From School Library Journal
PreSchool-Grade 2–In this timely tale, Krosoczka gives a simple overview of how campaigns and elections work. When their teacher announces that it is time to elect a new class president, Max and Kelly decide to run. Both children create posters, distribute buttons, and make promises about what they will do if elected. After the ballots are counted and Kelly wins, she chooses Max to be her vice president, showing readers that no president can do the job alone. Together, they accomplish good things for their school. The colorful cartoon artwork features shades of red, white, and blue that match the theme nicely. The characters' expressive faces reveal the ups and downs of the experience. Given the upcoming election, this story is sure to be a hit.
–Kelley Rae Unger, Peabody Institute, MA Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
K-Gr. 2 There's not a great deal to this. Max wants to be class president and so does Kelly. Both give short campaign speeches and make promises. Both put up posters ("Vote for Kelly. Better school lunches for your belly"). Then it's time to vote, and in a surprise ending, Kelly wins. But she gets to pick the vice president, and of course, it's Max. The pictures^B enliven the straightforward text. Thickly painted artwork fills up both spreads and individual pages, with reds, whites, and especially blues being the dominant colors. The multiethnic crowd of students at this school seems always to be smiling (well, Max hangs his head a bit when he loses), giving this an upbeat, let's-all-cooperate feeling. For the youngest students, especially in an election year, this provides an entryway into the process of campaigns and voting.
Ilene CooperCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
