Upstairs at the White House written by J.B. West

      Imagine you were given a job at the White House, not just any job but being an Assistant to the Chief Usher! The job title of being the assistant to the Chief Usher is to help the Chief Usher take care of The First Lady, The President of the United States, and their family. The Chief Usher’s job was to be in charge of the White House. For instance, you had to make sure everything ran smoothly and on schedule, and made sure all of the Department Heads did their job right so the First Lady and her husband, the President of the United States are safe and happy.

    Upstairs at the White House was written by J.B. West who told his story about working along side The President of the United States and The First Lady beginning as Assistant to the Chief Usher and was later promoted to Chief Usher. J.B. first stated as Assistant Chief Usher with President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his wife Eleanor. Next came Vice President Harry Truman and First Lady, Bess, after Franklin D. Roosevelt passed away. Finally, President Dwight Eisenhower and First Lady, Mary "Mamie", entered into the White House when Dwight was elected President. When J.B. was promoted to Chief Usher he first served John F. Kennedy and First Lady, Jacqueline, famously known as Jackie. After John F. Kennedy passed away, J.B. served Vice President Lyndon B. and The First Lady, “Lady Bird” Johnson.  Even though J.B. worked for the President of the United States, his main priority was serving The First Lady. He told stories of each First Lady and President and everything that happened behind the scenes with the other White House staff, President, and First Lady that we may not know about, unless you are a History Buff and your best friends are named History Book and Google. For example, when John F. Kennedy was President of the United States, he and Jackie Kennedy had interesting animals that roamed the White House property such as, peacocks, ducks, and deer for a short time before they were relocated. Why? First, when The Kennedys built a pond out front of the White House for the ducks to swim in where the tourists can see, their little daughter Caroline, would fall into the fountain and be laughed at by the tourists! Therefore, the ducks were relocated somewhere else. Next, when Jackie Kennedy wanted deer and peacocks on the White House lawn, the local zoo told J.B. that they were dangerous and unpredictable, so they had be relocated as well.  Overall, J.B. did tell some interesting stories that happened around the White House for every President and First Lady who has lived in the White House.

    Not only would the reader learn about the President and The First Lady, they would also learn about the changes the White House faced itself. For example, when Franklin D. and Eleanor Roosevelt were in office, there was no A/C; everyone had to walk up and down the stairs because elevators were not installed. Also, the kitchen staff had to wash dishes by hand because dishwashers were not installed and The President and The First Lady had to use wardrobes because built in closets were not in the bedrooms or sitting rooms.  When Harry Truman was reelected President, he and Bess were relocated to Blair House, which is a private house for the President and his family. Since the White House had to be rebuilt from the inside because of poor foundation, the new changes in the White House included, A/C, dishwashers, an elevator, and built in closets!

    In concluding, I would recommend Upstairs at the White House to anyone who is curious to know what happened inside the White House and what kind of   Presidents and First Ladies were like. Also, learn all of the changes that the White House had to go through when the United States gets a new President and First Lady. Finally, learn about the tragic or happy events that went on inside the White House and how the President, The First Lady, and White House Staff handled the situation.

Trivia Questions: 

1) What kind of Bible did Harry Truman's staff use for his inauguration? 

2) Which First Lady threw one too many parties at a time that she mostly forgot who she invited? 

3) Which First Lady "borrowed" twenty portraits of proud American Indians, painted by, George Catlin, from the Smithsonian and put them on display upstairs in the hall way at the White House?

4) Which First Lady accidentally used pen ink to help with a stopped up nose?

5) Which First Lady grew up in Nevada on a farm as an orphan and had to educate herself? 

Bonus Questions:

1) Which Kennedy room did Luci Johnson (daughter of Lyndon B. and "Lady Bird" Johnson) change up to make it her own private room so she can hangout with her friends and have some privacy? 

2) Which US President would skinny dip in the pool at the White House? 

3) Which First Lady was pregnant during her husband's presidency but the baby ended up dying due to a premature birth? 

West, J. B. Upstairs At the White House: My Life with the First Ladies. New York: Coward, McCann &         Geoghegan, 1973. Print. 

