George Washington Allen, a boy who never gives up until he finds out what he wants to know, is determined to learn all there is to know about his namesake—including what the first president ate for breakfast!

"The sprightly, humorous story and likable colored illustrations bring history alive and make research meaningful." -Booklist

"A delightful book…The plot combines history, biography, research, cooking and a determined child." -The New York Times Book Review

"Younger and reluctant readers may enjoy this, as it offers a painless way of picking up information." -School Library Journal

About the Author: 

Jean Fritz researches the past as if she were a journalist. She says, "My beat may lie in another time, but my approach is that of a reporter, trying for a scoop, looking for clues, connecting facts, digging under the surface." At the center of her research are the people who shaped the past, and she is especially interested in the quirky things about them. "History is full of gossip; it's real people and emotion," says Fritz. The details about these people and their emotions make Fritz's biographies and other historical books come alive for today's readers. Until she was 12 years old, Fritz and her family lived in China, where she relied on stories and writing to ease her loneliness. In those early years, she began to keep a journal in which she wrote her feelings about people and life. When she grew up, she held a number of jobs that involved writing. She also tried to get some of her children's stories published, but at first she did not succeed. Eventually she worked as a children's librarian for two years, gaining a deeper understanding of the craft of writing for children. She began sending her stories out again, and this time they began to be published. That was nearly 50 years ago, and Fritz's writing career is still going strong!