When Penny Met POTUS

April 25, 2016
Penny is going to the “big white house” where her mother works to meet the mother’s boss, POTUS. Penny doesn’t know why the boss has such a funny name, but she imagines that he’s some kind of magical creature—she pictures him as a furry blue monster stuffed into a business suit, complete with a Secret Service team to go on “secret missions” with and a personal sandwich chef. So when POTUS is revealed to be an ordinary human President of the United States—even though it’s implied that she’s the first woman POTUS—Penny can’t help but be disappointed. Ruiz, a debut author who worked on President Obama’s 2012 campaign, wagers her premise and punchline on her heroine being clueless, and older readers may roll their eyes at a character who looks to be five or six years old and doesn’t understand who her mother works for. Younger readers, or those simply willing to go along for the ride, should still be entertained by Penny’s POTUS fantasies and the bright-eyed energy of newcomer Manwill’s animation-style drawings. Ages 4–7.

May 15, 2016
A common political acronym is decoded when a young girl accompanies her mother to her White House job and meets the mysterious "POTUS."Penny is a bright and curious little brown-skinned girl, but she's lacking one crucial bit of information about her mother's boss: who is POTUS, and what kind of weird monster must it be? Penny spends a chunk of the day imagining a blue-furred, horned creature with its own plane and a team of tentacled secret agents. When Penny goes wandering, she finally runs into POTUS, a bespectacled white woman with brown hair. After all her speculation, the girl is surprised not that the president of the United States is a woman, but that she's human. Illustrations feature big, expressive faces and give the White House an institutionally friendly vibe as well as a sizable, diverse staff to make it run smoothly. But the story plays a little loose with Penny's age, which is never established. If she's too young to recognize the president on sight, isn't she also too young to be wandering around the White House alone?As a sweet, simple miniexplainer of a very specific bit of jargon, it works, and the election-year timing couldn't be better. (Picture book. 4-8)

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June 1, 2016
Grades K-2 Penny's mom works for the mysterious POTUS, and today Penny gets to go with her to work! Penny's lively imagination paints POTUS as a big, blue, friendly monster of the Sendak variety. POTUS, Penny imagines, must be important and excitingshe just can't wait for the fun they'll have together. But Penny's mom is too busy to introduce her to POTUS right away, so Penny sneaks off through the White House to search, though no one she meets (the butler, the gardener) seems to know POTUS' location. Eventually Penny finds POTUS and receives a shock: POTUS isn't a monster, but rather a bespectacled human woman. Manwill's colorful Disney-style art is dynamic, familiar, and appealing. Ruiz assumes, probably correctly, that young readers aren't familiar with the POTUS acronym, though it's a bit of a stretch that Penny wouldn't know her mom's boss. However, the humor, imagination, and art more than make up for that, and the fact that Penny's surprise isn't about the president being a woman is a sly and winning detail.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)