First Lady Laura Bush and Daughter Jenna Team Up for ‘Read All About It’

Jenna Bush knows skateboard magazines aren’t exactly literature. But the former teacher also recalls how the fifth- and sixth-grade boys in her classes would spend their summers playing video games, watching TV _ anything but reading.

“You really just have to find things they’re interested in,” she said in a telephone interview. “One of my students really liked skateboarding, so I made sure I found magazines _ National Geographic Kids, things that talked about adventure _ so that he liked reading. If you don’t like the subject material, if you’re not interested, you’re not going to read.”

Bush taught from 2004 to 2006 in the Washington area. Now, she’s reaching out to young readers in a different way with “Read All About It.” Published by HarperCollins, it features illustrations by Denise Brunkus. Bush co-wrote it with a woman who lives at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue _ her mother, first lady Laura Bush.

The book, aimed at the 4- to 8-year-old set, is the story of Tyrone, a boy who’s good at math and science but who thinks books are a bore. Thanks to some visitors to his school, he starts to see reading in a different light.

In an interview with The Kansas City Star, the two women discussed the generational forces that led to the book.

The first lady taught in Dallas and Houston schools; in 1973 she earned a master’s degree in library science and worked as a school librarian. The boy in “Read All About It” is a composite based on both women’s experiences.

“I used to tell Barbara and Jenna stories when they were little about … my students,” the first lady said. “And then, of course, Jenna started teaching, and I wanted her to tell me stories of her children. So it’s really based on a lot of children who we knew and taught.”

That love of reading was part of life at home, too. Unfortunately, some writers in the blogosphere and mainstream press have made fun of the image of George W. Bush reading Dr. Seuss’ “Hop on Pop” to his girls, then letting them pounce on him. Wouldn’t most fathers in this country earn points for such good parenting?

Asked if she would have treated her dad that way if she’d known he’d be president one day, Jenna Bush laughs and gives a very firm, “Yes!”

“That was a good thing about our dad and the way that our parents raised us … you know, they were parents first.”

Laura Bush has become known as a champion of literature. She worked with the Library of Congress to create the National Book Festival, an annual event that draws tens of thousands of visitors to the Mall in Washington. This is an election year, though, and the 44th president will be inaugurated in January 2009. Will the festival continue?

“Well, we are hoping (it) is now just an institution in Washington, (that) it will go on no matter who the administration is, and I really think it will,” Laura Bush said. “The Texas Book Festival that I started when George was governor will be in its 13th year this year. It’s taken a life of its own, just like the National Book Festival has.

“Last year over 120,000 people came to the National Book Festival. … Authors come from all over the country, and in a few cases we’ve had international authors as well. So I really do think … that it will go on, just because it’s so popular and the Library of Congress will want to continue it.”

Certainly that’s the library’s intent: John Y. Cole, founding director of the library’s Center for the Book, told The Star back in 2004 that he felt the festival’s long-term future was already secure.

“The festival is nonpartisan and must be seen as nonpartisan,” Cole said then. “It’s a hit because we connect popular authors directly with their readers through personal presentations _ not formal readings _ that include question-and-answer (sessions) and separate, one-hour book signings.”

Both Laura and Jenna sound a little wistful about “Read All About It.” A mother/daughter collaboration, its timing also makes it something of a rite of passage.

“Not many people have the chance to collaborate creatively with their family members,” Jenna Bush said. “To have that chance is really cool, and I think in time it will be more and more meaningful.”

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