Who Named Their Pony Macaroni? Poems About White House Pets

Singer commemorates a menagerie that’s furry, feathered, and even scaly, all of them “witnesses to history” who kept company with, and occasionally provided consternation for, U.S. presidents and their families. Beginning with George Washington’s hounds, a new breed that he created, and moving forward through time, Singer employs an impressive variety of rhyming schemes in service of the parade of animal names: Veto, the heroic Newfoundland belonging to James Garfield; Emily Spinach, Alice Roosevelt’s pocketbook-toted garter snake; and the titular Macaroni, Carolyn Kennedy’s pony. McAmis’s witty, ingeniously dimensional collages are a treasure, from a view of the Wilsons’ sheep grazing on the White House lawn to LBJ in a pool howling with his beloved mutt Yuki. Ages 6–8. [em](Oct.) [/em]