The Complete Tales (And Poems) of Winnie-the-Pooh written by A.A. Milne

      Remember watching Winnie-the-Pooh shows either on TV or VHS tapes, (before DVDs were invented)? I don’t know about you but I never grew up reading Winnie-the-Pooh until middle school when a friend introduced the books! Anyways, if you have had love Winnie-the-Pooh coming to life on your TV screen then I would suggest you dig deeper and discover the stories that were told at The Hundred Acre Wood.

         As it says in both books, A.A. Mile had a son named Christopher Robin, and Christopher Robin had once owned a stuffed bear, a toy donkey, and a toy pig. Thus his stuffed animals gave A.A. Milne the idea to turn his son’s toys into something creative that children and adults love to read

     Now, I bet you wondered where the heck I have gone with this blog, I shall tell you, A.A. Milne wrote two Winnie-the Pooh books. The first Winnie-the-Pooh book was titled, Winnie-the-Pooh, (how appropriate!). The second book was titled The House At Pooh Corner.  But the beauty of it all is that you can get those two books in one collection! Did that sound like a TV commercial? But wait there’s more! A.A. Milne not only write Winnie-the-Pooh stories, he also published poems. In that case, if you wanted the whole volume of Winnie-the-Pooh stories and enjoy reading poems in the same book then you must read, The Complete Tales & Poems of Winnie-the-Pooh. The poems came in two parts, the first part is titled, When We Were Very Young. The second part of the poems was called, Now We Are Six. The poems were very random mostly. For example, some poems were about Christopher Robin and Winnie-the-Pooh, other poems were about kings and queens, and the rest of the poems were just plain random.

      In concluding, there was nothing different between the books, The Complete Tales of Winnie-the-Pooh and The Complete Tales & Poems of Winnie-the-Pooh. Except, that the Complete Tales & Poems of Winnie-the-Pooh does have poems that were written by A.A. Milne. Overall, these books are great for adults and children to read and be entertained by a little boy and his favorite stuffed teddy bear.

Trivial Questions:

1) What is Winnie-the-Pooh's real name?

2) What is Piglet's full name? 

3) According to Owl, what is the opposite of an introduction? 

4) Where does Christopher Robin go in the mornings before he visits the Hundred Acre Wood? 

Milne, A. A. The Complete Tales of Winnie-the-Pooh. N.p.: Dutton Children's, 1993. Print. 

Milne, A. A. The Complete Tales & Poems of Winnie-the-Pooh. N.p.: Dutton Children's, 1996. Print. 

Tiger Eyes written by Judy Blume

              Now, I have to admit, I am not a huge Judy Blume reader! But when I came across this book when I was in the fifth grade, I did start to read it but I couldn’t finish reading it because I thought it was mature for me to read. Now that I am much older, I thought I should try reading it again just for the fun of it and it turns out it was one of her better books that Judy Blume wrote.

            Tiger Eyes was about a teenage girl named Davey whose father was murdered and her mother and her little brother, Jason, had deal with the loss of losing a husband and father. When Davey’s Aunt Bitsy (Elizabeth) and Uncle Walter invited the family to live with them for a few weeks after school started in New Mexico, which means leaving Atlantic City, New Jersey. While living in New Mexico with Aunt Bitsy and Uncle Walter three events happened with Davey and Jason. First, their mother had fallen ill, which means the week stay in New Mexico turned into an entire fall semester at school! Therefore, Davey and Jason had to enroll into a new school. Second, Davey meets a mysterious young man named Wolf, they become great friends, and Davey feels that Wolf understands her more then most people. Third, Davey had to learn how to adjust living with her aunt and uncle while figuring out how to live without her father.  For the most part, I do think Judy Blume did a great job giving personality and life into her characters in this particular story.

            Overall, I think Tiger Eyes was a great book to read because it was full of tragedy, romance, and dealing with family matters.  If you are not a Judy Blume fan I would just say that I think this is by far the best book she has ever written, trust me on this I have read plenty of her books . . . or tried to anyways; to know that she is not one of my favorite authors. With that being said . . . Happy Easter everyone!

Trivia Questions: 

1) Who came up with the nickname Tiger for Davey? Why? 

2) Why did Wolf keep on calling Davey Tiger Eyes? 

3) What did Davey and Wolf have in common? 

