Donald Trump

April 15, 2017
Grades 7-12 The tide of youth books about Trump has started to creep in, and Reston's balanced take is the most serious and comprehensive yet. It focuses on Trump's favorite subjectDonald Trumpat the minimization of periphery characters. (You won't see much of old favorites Lyin' Ted, Little Marco, Low Energy Jeb, or Crooked Hillary.) But it works, flashing an observer's bulb directly into Trump's face: his surly student days, his wayward youth spent buying dangerous knives (?!) in Times Square, and mostly, his real estate deals, which largely succeeded based on Trump's bizarre, but weirdly effective, reliance on putting his name on everythingno matter what people or important pieces of art he had to steamroll. Reston doesn't blink at the lawsuits Trump settles out of court, his messy divorces, his crude comments about women (unfortunately, the damning Access Hollywood tape is ignored), and his career-long flip-flopping on countless issues. Most important, Reston highlights the underestimated national rage Trump tapped into. Layout is middling, but the photos are fine, and let's face ityour library needs this, and now.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)