The Kids Book of Canadian Prime Ministers. Rev. ed.

Christine Linge MacDonald, a past director of the Toronto & District
Parent Co-operative Preschool Corporation, is an elementary-school
teacher in Whitby, Ontario,

Originally published in 1998, this updated edition now includes a
mini-biography of Paul Martin. Like the profiles for all the other prime
ministers, Martin’s includes a full-figure portrait by John Mantha.
Mantha’s flattering portraits are not only pleasant to peruse, they
convey a wealth of historical information through the costume, whisker
style, and posture of each leader (the volume’s large format provides
a generous canvas for these).

Mantha’s warm-tinted historical illustrations propel the time machine
carrying the reader from John A. Macdonald’s colourful, tumultuous
years, through two world wars, to the struggle for Canadian identity in
the Trudeau era and economic changes in Mulroney’s reign. Each profile
is a large piece in the jigsaw puzzle of Canadian history. The reader
absorbs the overall picture as these pieces fall into place.

Other features of the book are Quick Facts boxes, Did You Know?
highlights, and easy-to-read maps. The volume concludes with a useful
timeline that parallels the prime ministers’ periods of leadership
with major events of the time. Highly recommended.