Grace for President (Hardcover)

~ Kelly Dipucchio (Author), Leuyen Pham (Illustrator)
Key Phrases: Grace Campbell

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

DiPucchio and Pham are game gals. Explaining the electoral system to adults isn’t easy, but  they make it understandable to kids. When Mrs. Barrington shows her class pictures of the presidents, energetic African American Grace asks, “Where are the girls?” Responding to Grace’s shock, Mrs. Barrington arranges for an election in which Grace runs against Tom, with each of the remaining students in the multiethnic class representing a state. It looks like popular Tom will win since the boys have the most electoral votes, so Tom just sits back while Grace advances campaign promises. When the votes are counted, Sam, representing Wyoming (where the first woman was elected to the House), throws the winning votes to Grace, because he “thought she was the best person for the job.”  The attractive paint-and-collage art captures the excitement of the race in layouts as diverse as the kids. However, there’s one big problem in the author’s note, which explains why individuals should vote even if they are not electing directly: “It’s those individual votes from regular people that add up to become the popular vote in each state.” The concept of larger versus smaller states isn’t really explained, leaving the idea that the winner of the popular vote will be president. As Al Gore knows, that’s not true. Grades 1-3. --Ilene Cooper

Product Description

"Where are the girls?"

 

When Grace's teacher reveals that the United States has never had a female president, Grace decides to be the first.  And she immediately starts off her political career as a candidate the school's mock election.  But soon, she realizes that she has entered a tough race.  Her popular opponent claims to be the "best man for the job"--and seems to have captured all the male votes--while Grace concentrates on being the best person.

 

In this timely story, author Kelly DiPucchio not only gives readers a fun introduction to the American electoral system, but also teaches them the value of hard work, courage, and independent thought--and offers an inspiring example of how to choose our leaders.

Product Details

• Reading level: Young Adult
  
• Hardcover: 40 pages
• Publisher: Hyperion Book CH (February 26, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786839198
• ISBN-13: 978-0786839193
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 8.5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #162,284 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars great! more books like this please!, April 9, 2008

By	cambridge reader "cambridgearea" (cambridge, ma United States) - See all my reviews

Grace discovers that no women have ever been president, and decides she'll be president one day. The teacher (hooray for her!) picks up on this and decides to run a school-wide election for president to teach the kids about presidential politics - including the unfathomable electoral college! At first no one challenges Grace, and she thinks "becoming president will be easy" but then a white boy from another class is recruited as her rival. All the usual campaign issues follow, until Grace is victorious by a narrow margin. An inspiring read. I will definitely be reading it to my daughter later- at 3 y.o this book is too complex for her, and has too much text per page to hold her interest. Probably more appropriate for 5 or 6 year olds.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Really resonates., June 13, 2008

By	Julienne Cassarino "JC" (Hartford, CT USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Of all the "election" books I could find, this one really stood out as being entertaining, informative, and extremely insightful. While Hillary's run is now over, the book subtely points out that at our most basic level we identify with our gender over other differences; and the use of Wyoming, "The Equality State", to overcome the gender bias is really well-done. The character Grace's honest incredulity that there has never been a woman president despite the obvious 50/50 split of girls and boys resonates in a sweet way.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great book!, May 22, 2008

By	Stanley Cup "Hockey Mom" (Holly Springs, NC) - See all my reviews

This is a fabulous book that can be used as a primer for educating children about how elections work in our country. Kelly DiPucchio has taken a complicated subject and made it completely user friendly for children to understand. It is a fun story to read, and factual at the same time. I love how the author assigned children in the classroom to represent states and their electoral votes. I loved that her character was a girl that decided enough was enough and it was time for a woman to become president without making an issue out of which political party she represented. And I loved that at the end of the book, the deciding delegate cast his vote for the best "person" to do the job. This is just a great book and very timely for an election year. Go Grace!