Customer Reviews

Grace for President

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

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!

Grace for President was a likable story. My 8 year old enjoyed reading it. Grace and her schoolmates are the cutest. This book is wonderful, it's colorful and easy for children to understand. I can see more children running for class president after reading this likable and loving story.

My two granddaughters loved this book. They are 5 and 6 years old. They have requested that it be read many times.

Elementary school student Grace Campbell has brains, a delightful personality, and a sincere desire to make things better for people around her. She also knows how to dream big, and when she learns at school that the United States has never had a female president before, Grace decides then and there that she would like to become President. Not one to discourage her students, the teacher immediately suggests a school election to start the process, and Grace soon discovers that she has an opponent: Thomas Cobb. Will her clever campaign strategy and her do-good personality help to overcome the fact that the boy students, who represent states with slightly more electoral votes than the states represented by the girls, tend to favor Thomas?

This clever book does an excellent job in introducing to children an intuitive lesson in how the Electoral College system operates for electing the U.S. president, and how votes are allocated across states. This lesson is wrapped up in an exciting plotline, a spunky lead character, and bold, engaging illustrations. Grace for President is a valuable addition to any collection of children's books that rank highly in both content and appeal.

My children and I enjoy this book! It's message is appropriate for the Democratic nomination of 2008, as Grace is an African-American AND a female. The underlying message is wonderful for young children, not just girls.

A friend to whom I will always be indebted gifted my 4 yo daughter with this book. I read it to her the night before the inauguration. She hung on every word, asking questions about the electoral college, her eyes drinking in every colorful, fancifully animated page. This book is a true work of art.

I was moved when I got to the next to the last page: when the children who'd laughed at Grace for thinking she could run for president, finally accorded her respect and admiration. I looked down at my smiling, cinnamon-faced child with her curly, happy braids, and my eyes filled with tears. The very last page...well, you'll just have to see it. It was descriptive of everything you'd want for your child. The realization that, finally, my daughter could hope for such a life, flooded me with emotion.

The next morning, we watched Michelle Obama hold a velvet-covered Bible for her husband. After he uttered "So help me, God," followed by the rousing cheers of millions, my daughter turned to me and said, "So, do we have a black girl president now?"

So, maybe she was a little confused. But all I could think was "Someday, Sugar."

This book is fabulous. I love the message of teaching our children to reach for their dreams and not be discouraged by social injustice (as Grace is female and African American). It has just the right mix of educational facts and entertainment all tied up with messages of "reach for your dreams" and "do the honorable thing" (voting for the best person rather than along gender lines). As other reviewers stated it is so timely. I am so excited about the current election because of what it represents, but haven't been able to spread that enthusiasm to my five year old daughter named Grace. This book did the trick.

Three generations of females in my family (ages 6, 26, and 65) are thrilled by this story!
Buy it now, in this election year in the US, if you've got any girls in your family.