shall exceed

The force of civic wrong and banded greed.

Whose voice, in friendship or in warning heard,

Brings to the nations a free people's word;

And, where the opprest out from the darkness grope,

'T is as the voice of freedom and of hope.

O pray that he may rightly rule the state,

And grow, in truly serving, truly great.

Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge is a weekly celebration of 

nonfiction books hosted by Alyson Beecher at Kid Lit Frenzy