George Did It (review)
Buy Issue for $25 at JHUP- Almost Gone: The World's Rarest Animals
Just as Deborah Chandra's picture book George Washington's Teeth (BCCB 2/03) did much to humanize the sober face on the one-dollar bill, Jurmain and Day's effort also light-heartedly observes that the revered Founder put his pants on one leg at a time. Here Washington's problem is not his aching gums—although he does make an appearance with his swollen jaw swaddled in a rag—but his reluctance to take on the presidency and his less than suave road to the inaugural festivities. After a brief recap of the accomplishments that put him in demand as a national leader, Jurmain turns to his equivocation over the illustrious role he's been offered; Day supplies pencil-and-watercolor scenes that cleverly caricature Washington's ongoing discomfort. When confronting his unanimous election, "he said he felt like criminal who was 'going to . . . his execution.'" The audience finds him in a vintage Jack Benny pose while a floating thought bubble depicts him stoically mounting the steps for a date with a burly, black-hooded headsman. At a lavish fête en route to New York, the exhausted guest of honor snoozes in a chair. On the morning of the inauguration, citizens peek through his bedroom window as he pulls on a stocking with a hole in the toe. The style may be breezy, but it's more than clear that President Washington is no buffoon but a modest man charged with inventing the office of president and molding it to fit his own personality. This title merits pride of place on a Presidents Day display.
