Editorial Review

This entry in the well-written ‘Our Presidents’ series provides an overview of Woodrow Wilson’s life, his early years in Virginia, his rise to political life, and important aspects of his presidency, including his support of small businesses and his various reforms. A variety of photographs show his family, early career, and official government activities as well as his first and second wives. Other outtake pages include information about segregation in World War I and his ill-fated support of the League of Nations. Sidebars include interesting facts, and picture captions are informative and lengthy enough to inform casual browsers. Each book in the series ends with a glossary defining highlighted words in the text, a timeline specific to the president’s life, a complete table of presidents through George W. Bush with their home states, life spans, presidential spans, political party and the name of their first ladies. Also included are a page of ‘Presidential Facts,’ numerous web sites and relevant suggested other resources, as well as an index. All in all, it’s a strong, informative, and very readable contribution to the literature about presidents for upper elementary and middle school readers.