Mac Barnett, the 2025–2026 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, is a
New York Times best-selling author of stories for children. His work has been translated into more than thirty languages and sold more than five million copies worldwide. Mac Barnett’s books have won many prizes, including two Caldecott Honors, three
New York Times/ New York Public Library Best Illustrated Children’s Book Awards, three E. B. White Read-Aloud Awards, the
Boston Globe–Horn Book Award, Germany’s Jugendliteraturpreis, China’s Chen Bochui International Children’s Literature Award, the Netherlands’ Zilveren Griffel, and Italy’s Premio Orbil. He is the cocreator, with Jon Klassen, of the Substack
Looking at Picture Books, as well as
Shape Island, a stop-motion animated series on Apple TV+, based on their best-selling Shapes series of picture books. Mac Barnett lives in Oakland, California.
Chris Van Dusen is the author-illustrator of many books for young readers, including
The Circus Ship and
Big Truck, Little Island,
and the illustrator of the Mercy Watson and Deckawoo Drive series. He lives in Maine.
[A] delightful, smart, and silly story about the most famous bathtub misadventure in U.S. presidential history. Chris Van Dusen’s bold gouache illustrations make eager use of double-page spreads, creating the scene and capturing the sly jokes and apt personifications within Barnett’s rhythmic prose. These larger-than-life renderings and the no-nonsense dialogue perfectly suit the occasion, juxtaposing the grandeur of the White House with the exposed Taft... Fleshy, funny, and fact-checked, this perfect Inauguration Day readaloud will plump up any presidential collection.
—Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
Van Dusen depicts the mustached, apoplectic president scrunched with knees to chest; in gouache caricatures, he emphasizes Taft's ample flesh and visualizes the staffers' dubious solutions (such as greasing the tub with fresh-churned butter or blowing it "into smithereens"). ... [T]here's no denying the riveting spectacle of Taft's struggle.
—Publishers Weekly
Barnett spins a probably apocryphal but nonetheless hilarious incident into a Cabinet-level crisis. ... The soapiest, splashiest frolic featuring a head of state since Audrey and Don Wood’s "King Bidgood’s in the Bathtub"
(1985).
—Kirkus Reviews
This larger-than-life example will provoke much laughter. ... Van Dusen’s spread of cascading water pitching Taft’s posterior into the air and out the window will surely please the intended audience. The energy in the gouache compositions, dominated by a presidential blue, comes from the motion lines around the frustrated, fleshy, quadruple-chinned head of state, as well as the preposterous solutions proposed.
—School Library Journal
The combination of Barnett’s repetitive assonance and Van Dusen’s gouache caricature illustrations (with strategically placed water and bubbles) sets the hilarious tone. A concluding author’s note reveals an archival photo of four men sitting in Taft’s custom-built bathtub for the White House and presents the actual facts pertaining to the president and his numerous commissioned bathtubs. Studying the presidency need never be dull again.
—Booklist
The illustrations perfectly match the tone and tenor of Barnett’s words. Taft is depicted in all his large, naked glory, but the illustrations give the President an air of authority and dignity. The book itself is physically large, though Taft is largest of all, filling up his spacious bathroom with his voluminous body and endless cacophony. Kids will enjoy the humor and energy in this story and be intrigued by the notion that presidents are people, too.
—Library Media Connection
Each page is a deliciously smooth (like chocolate!) series of illustrations of the drama — images where the rolls of flesh almost become animated themselves. How did Van Dusen do it? ... He makes the most of Mac Barnett's hilarious, imaginative and yet still respectful tale. ... This book rewards readers of all ages.
—The Sunday Plain Dealer
The funniest kids' history book we've seen in a while. ... Lots of silly fun.
—New York Post
Van Dusen's exaggerated gouache illustrations contribute to the author's merry absurdities.
—San Jose Mercury News
The text is humorous and early 20th century-sounding, with oversized illustrations and suit the subject perfectly.
—Palo Alto Weekly
