BOOK REVIEW: THE SUMMER OF 1787: THE MEN WHO INVENTED THE CONSTITUTION, by David O. Stewart, David O. Stewart, trial lawyer, originally turned to Madison's 500-page volume of notes from the convention to answer a question during a Supreme Court case. He was drawn to the story of how and why the delegates convened, wanting to tell as much as possible of their personal stories. The Summer of 1787 is a colorful, highly readable description of what it must have been like to be in that hot statehouse with the framers of Constitution. The Summer of 1787: The Men Who Invented the Constitution is available in paperback from Simon & Schuster for $ 15. Capitol Cat & Watch Dog Unite Lady Freedoms, by Janice Law, Author Janice Law, a member of the Florida and Texas bars, includes a vocabulary and historical personality list for children to research on the Internet. This is her fourth work. Capitol Cat & Watch Dog Unite Lady Freedoms is available at www.judgejanicelaw.com or Amazon.com in paperback for $ 12.95.

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P1 There was a lot wrong with this nation in 1787, when 55 delegates from 12 states traipsed to Philadelphia for secret meetings on the creation of a new central government. At the time, the fledgling federal government didn't have the power to collect taxes or regulate trade. The Spanish prohibited Americans from crossing the Mississippi River and the British occupied forts in the west, refusing to trade with them. The states and Congress each issued their own money, though Congress' money was widely thought useless. There was no organized military; rebel factions fought state troops in skirmishes scattered all over. Half the nation's economy was based on slavery.

P2 "The present system neither has nor deserves advocates," wrote Virginia statesman James Madison, as he convened the delegates, "and if some very strong props are not applied will tumble quickly to the ground."

P3 So the delegates made their way through summer in Philadelphia, with its biting blackflies and free-roaming pigs feasting on the bodies of dead dogs and horses that littered the vacant lots. Ben Franklin, 81, rode over in a glass-walled sedan chair carried by four prisoners from the nearby Walnut Street jail. Thirty delegates stayed the whole time, writing, fighting, and speechifying in the Pennsylvania statehouse with the windows closed. Others came late, left early, or disappeared back home in the middle, to take care of family, state business, and the bills.

P4 "We move slowly in our business; it is indeed a work of great delicacy and difficulty, impeded at every step by jealousies and jarring interests," wrote one delegate from North Carolina.

P5 When night magic transforms the statues inside the U.S. Capitol Building into famous, living beings, Capitol Cat and Watch Dog recruit them as a secret Nighttime Congress to lobby for the reunion of two Lady Freedoms, American symbols who have been separated for more than 145 years.

P6 Capitol Cat & Watch Dog teaches children and adults about history and values as its main characters cooperate to achieve a positive contemporary goal. Characters are drawn from America's diverse cultures, including King Kamehameha I of Hawaii (America's only king) and Sarah Winnemucca, a Paiute Indian woman who started a school for Native Americans around 1880. Capitol Cat and Watch Dog's lobbying effort is headed by three suffragettes and three former presidents. Some of the book's scenes take place in the new $ 621 million Capitol Visitor Center in Washington, D.C., which opened on the Dec. 2 anniversary of Lady Freedom, the book's heroine.