In a recent review of The Next President, someone objected to the page that discusses America's first presidents because it includes the fact that most of them enslaved people. I'd like to unpack that idea a bit... (thread)

The reviewer suggested that this fact somehow doesn’t belong in a book for kids, that a children’s book about presidents should include only positive things about each one.

The reviewer was concerned that kids might read that fact about America’s earliest presidents and judge them for it, for writing about equality while they enslaved people on their own plantations. What if some kids decided that those early presidents were not such great people?

That is a fair concern, to be honest. In my experience, children are often a lot less forgiving of hypocrisy than adults. They are more likely to say “Hey, wait a minute! That’s not right!” Kids care deeply about injustice, which is one reason I love writing for them.

History is more complicated than a lot of our traditional social studies textbooks make it out to be. It’s full of “heroes” who were critically flawed and also full of “villains” who sometimes did good things.

And you know what’s interesting? America’s earliest presidents knew we’d be talking about this. Their early writings are full of concerns about how history would judge them for being big talkers about equality and justice while they fought to maintain slavery.

Kids are fascinated by this. They’re more willing to sit with discomfort than adults, to consider that someone who led Revolutionary War battles went home at the end of the war to be served by men who were enslaved, and to question that.

At one of the last school visits I did before the pandemic, I was having lunch with some second graders, and one told me how much he loved history, especially the picture book biographies his librarian shared.

So I shared one of my recent favorites, ONA JUDGE OUTWITS THE WASHINGTONS. “It’s about a woman who was enslaved by George Washington,” I told him. “But she escaped and never got caught!”

“Wait a second.” The boy looked at me. “George Washington owned slaves?”

“He did,” I said. “He enslaved hundreds of people on his plantation in Virginia.”

The kid looked at me, clearly unhappy that no one had told him this before. “I thought George Washington was a good guy!”

So we talked about that. “It’s true that Washington is honored for leading the Continental Army and being America’s first president,” I told him, “And it’s also true that he enslaved people, and worked to keep those people enslaved even after he was president.”

The boy nodded. He understood about more than one thing being true. And he wanted to know more so he could think more about this. He asked his librarian if she’d get that book about Ona Judge. She’d already written it down.

I’m glad he has her as his librarian. These are the honest conversations we should be having with kids. They are thoughtful historians. They are fiercely passionate about making a more just world. And they need to know the truth about history to do that.

A little more about the book The Next President, since it’s been a topic of conversation lately. This book looks at where all the presidents were in the years leading up to their presidency, from GW to DJT. What were they doing when others were inaugurated?

There have also been some reviews of this book that say 45 is not included. That’s incorrect – he’s on p. 33 with Clinton, Bush, and Obama, when he was 15 years old, at military academy.

There have also been some reviews that object to the diversity of the museum crowds in @MrAdamRex’s illustrations. That is one of my favorite things about the book, and if people object to it, this is for sure not the right book for them.

Anyway – try having an honest conversation with your kids about America’s past. They’re better at these kinds of conversations than many adults are.