Did you know that Warren Harding lost a set of White House china in a poker game? Or that Teddy Roosevelt’s children slid down the White House stairs on cookie trays? How about the time that William McKinley’s wife banned the color yellow from the White House? Take your pick of obscure White House facts, as there are plenty to choose from in this history of the presidential residence. From the time George Washington chose the building’s design and location (although he never lived there), through Jenna and Barbara Bush (the first White House twins), tidbits of information are presented chronologically through text and pictures. The caricature-style ink and watercolor illustrations feature the residents posed in memorable snapshots, like the Eisenhowers dining on trays while watching his-and-her television sets, and Woodrow Wilson directing the sheep grazing on the White House lawn to a missed spot. One final factoid: when Rutherford B. Hayes installed the first White House telephone, the phone number was, simply, one. (Ages 7–11)