4) In the beginning of the school year in Atlantic City, New Jersey Davey started to faint! What caused Davey to faint? 

Blume, Judy. Tiger Eyes. Scarsdale: Delacorte Press, 1981. Print. 

Voice Lessons written by Cara Mentzel

We know the lyrics to the songs of Defying Gravity and Let It Go. We know that powerful singing voice behind those songs is Idina Menzel, the singer who stared on Broadway’s hit show Rent as the original Maureen Johnson, who then played as the original Elphaba in Wicked, and also stared in the original cast of If/Then. But did you know that Idina Menzel has a little sister? That’s right! Cara Mentzel, the author of Voice Lessons, is Idina Menzel’s little sister!

            Cara Mentzel tells her story of her life growing up with her big sister; Idina Menzel mainly in New York after their parents got a divorce. She also talks about her childhood being raised by her parents and her early childhood memories and growing up watching her sister taking the spotlight with her singing.  When Cara grew up, she attended University of Colorado where she studied Biological Psychology and met the love her of life, Jon. While at University of Colorado, Cara went to visit Idina in New York, when they were in Idina’s apartment, Idina handed Cara a script for a new off- Broadway show that she was auditioning for called Rent, little did the girls how popular that show would become on Broadway.

            After graduating from college, at the age of twenty-three Cara became a mother to a boy that she and Jon named Avery. After Avery was born, Cara and Jon had another baby boy together named Jacob. Sadly after being married for a short time, Jon’s abusive behavior led their marriage to a divorce, Cara was a single mother of two little boys.

            Since Cara is a little sister to a well-known Broadway superstar,  she saw the Broadway opening shows for Rent, Wicked, and If/Then. Not to mention when Let It Go was introduced to the world when Disney’s movie Frozen was released in 2014. Idina Menzel was nominated for an Oscars for “Best Original Song” and she invited Cara to go as her date. Since Cara attended Broadway shows and the Oscars, she has stories of living through the moment when her sister is in the spotlight. For example, remember at the Oscars in 2014 when actor, John Travolta, mispronounced Idina’s name on live TV? When you’re sitting on the couch watching Idina Menzel singing Let It Go, you wouldn’t have noticed all the chaos that happed backstage. But hey, Cara got to see the whole world in rage when John Travolta didn’t know how to say Idina’s name. In the end, Idina returned the favor that next year by mispronouncing his name and the whole world laughed.

            Over all, Voice Lessons was a great book that I enjoyed reading. I can relate to Cara on a personal level since I have an older sister that can sing better than I and we (Cara and I) both love Idina Menzel. Also, I love the stories that Cara shared that means a lot to her and Idina. So, if you are a huge Idina Menzel fan, like how Cara Mentzel and I are, then I definitely suggest that you read Voice Lessons.

Mentzel, Cara. Voice Lessons: A Sisters Story. New York, NY: St. Martin's, 2017. Print. 

Trivia Questions: 

1) Why did Idina Menzel drop the "T" in her last name Mentzel? 

2) Cara went to a drama camp one time and auditioned for the musical Guys and Dolls, what part did she get to play? 

3) True or False:

When Cara birth her two baby boys, she had a natural home birth? 

Choosing To SEE written by Mary Beth Chapman

*** Check out my latest post, Between Heaven And The Real World: My Story, written by Mary Beth Chapman’s husband, Steven Curtis Chapman!!****

            Mary Beth Chapman is wife of Steven Curtis Chapman, whom was the first one in the Chapman family to have a book published. In her book, Choosing To SEE, is mostly about how she, Steven, and her five other children dealt with the death of their daughter/sister, Maria Chapman, who was tragically killed by a car.

            When Mary Beth Chapman grew up in Ohio in a Christian home with loving parents along with her older brother and sister. After graduating from high school, Marry Beth attended Anderson University where she met a handsome young man named Steven Curtis Chapman. What she really loved about Steven Curtis Chapman besides being a Christian was that he had the same last name as her! Weird!! Anyways, Mary Beth married Steven when she was twenty years old and did not plan to have children until later in life until she got pregnant after being married for six months. OOPS!

