First Daughter: White House Rules

I enjoyed one of Mitali Perkins' books a few months ago, and have been eyeing her book First Daughter, so I was quite excited to come across it at the library a week ago.

While I don't think that the book quite lived up to my expectations, I think a fifth or sixth grade version of myself would have really liked it. The book centers around Sameera, the teen age daughter of the newly elected president. Sameera was adopted as an infant, born in Pakistan. Interesting that Perkins wrote a book about a minority child living in the White House before the Obama adminstration. While I didn't think there was much plot driving this story forward, I did appreciate the little tidbits about the private life of the First Family in the White House - some true (like the fact that there is a bowling alley in the White House) - and others that are a part of the story. Sameera is dealing with her new life in the spotlight, a crush on a boy, deciding whether to attend a public school, and enjoying her cousin, Miranda who is visiting.

During my own junior high years I remember reading The President's Daughter by Ellen Emerson White which I have only recently come across again (this book has been republished and is the first of four books in this series by White), and loved reading.

To find out more about The First Daughter, visit Mitali Perkins' website.