Close Calls
How Eleven US Presidents Escaped from the Brink of Death

This is a nonfic book for kids that will definitely be enjoyable for adults as well. Each chapter gives behind the scenes info one of our presidents and how they survived one or more attempts on their life. Not all of them happened while they were in office, but all give glimpses of the character ea......more

The eleven quick chapters share the stories of eleven of our presidents that escaped death- some before their presidency (usually while serving in the military) or as presidents usually from an assassination attempt. Each story is presented evenly and focused without much additional historical contex......more

Thank you Michael P. Sprawling for my copy of this book. It will have a great home on the nonfiction shelf in my classroom. This book is filled with near misses and moments of unbelievable bravery. I like how each story contained fact boxes with tidbits of information. The book is easy to read and w......more

In his new book, Michael P. Spradlin recounts for young readers the stories of how eleven U.S. presidents faced death and lived. Spradlin's book shares not only the close calls these men faced while serving as president, but also the close calls they encountered prior to their presidential terms. F......more

Arc provided by the publisher for an honest review. I loved the topic of this quick 100pg middle Grade nonfiction book. That said, it felt like they were stretching to fill content in the earlier chapters (later chapters had more interviews, witnesses, and primary documents to pull from to better fles......more