            So . . . since I have mentioned the majority of the Chapman life in my previous blog post, Between Heaven And The Real World: My Story, written by Steven, I will continue by comparing Steven’s and Mary Beth’s books. First, in Steven’s book, he wrote about everything! What I mean by, everything, was: life growing up as a kid, going to college, getting married and having kids, adoption, Maria’s death, and establishing an orphanage for children with special needs in China. What Mary Beth mostly talked about in her book was the death of Maria, the youngest daughter in the family, to what happened before and after her funeral, and the marriages of her two oldest children, Emily and Caleb. Mary Beth also talked about her experiences of adopting three girls from China and also how she and Steven established an orphanage for special needs children in China as well. Over all, she never went into a lot of detail of her life growing up in Ohio and about her high school life, except for the fact that she did mention that she lost her virginity but never any detail of what happened.  

            In concluding, if you have read, or soon will read, Steven Curtis Chapman’s book then I would suggest to read Mary Beth’s book, Choosing To SEE, and SEE what you can learn from Mary Beth’s perspective of life dealing with family, tragedy, and dealing with grief.

Trivia Questions: 

1) True or False: 

Mary Beth's first pregnancy WAS planned? 

2) Why is the word SEE an important word in the Chapman household?

3) How did SEE become an important word in the family? 

 Chapman, Mary Beth., and Ellen Vaughn. Choosing to See: A Journey of Struggle and Hope. Grand Rapids: Revell, 2011. Print.

Almost Gone written by John Baldwin and Mackenzie Baldwin

     Imagine that you’re a teenage girl attending high school and had discovered a chat room on the Internet. Now, imagine that you have connected with a man from another country, you two have been secretly talking to each other for a year, and have fallen in love without your parents’ knowledge. Finally, what would happen if your parents found out that you were planning to leave the country, to be with the man who you met on the Internet. The down side, they only had twenty-five days to make you stay! Which is what Almost Gone, is about, written by father and daughter duo, John Baldwin and Mackenzie Baldwin.

     Mackenzie Baldwin was a teenage girl who lived in Plano, Texas. She was raised in a loving Christian family, with her two younger brothers, mother, and father. When Mackenzie Baldwin was a junior at Plano West Senior High, she was visiting a friend.  During her visit, Mackenzie’s friend introduced her to an online chat room, which allowed people to connect with random people around the world. Mackenzie started chatting with a man named Aadam, who lived in Kosovo, which is a country part of the European area. After talking to each other online, Mackenzie and Aadam were talking on Skype, sending love letters, and calling/texting. But to make matters worse, Aadam was a Muslim who was very religious in the Islam religion, he started to persuade Mackenzie to become a Muslim so they could get married, since he is not allowed to marry a woman whose not a Muslim. So, Mackenzie started to convert from Christianity to Islamic. In the book, Mackenzie does describe her journey of converting to a different religion, from studying the Koran, watching Islamic videos on YouTube, and attending a mosque! The down side for Mackenzie while she was talking to Aadam was she became very distant to her family and high school friends because she was Islamic and they were not. Her father, John Baldwin, along with her mother, tried to persuade Mackenzie that she should stay away from Islam, without knowing the fact that their daughter attended a mosque along with having a second family so she could be “raised” in an Islamic home. 

        By the time Mackenzie was a senior at Plano West Senior High, her only friend was Aadam. Mackenzie was dead set on meeting him in person, but when they planned to meet somewhere, either in another country or America, their plans seemed to slip through the cracks. When Mackenzie was eighteen and almost getting ready to graduate from high school, she and Aadam were planning on getting married . . .that is until her friends’ parents spilled the beans.

        For one year, Mackenzie was secretly talking to Aadam behind her parents back! After Mackenzie saved up money from her job, she made flight arrangements to go to Kosovo shortly after she graduated from high school. That is until Mackenzie’s father, John Baldwin, got a phone call from a parent who he knew from West Plano Senior High. The parent told John that Mackenzie announced to some of her classmates that she was planning on leaving the country. The total of days that Mackenzie’s parents had to convince their daughter from doing this horrible mistake was twenty-five days! When researching about Kosovo, John Baldwin found out that Kosovo had a high percentage rate of Teen Sex Trafficking! Soon after, John Baldwin had the FBI take part of Mackenzie’s plan because Mackenzie broke the law. How? She submitted paper work to the Passport Agency to get another passport, even though she knew where her parents hid her original passport. As federal punishment, Mackenzie could spend five years in state prison for a crime of having two valid passports! Thankfully, the FBI didn’t want to press charges. Finally, after weeks of persuading his daughter to not go to Kosovo, Mackenzie figured out what a terrible choice she had made and how she learned from making terrible choices.

