WACKIEST WHITE HOUSE PETS

Opening with the arguable notion that “pets make a house a home,” Davis identifies 15 unusual members of the sizeable menagerie (about 400 strong, so far) that presidents or their families have kept. Stars of the show range from Andrew Johnson’s mice and Woodrow Wilson’s lawn-cropping sheep to a pair of grizzlies sent to Teddy Roosevelt, elephants given to James Buchanan (“the first White House pets to arrive with their own trunks!”), and that Thanksgiving turkey pardoned by Abe Lincoln. All are illustrated with pale, witty scenes—picture Wilson dressed as Bo Peep—that add droll side commentary. Davis is addicted to exclamation points and given to padding the often scanty record with simplistic historical nuggets—“Madison adopted the Bill of Rights,” Kennedy “launched the space race”—but his enthusiasm is engaging, and his topic sheds an unusual sidelight on life within our first families. (source list) (Nonfiction. 9-11)