"When Ava and Dean are sent to bring lunch to the mice who work in the Situation Room, they discover that the president's cat, Clover, is going to be spending a lot of time in the West Wing"--

Is the White House big enough for a family of mice . . . and a C-A-T? If you are a mouse, then you might know about Ava and Dean Squeakerton. They are kind of famous, for mice. That’s because Ava and Dean and the rest of their family live in the White House. For years, Ava and Dean have roamed the tunnels below the West Wing without fear. But now there’s a new pet in town, one that rhymes with hat and rat and whose name is spelled C-A-T. In the history of the White House, thirty-seven Squeakertons have died because a cat—shh, don’t say it out loud!—a C-A-T was hungry. Now Ava and Dean are worried that they might be added to that list. Will the Squeakerton siblings ever get to explore the White House again? Or is this game of C-A-T and mouse just too dangerous? The Borrowers meets Ratatouille in this new chapter book series that’s sure to thrill readers who love tiny details and big fun. Bonus back matter is filled with tons of cool facts about presidents, the White House, and U.S. history.

In his highly praised book Faith and the Presidency, Gary Scott Smith cast a revealing light on the role religion has played in presidential politics throughout our nation's history, offering comprehensive, even-handed examinations of the role of religion in the lives, politics, and policies of eleven presidents. Now, in Religion in the Oval Office, Smith takes on eleven more of our nation's most interesting and influential chief executives: John Adams, James Madison, John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, William McKinley, Herbert Hoover, Harry Truman, Richard Nixon, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama. Drawing on a wide range of sources and paying close attention to historical context and America's shifting social and moral values, he examines their religious beliefs, commitments, affiliations, and practices and scrutinizes their relationships with religious leaders and communities. The result is a fascinating account of the ways in which religion has helped shape the course of our history. From John Quincy Adams' treatment of Native Americans, to Harry Truman's decision to recognize Israel, to Bill Clinton's promotion of religious liberty and welfare reform, to Barack Obama's policies on poverty and gay rights, Smith shows how strongly our presidents' religious commitments have affected policy from the earliest days of our nation to the present. Together with Faith and the Presidency, Religion in the Oval Office provides the most comprehensive examination of the inseparable and intriguing relationship between faith and the American presidency. This book will be invaluable to anyone interested in the presidency and the role of religion in politics.

The most solemn obligation of any president is to safeguard the nation's security. But the president cannot do this alone. He needs help. In the past half century, presidents have relied on their national security advisers to provide that help. Who are these people, the powerful officials who operate in the shadow of the Oval Office, often out of public view and accountable only to the presidents who put them there? Some remain obscure even to this day. But quite a number have names that resonate far beyond the foreign policy elite: McGeorge Bundy, Henry Kissinger, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice. Ivo Daalder and Mac Destler provide the first inside look at how presidents from John F. Kennedy to George W. Bush have used their national security advisers to manage America's engagements with the outside world. They paint vivid portraits of the fourteen men and one woman who have occupied the coveted office in the West Wing, detailing their very different personalities, their relations with their presidents, and their policy successes and failures. It all started with Kennedy and Bundy, the brilliant young Harvard dean who became the nation's first modern national security adviser. While Bundy served Kennedy well, he had difficulty with his successor. Lyndon Johnson needed reassurance more than advice, and Bundy wasn't always willing to give him that. Thus the basic lesson -- the president sets the tone and his aides must respond to that reality. The man who learned the lesson best was someone who operated mainly in the shadows. Brent Scowcroft was the only adviser to serve two presidents, Gerald Ford and George H. W. Bush. Learning from others' failures, he found the winning formula: gain the trust of colleagues, build a collaborative policy process, and stay close to the president. This formula became the gold standard -- all four national security advisers who came after him aspired to be "like Brent." The next president and national security adviser can learn not only from success, but also from failure. Rice stayed close to George W. Bush -- closer perhaps than any adviser before or since. But her closeness did not translate into running an effective policy process, as the disastrous decision to invade Iraq without a plan underscored. It would take years, and another national security aide, to persuade Bush that his Iraq policy was failing and to engineer a policy review that produced the "surge." The national security adviser has one tough job. There are ways to do it well and ways to do it badly. Daalder and Destler provide plenty of examples of both. This book is a fascinating look at the personalities and processes that shape policy and an indispensable guide to those who want to understand how to operate successfully in the shadow of the Oval Office.

Smalls' Run ... May 13, 1862 ... Escape from Slavery is the powerful account of a little-known escape that occurred in Charleston, South Carolina - smack in the heart of the Confederacy, early in the Civil War. Robert Smalls, a young slave harbor pilot, led a crew of slave sailors and their families to freedom by commandeering a confederate transport, loaded with guns and munitions, and running a rebel gauntlet to reach then surrender the boat to the blockading Union flotilla. This act became an early war victory for the Union. Smalls met with President Lincoln, spoke before Congress, received prize money, and was appointed Captain of the commandeered transport, becoming the first black officer in the U.S. Navy. Smalls later served in the South Carolina State legislature, and five terms in the U.S. Congress during Reconstruction. In South Carolina, he introduced legislation creating the first free and compulsory school system and was thereafter in the forefront of the struggle for civil rights. An extraordinary hero and citizen, Smalls died in 1915 and is buried in Beaufort, South Carolina. About the Author: Ric V. Solano, a Chicagoan, was a World War II merchant seaman, newspaper reporter, correspondent, management consultant, academic, and executive assistant to the Chancellor, University of California, San Diego, before becoming a PhD psychotherapist in Albuquerque, New Mexico. His earlier book was Yaqui Woman and the Crystal Cactus, and his next book is Confronting Carlos Castaneda ... and Selected Stories, based on time spent with Castaneda in Baja, Mexico in 1988 Publisher's website: http: //SBPRA.com/RicVSolano

Never before in the history of the U.S. have the outgoing and incoming presidents and vice presidents been killed on Inauguration Day. By law, the Speaker of the House should be sworn in as president, but he is not able to serve. Next in line would be the President of the Senate Pro Tempore, but he is not sworn in. A new Speaker is named, and she is given the Oath of Office. The Senator vows revenge. Meanwhile, the search goes on to determine who caused the three explosions on the west portico of the Capitol, why, and how. The plot twists and turns, with an O. Henry-type ending, and includes a "Deep Throat II," whose identity will fool almost all readers.

With profiles on Bill Clinton, Thomas Jefferson, FDR, JFK, Lyndon Johnson, and Eisenhower, this book describes the impact that freewheeling sexual behavior has had upon first families, election campaigns, political careers, and the nation itself.