CANDACE FLEMING

BOOKS

A Big Cheese for the White House

illus­trat­ed by S.D. Schindler

Far­rar, Straus & Giroux, 2004
978–0689841750
ages 6 to 10

Find this book at your favorite pub­lic library or used bookseller

After you’ve read A Big Cheese for the White House, try this book:

A Big Cheese for the White House

The True Tale of a Tremendous Cheddar

“What good shall I do today?”

How Ben Franklin answered that ques­tion — through his work as a writer, print­er, states­man, and inven­tor — for­ev­er estab­lished him as one of Amer­i­ca’s great­est fig­ures. On one day in 1729 he pub­lished the first edi­tion of the Penn­syl­va­nia Gazette; on anoth­er day he changed the Dec­la­ra­tion of Inde­pen­dence by adding the famous words, “We hold these truths to be self-evi­dent”; and it was all in a day’s work when he plant­ed the first wil­low trees in America.

Mod­eled on his own Poor Richard’s Almanack, this unique scrap­book cap­tures Franklin’s count­less accom­plish­ments. Biog­ra­phy and anec­dote, car­toon and etch­ing mesh to cre­ate a fas­ci­nat­ing por­trait of this most fas­ci­nat­ing man. Any­one inter­est­ed in the birth of Amer­i­can democ­ra­cy … or curi­ous about the rise of the U.S. postal sys­tem … or won­der­ing how paper mon­ey came to be … or want­i­ng to know how Ben Franklin was part of it all, is sure to pore over Ben Franklin’s Almanac.

Resources

Awards and Honors

  • Bank Street Col­lege of Edu­ca­tion Best Chil­dren’s Book 2000
  • CCBC Choic­es 2000
  • Cen­ter for Chil­dren’s Books Best Book, 1999
  • NCSS-CBS Notable Trade Book, 2000
  • Nest Lit­er­ary Classic

Reviews

“As she did in The Hat­mak­er’s Sign, Flem­ing once again par­lays a lit­tle-known his­tor­i­cal nugget into a divert­ing pic­ture book. In the late 19th cen­tu­ry, the folks of Cheshire, Mass., a locale known for its delec­table ched­dar, grow mighty dis­grun­tled when they learn that Pres­i­dent Thomas Jef­fer­son is offer­ing cheese from a Con­necti­cut town to his White House vis­i­tors. The Cheshire res­i­dents band togeth­er to pro­duce a gigan­tic wheel of cheese that will catch the Chief’s eye and please his palate for years. They gath­er pro­duce from every milk-yield­ing bovine in near­by pas­tures into a “cow-cre­at­ed riv­er,” a large apple press squeezes whey from the curds and the vil­lage black­smith pounds out an enor­mous hoop to hold the 1235-pound, four-foot-high cheese. A town elder, accom­pa­nied by the cranky local naysay­er trans­ports the for­mi­da­ble fro­mage by sleigh and ship to the White House, where Jef­fer­son “cut into the ched­dar’s gold­en glo­ry.” With his fine­ly detailed, droll pen and water­col­or pic­tures, Schindler, who col­lab­o­rat­ed with Flem­ing on Madame LaGrande and Her So High, to the Sky, Uproar­i­ous Pom­padour, wry­ly cap­tures both the peri­od fla­vor and tall-tale tone of the sto­ry. A sat­is­fy­ing, well-aged slice of Amer­i­can lore. ” (Pub­lish­ers Week­ly)

“A lit­tle-known piece of Amer­i­can his­to­ry is at the cen­ter of this humor­ous sto­ry. When the peo­ple of Cheshire, MA, hear that Pres­i­dent Jef­fer­son is eat­ing ched­dar made in Nor­ton, CT, instead of their own, they decide to do some­thing about it. Against all odds, they make a 1235-pound wheel of cheese and ship it to the pres­i­dent, who declares it the best that he has ever tast­ed, puts it in the record books, and serves it until it final­ly goes bad. Using a cast of amus­ing char­ac­ters that include lit­tle Humphrey Crock, who is good at arith­metic; Elder John, the real-life mas­ter­mind of the scheme; and the doubt­ing Phineas Dobbs, who scoffs every step of the way, Flem­ing makes this strange bit of his­to­ry inter­est­ing and fun­ny. Each of the char­ac­ters has a dis­tinct per­son­al­i­ty, and the water­col­or and pen-and-ink illus­tra­tions bring all of them to life. Schindler’s detailed, car­toon­like art­work inte­grates well with the wit­ty text. An author’s note sep­a­rates fact from fic­tion and explains what hap­pened next. This book would be a great choice for class­room units on his­to­ry, world records, cheese mak­ing, or even on suc­ceed­ing at some­thing that seems impos­si­ble. It’s also a good bet for any­one look­ing to liv­en up his­tor­i­cal fic­tion col­lec­tions for the younger set.” (School Library Jour­nal)