Elections!

As the presidential campaign season enters its last few weeks, the political process is constantly in the news. The following books can interest everyone from budding politicos to anyone who has ever wondered “what does it take to be the President?”

Picture Books

Christelow, Eileen
Vote! 2003.
Using a campaign for mayor as an example, shows the steps involved in an election, from the candidate’s speeches and rallies, to the voting booth where every vote counts, to the announcement of the winner.
[Center for Children’s Books: S.324.973 C461v]

Cronin, Doreen
Duck For President. 2004.
When Duck gets tired of working for Farmer Brown, his political ambition eventually leads to his being elected President.
[Education S Collection: SE. C881d]

DiPucchio, Kelly
Grace For President. 2008.
When Grace discovers that there has never been a female U.S. president, she decides to run for school president.
[Education S Collection: Q. SE. D626g]

Smith, Lane.
Madam President. 2008.
A little girl imagines what her day would be like if she were President of the United States.
[Education S Collection: SE. Sm618m]

Stier, Catherine.
If I Ran For President. 2007.
Discusses the presidential election process.
[Education S Collection: S.324.70973 St524i]

St. George, Judith.
So You Want To Be President? 2004 (Revised and Updated Edition)
This new version of the Caldecott-winning classic by illustrator David Small and author Judith St. George is updated with current facts and new illustrations to include our forty-second president, George W. Bush. Hilariously illustrated by Small, this celebration by St. George shows us the foibles, quirks and humanity of forty-two men who have risen to one of the most powerful positions in the world.
[Education S Collection: Q. S.973.099 St23s2004]

Middle Grades

Gephart, Donna
As if Being 12 3/4 Isn’t Bad Enough, My Mother is Running for President! 2008.
Preparing for spelling bees, having a secret admirer, and waiting for her chest size to catch up with her enormous feet are pressure enough, but twelve-year-old Vanessa must also deal with loneliness and very real fears as her mother, Florida’s Governor, runs for President of the United States.
[Education S Collection: S. G299a]

Gorman, Carol
Dork For President. 2002.
Having reluctantly agreed to run for sixth-grade president, Jerry, who has been trying to change his image as a dork, finds his opponent playing dirty tricks on him.
[Education Storage: S.G68d]

Howe, James
The Misfits. 2001.
Four students who do not fit in at their small-town middle school decide to create a third party for the student council elections to represent all students who have ever been called names.
[Education S Collection: S.H8382mi]

Morris-Lipsman, Arlene
Presidential Races: the Battle for Power in the United States. 2008.
Describes how election campaigns for the office of President of the United States have changed from the time of George Washington to the Bush vs. Kerry campaign of 2004.
[Education S Collection: S.324.973 M831p]

Thimmesh, Catherine
Madam President. 2004
A collective biography of women involved in politics in the United States and abroad. A story about a girl who is ridiculed for wanting to be president frames the introduction to the many women who have cleared the path that will eventually lead to a female president.
[Education S Collection: Q. S.320 T348m]

Young Adult

Bauer, Joan
Hope Was Here. 2000.
When sixteen-year-old Hope and the aunt who has raised her move from Brooklyn to Mulhoney, Wisconsin, to work as waitress and cook in the Welcome Stairways diner, they become involved with the diner owner’s political campaign to oust the town’s corrupt mayor.
[Education Storage: Education Storage: S.B326h]

Cabot, Meg
All-American Girl. 2002.
A sophomore girl stops a presidential assassination attempt, is appointed Teen Ambassador to the United Nations, and catches the eye of the very cute First Son.
[Education S Collection: S.C1125a]

McKissack, Pat
To Establish Justice: Citizenship and the Constitution. 2004.
America was founded on the idea of liberty for all. But it has not always achieved that ideal. To Establish Justice is an honest and powerful examination of the Supreme Court’s role in legalizing-or negating-civil rights for various groups. From the struggles of Native Americans at the country’s birth to the African American civil rights movement of the 1960s, from the vote for women to the internment of the Japanese during World War II, To Establish Justice shows how the Supreme Court has paved the way for both justice and discrimination, and how this important arm of our government has impacted all of our lives.
[Education S Collection: S.342.7308 M459t]

Perkins, Matali
First Daughter: Extreme American Makeover. 2007.
During her father’s presidential campaign, sixteen-year-old Sameera Righton, who was adopted from Pakistan at the age of three, struggles with campaign staffers who want to give her a more “all-American” image and create a fake weblog in her name.
[Education S Collection: S. P419f]

Schmidt, Gary.
First Boy. 2005.
Dragged into the political turmoil of a presidential election year, fourteen-year-old Cooper Jewett, who runs a New Hampshire dairy farm since his grandfather’s death, stands up for himself and makes it clear whose first boy he really is.
[Center for Children’s Books: S. Sch53f]

Lynch, Chris
Political Timber. 1996.
High school senior Gordon Foley runs for mayor at the behest of his grandfather, an old-style politician scheming to regain power while he’s in prison for fraud.
[Education Storage: S. L991P]