HELLO, GEORGE WASHINGTON!

Even though George Washington is introduced to the young reader as a babe-in-arms and is followed in his career up to the point of his retirement, Janice Holland has not succeeded in rescuing him from that limbo in which he has floundered since the first American history book was written. Despite colorful illustrations, which occasionally achieve a nice early-American quality, and despite an interesting variation to the cherrytree story, America's first president never quite transcends the role of a somewhat one-dimensional figurehead of historical, rather than human interest.