If as Halloween draws near you're searching for a good book your child can read for the holiday then 'Who's Haunting the White House?' is a great fit. Its tag The President's Mansion and the ghost who live there clues you in on the fact that this book will give kids ten and up chills even as they learn a bit about history.
Filled with historical tidbits about the White House and some of its more colorful inhabitant's writer Jeff Belanger gives details about history as well as haunting. From its first occupant John Adams in November of 1800 to its current resident those who've lived and died in the icon of American Culture have left their own marks in history. Some of them Belanger tells us have never really left the mansion.
He mentions the most famous ghost of all of course. Abraham Lincoln is often spoken of as the resident ghost of the President's Mansion, but did you know that the room he's often seen in while called the Lincoln Bedroom wasn't actually the room in which he slept while alive? Instead it's a room filled with the furniture Lincoln and his wife either brought with them to the White House or used while living there.
You might also be surprised to learn that Lincoln and his wife were both very interested in spiritualism and once even hosted a seance in the mansion.
The couple lost a young son during the turbulent years of the civil war. Willie Lincoln died in February 1862 following a brief illness. It appears, he is one those spirits who continues to stay on as his mother wrote her half sister in the fall of 1863 that she'd seen Willie and heard him playing in the rooms he'd stayed in while alive. Willie was also seen many years later by First Lady Gracie Coolidge during her husband's presidency in the 1920's.
Lincoln was never seen by President Reagan, but the 40th President did report the strange actions of his little dog Rex who'd often reacted strangely around the door leading into the Lincoln Bedroom. There are many other such stories in Who's Haunting the White House each told in detail, but in an easy to read format suitable for a young reader.
The illustration done by Rick Powell will strike you as impressive from the cover to the very last page. There are also scrapbook style monographs, old newspaper reports, and paintings that will engage a reader to want to learn more.
Published by Sterling Press you shouldn't have any trouble finding this interesting book and you might want to be thinking of excuses to read this one to your youngster or at least find a perch so you can peek over their shoulder. You might find a few fun facts you'll want to share.