About This Book

Mike Venezia once again uses his winning formula of combining humor with history to make learning fun. Each book in this series is an appealing mix of full-color historical images and photos, Mike's hilarious cartoon-style illustrations, and simple, factual text describing each person's path toward the nation's highest office. These biographies are peppered with humbling and funny anecdotes that bring out the humanity of each of these historical figures and help kids realize that these were real people--not just names from history books. John Tyler was vice president under President William Henry Harrison. Tyler was the first man to become a U.S. president because of the death of a president, when William Henry Harrison died after only 32 days in office. Many thought Tyler should be just an "acting" president, but Tyler showed strong leadership and set historical precedent by claiming that he should be the real president until the term was over. He took the presidential oath of office and moved into the White House. During his presidency, he used his veto power often, paid off U.S. debts to other countries, helped strengthen the U.S. Post Office, and paved the way to make Texas a state.