Grace for President

Anika Noni Rose gives voice to young Grace Campbell, who, on viewing portraits of the United States' presidents, blurts out with indignation--"Where are the girls?" Without skipping a beat, her teacher explains calmly and invites the class to hold an election for their own president. Grace declares with conviction, "I'd like to be president." Another class submits a candidate, Thomas Cobb, and the campaign begins. And the winner is . . . ! Rose speeds and slows, travels her vocal register, and brings all the electricity, hopes and worries, and tension of the election to young listeners. Author Kelly DiPucchio concludes the production with an explanation of the Electoral College and popular voting. A.R. � AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine

January 14, 2008
DiPucchio (Mrs. McBloom, Clean Up Your Classroom!
) delivers a lively and well-timed lesson on the electoral system. Grace, dismayed to learn there has never been a female U.S. president, announces she’d like to hold that office someday. Calling it a “star-spangled idea,” the teacher organizes an election, with each student representing a different state and casting its allotted number of electoral votes. Depicted with comical hyperbole in Pham’s (Freckleface Strawberry
) characteristic style, Grace’s superstar opponent is smart, popular, athletic Thomas. Shrewdly calculating that the boys hold more electoral votes than the girls, Thomas studies and plays soccer while Grace diligently delivers speeches, offers free cupcakes, holds rallies and even begins to fulfill her campaign promises (the text doesn’t comment on the other obvious difference: Thomas is white and Grace is a child of color). Not surprisingly, a boy casts the winning ballot for Grace, proclaiming her “the best person for the job.” High-spirited images include Grace posing as Lady Liberty, speaking from the top of a bunting-draped jungle gym and kissing a baby. (The don’t-miss-it picture is at the beginning, of kids looking at a poster containing the presidents’ portraits, all of them rendered to an almost photographic likeness by Pham). An endnote clarifies the workings of the Electoral College. Ages 5-9.