Title: First Kids, The True Stories of All the Presidents’ Children

Author: Noah McCullough

Pg 1-182 of 182

In the book, the author talked about the Presidents’ Children, from 1789-2008. Surprisingly, most of the children’s experiences were pretty normal, but there were a few interesting facts. President Arthur’s (1881-1885) son, Alan, was caught swimming nude in the South Lawn fountain with the prince of Siam and were almost arrested. Teddy Roosevelt’s children loved animals and throughout their stay in the White House (1901-1909), had raccoons, guinea pigs, snakes, lizards, rats, a kangaroo, bear cub and more. The Taft family (1903-1913) owned a cow, which grazed on the White House lawn, lived in the garage with the automobiles and supplied the family with fresh milk each day. The Ford boys, Michael, Jack and Steven, had a pet alligator which lived in the backyard at the White House (1974-1977). They would feed it with their boxing gloves on. Their daughter, Susan, hosted her senior prom in the White House. This was the first and only high school prom held at the Executive Mansion.

I was surprised that the First Kids actually appeared to be pretty normal. Sure, there were interesting facts as listed above. But for the most part, they did normal family stuff growing up—mom cooked eggs for breakfast, kids hid under furniture, they had pillow fights, they played sports in school, went to college, made mistakes along the way, etc. Normally, nobody would really care, but because they were the Presidents’ Children, they were always on display. I could see how the kids would like living at the White House because they would be very popular. But it would be difficult having a father that worked all the time and traveled a lot. It would also be tough having the press watching your every step, then sharing it with the world. It would be challenging having secret service around all the time. Though they are there to protect you, it would be embarrassing going on a date and being watched the entire time. I would give this book a 2 out of 5 stars because believe it or not, it was rather boring. I had to really dig to find the interesting stuff. Perhaps it’s because a 13-year-old wrote the book and he wasn’t given access to a lot of personal information. What I learned from reading this is that kids are pretty much kids, even if they’re First Kids.