Vote for Me!

February 27, 2012
It’s a big election year, and Elephant and Donkey are pandering for votes. “Hey you! Yes, you with the great hair and that dazzling smile,” says Donkey. “f you pick me, I’ll give you peanuts!” promises Elephant. But it doesn’t take long for the candidates to forget about the voters and turn on each other (“Elephants don’t stink!” “Well, you certainly do, you big, stinky pooper scooper”), resulting in both figurative and literal mudslinging. Unlike some grown-up candidates, Elephant and Donkey repair their friendship—just in time to realize that the voters have already moved on. First-time author Clanton renders his battling duo in the pencil-like grays and blacks of classic editorial cartoons (Donkey almost always appears on the left against a blue background, while Elephant is on the right against red). Even readers unfamiliar with the political process will understand the demands being made on their loyalty. For children getting their first taste of presidential politics in 2012, this is a worthwhile testimony to the current state of political discourse. Ages 4–8. Agent: Marietta Zacker, Nancy Gallt Literary Agency.

February 1, 2012
What does it say that the nature and quality of our national political debate should be so baldly captured in a book for 4-year-olds? Newcomer Clanton's candidates are a donkey and an elephant, economically if emotively drawn on fields of blue and red. Yes, we know who these characters are, even more so when they start to address the reader, aka the potential voter. First come the soft sell, the loopy promises and idle boasts--"Do you like CANDY?" "I'm a SUPER CUTE elephant!"--then come the ad hominem attacks: "Well, you certainly do, you big, STINKY pooper scooper," or, drawing from Spiro Agnew's playbook, "belching beast of burden." Finally, they sling enough mud that the electorate takes its business elsewhere. It is a painful point well made, that these candidates are laughable when not plain embarrassing. But even if the name-calling has a measure of low humor at first, it soon pales--something that Clanton's book threatens to do before its neat twist--in direct proportion to its sustenance on either the entertainment or intellectual front, as any 4-year-old will tell you. Read it with Eileen Christelow's splendid Vote! (2003) if you want that 4-year-old to actually learn anything, though. An ever-timely message, told in (two) primary colors. (Picture book. 4-8)

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April 1, 2012

K-Gr 3-Donkey and Elephant will stop at nothing to win readers' votes. Their tactics include smarmy compliments ("YOU with the great hair and that dazzling smile"), shameless self-flattery ("How can you NOT vote for someone as adorable as me?"), and even bribes of candy and peanuts. The campaign soon degenerates, and insults such as "pooper scooper," "BOOGER-BREATH," and "SMELLYPANTS" are flung, along with mud. The candidates apologize to each other, but both are shocked when an "independent mouse" becomes the "Big Cheese." Clanton's pencil and watercolor cartoon illustrations appear on red and blue pages and humorously capture the nuances of the candidates' expressions as they try to manipulate the electorate. Readers too young to vote will still recognize the pitfalls of bad behavior in this satire of unsavory political practices.-Linda Ludke, London Public Library, Ontario, Canada

Copyright 2012 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 1, 2012
Grades K-2 Talk about timely. For those poor kids whose TV rooms have been invaded by bickering presidential contenders comes this sarcastic (but painfully true) distillation of the nomination process. A blue donkey and red elephant take up residence on either side of each spread and make their cases to the reader. Well, make their cases is a bit generous. They pander ( Yes, YOU with the great hair and that dazzling smile ), brag ( I'm a SUPER CUTE elephant ), bribe ( if you vote for ME, I'll give you a sucker ), and inflate their connection to the voter ( I know your friend's mother's aunt's gym teacher's pastor's duck-billed platypus. So, we're practically FAMILY ). Eventually, they go negative and sling mudliterallywhile a tiny mouse, seen scurrying in the corners, walks away with the election as an independent. Obviously adults are going to get a kick out of this, but the Mo Willemslike presentation, clever coloring (when the candidates make up, the background becomes purple), and universal anti-arguing message will tickle future politicos, too.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)