Andrew Jackson (Getting to Know the U. S. Presidents)

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. Andrew Jackson, nicknamed "Old Hickory" by his soldiers, was a military hero and one of the roughest, toughest presidents ever. He had a hard childhood; he fought in the Revolutionary War at the age of 14 and had lost his entire family by the time it was over. He went on to become a frontier lawyer, and then a national hero after winning the Battle of New Orleans during the War of 1812. Jackson was a champion of working people. As the first president to grow up poor, he paved the way for people to take part in U.S. government even if they weren't born wealthy and well connected.