White House Clubhouse by Sean O'Brien. 240 p. Norton Young Readers/ W.W. Norton & Company. October 3, 2023. 9781324152920. (Review of arc courtesy of publicist.)
Happy Labor Day Monday! I hope you are enjoying the long holiday weekend. We teachers were back on Friday and will be in school tomorrow preparing to welcome students back on Wednesday. The summer sure did fly by!
Middle Grade Monday features Whilte House Clubhouse by Sean O'Brien. It's hard enough to move house and start a new school, but when your mom has been elected president and your new house is the White House, it's even harder. Fifth grader Marissa feels self-conscious about her Secret Service guard and third grader Clara takes every opportunity to give her's a run for the money, including running to climb a tree on the grounds of the White House, where she discovers an old carving. Meanwhile, Marissa kicks a soccer ball in frustration, finds a secret passageway and gets stuck.
Clara, ever the adventurer, pushes Marissa down the passageway and joins her. They find a secret room filled with antique toys and clothing and a document inviting them to join the White House Clubhouse. Once they sign the document, the lights go out and they find themselves transported back to 1903, when Teddy Roosevelt was president and his five children and their many pets ran roughshod over the place. President Roosevelt is about to embark on a train journey across the United States and two of his children want to come along, so they stow away along with Clara and Marissa. What ensues is a mad-cap adventure filled with hijinks, hilarity and history. It seems some greedy industrialists are intent on chopping down the redwood forests in the name of progress and the children will do everything in their power to save the redwood.
Readers who love a good adventure with cheeky characters and a bit of history will love this book. The art, which was not final is a nice addition. Young readers may not be aware that Theodore Roosevelt instituted the National Parks system one hundred and twenty years ago this year. They should find relevant parallels to present-day conservation efforts and perhaps be inspired to "dare greatly."
About the author:
Sean O’Brien served as director of speechwriting to Vice President Joe Biden and Dr. Jill Biden, special assistant to President Barack Obama, and senior advisor to the Secretary of the Navy. He performed comedy with Chicago’s Second City and Annoyance theaters as well as DC’s Capital Fringe Festival while serving as a chief of staff in the US House of Representatives. He earned a BA with Honors in American Culture from Northwestern University and an MS in National Security and Strategic Studies from the US Naval War College. Sean teaches at Georgetown University in Washington DC, where he lives with his family.