         In concluding, Almost Gone was a great book to read because it is a story that could teach parents and teens the dangers of interacting with strangers online. Mackenzie and John Baldwin tell their side of the story about the events that occurred leading up to that fateful plan of Mackenzie leaving the country to be with a man who she only met with online. Once Mackenzie’s parents learned about her plan to escape the county to go to Kosovo to get married, her parents only had twenty-five days to intervene!

Trivia Questions: 

1) Why did Aadam wanted to marry Mackenzie? 

2) True or False: Aadam tried to contact John Baldwin through Facebook to convince him that he loved Mackenzie. 

3) Why did Mackenzie send one of her old Smartphones to Aadam?


 Baldwin, John, and Mackenzie Baldwin. Almost Gone: Twenty-Five Days And One Chance To Save Our Daughter. New York: Howard Books, 2017. Print. 

 

Between Heaven And The Real World: My Story written by Steven Curtis Chapman

       Does anyone know Steven Curtis Chapman? I sure do since he was my favorite Christian singer when I was a kid. He wrote songs such as Dive, Live Out Loud, and Cinderella.  Anyways, Steven Curtis Chapman wrote a book, Between Heaven and The Real World: My Story, is about Steven Curtis Chapman’s life growing up in Kentucky, getting into the music industry along with playing and writing music, dating/married life, adopting children from China, to dealing with a loss of one of his own children.

        Steven Curtis Chapman was born in Paducah, Kentucky, along his older brother Herb “Herbie” Chapman Jr. Steven mentions in his book that his family got into music because their father played guitar and owned a music store. When Herbie and Steven were younger, they both performed together at churches and at venues that would pay them, including at a theme park called Opryland in Nashville, Tennessee. Herbie was the singer and Steven played guitar and was also a backup singer.  Later on, Steven and Herbie attended Anderson University. While studying and writing music at Anderson University, the Chapman brothers formed a band called Chapman Henderson, since they had another band member who was also attending Anderson University with the last name of Henderson. Not only did Steven Curtis Chapman play in a band, he also met his wife, Mary Beth Chapman, and began dating her! Quiescence? . . . I think NOT!

      On October 13, 1984, Steven and Mary Beth got married and had their first child, Emily, eight months later. Steven’s music career was starting to take off around that time, so he how difficult it was being a father while making/selling albums and going on tour. After their daughter, Emily, was born, Mary Beth and Steven had two more children: Caleb, and Will Franklin. Several years later, they adopted three baby girls from China. Their first adopted daughter was, Shaohannah “Shaoey”Chapman. The name Shaohannah is combined with the names, Shao and Hannah. Next, they adopted two more girls from China, Stevey Joy, and Maria. Over all, Mary Beth and Steven Chapman raised six beautiful children. While in the process of adopting Stevey Joy and Maria, Mary Beth and Steven worked with other families to help them adopt children, along with being missionaries in China. Sadly, their youngest Chinese daughter, Maria, passed away in 2008 due to getting hit by a car at the age of five years old! Steven Curtis Chapman described his experience of losing a child. Steven and the family also experienced God’s comfort and love while they grieved for Maria.

      Overall, I did enjoy reading Steven Curtis Chapman’s book, Between Heaven And The Real World: My Story, because I was once a Steven Curtis Chapman fan! So it was a great book for me to read about his life from childhood, adulthood, to parenthood. In other words, I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who loved or still loves Steven Curtis Chapman’s music and also his ministry work.

Trivia Questions: 

1) Why did Steven Curtis Chapman's parents decided to have a second child? Which just so happened to be the one and only Steven Curtis Chapman! 

2) Like I mentioned in this blog, Steven's daughter, Maria, did get run over by a car. 

Question: Who was driving the car?!? 

3) Why the word SEE a huge part in the Chapman Family?  

Chapman, Steven Curtis. Between Heaven And The Real World: My Story. Grand Rapids: Revell, 2017. Print.