Bush’s daughter turns author

US President’s daughter is chronicling her experiences of working with children who face disease and distress

WASHINGTON DC: In October, exactly 11 months after the US Embassy in Buenos Aires asked Jenna Bush to leave Argentina for, among other things, “running naked down a hotel corridor”, US President George W Bush’s daughter will publish her first book. Ana’s Story: A Journey of Hope will chronicle Jenna’s experiences of working with UNICEF-sponsored charities in Latin America, especially her trip in 2006 to Paraguay, a country that has been facing a severe drought. 

This Saturday, Jenna will appear on her first-ever book tour at New York’s BookExpo America to promote her book. Published by Harper Collins, with a print run of half a million copies, online retailers like Amazon and Barnes & Noble have already listed the 256-page book, five months ahead of its publishing date. 

A preview on Amazon says: “Based on her work with UNICEF in Latin America and the Caribbean, Jenna Bush has written a powerful and personal non-fiction account of a girl who fights against all odds to survive. But Ana’s experience is not unique. She symbolises many children in peril and puts a face on the shocking statistics that suggest that 2.3 million children worldwide live with HIV/AIDS.”

Jenna reportedly started work on the book early this year, and began marketing a proposal with the help of Robert Barnett, a Washington-based attorney. After several rounds of negotiations and an undisclosed advance, Harper Collins announced in March its intention to publish the book.

Sandee Roston, the head of publicity at Harper Collins Children’s Books, was quoted by the Washington Post as saying, “Jenna will spend the rest of the summer putting the finishing touches to the book and prepare for her public debut this fall.” Jenna and Mia Baxter, Jenna’s college friend and the book’s illustrator, will spend most of October and November on the road on a 15-city book tour.

Jenna’s becoming an author is being seen in Washington as a remarkable transformation of a girl who was charged by the police in 2001 for trying to buy alcohol despite being underage and for using a fake ID.