Customer Reviews

President Pennybaker (Paula Wiseman Books)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a cute and fun picture book. The pictures are remniscent of an earlier age, but the complaint is the same...life isn't fair for kids. They have to clean their rooms, wear nice, clean clothes to parties, do their homework and eat their dinners before they get dessert. So, Luke Pennybaker decides to run for President and change all that. With his dog, Lily, as his Vice Presidential Candidate, they hit the campaign trail. In the end, Luke finds that along with the freedom he would like to choose, comes responsibility too. I loved the surprise ending too, but I won't give that away.

I read this book to my grandsons, ages 6 & 8. Like most kids, they agreed with Luke. Life is unfair - to many chores, school & homework.

The art is cute & colorful. I got a few giggles, especially when Luke was asked what would be the first thing he'd do as the youngest president in America. He replied "Paint the White House orange".

My grandsons asked several good questions - what is voting? & what is campaigning? Campaigning was very simple with the pictures of Luke standing on boxes or shelves talking to both kids & adults.
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I recommend this book for 5 & up. Especially with this being an election year

PRESIDENT PENNYBAKER, by Kate Feiffer and illustrated by Diane Goode, is a large picture book that's great for either bedtime or anytime story telling for kids.

Simply written and filled with colored cartoons (that look like the old comics The Adventures of Tintin: Tintin in America / Cigars of the Pharaoh / The Blue Lotus (3 Complete Adventures in One Volume, Vol. 1)), the story revolves around a young boy, Luke Pennybaker, who decides to run for President of the USA to make life fair for kids everywhere and he wins!

Anyway, the cute story not only teaches young kids to aim big but also to be careful what they wish for because they just might get it. And that sometimes...being a kid isn't so bad.

My four year old pre kindergarten grandson loved me reading this book to him and pointing at the pictures. Once on Saturday. Sunday, he asked me to read this book to him again, so we did. He is not quite old enough to relate it to reality...yet. He did love the book and insisted on taking it home with him. Drawings are quite well done, very creative, the storyline is fun too, just enough realism to make the book a learning experience.

My son has read this book three times since it arrived this morning. I read the book after he did and didn't see what was so compelling. He gave the book 5 stars and I gave it 3 stars. I combined our ratings, thus the 4 stars above.

I asked my son why he likes this book so much. He said he liked it because the "dad acts just like a real dad and the boy acts and thinks just like I do and it is really funny at the end."

The dialogue between the dad and son is realistic and I guess, from a kid's perspective, the book does give a glimpse of the idea that being a president isn't the easiest job in the world.

I thought the book would be more educational but it is really basically for entertainment. Had I read the book first, I might not have even showed it to my son. I'm glad he got to it before I did.

"Life isn't fair," President John F. Kennedy once said," but government should be."

When Luke Pennebaker experiences the former (when his dad says he can't watch TV--even after he's done his chores), he tries to change it through the latter: A run for the U.S. Presidency on a "Be Fair" platform.

Like many politicians, Luke starts at the grassroots level and then expands his base. At the school auditorium, he announces a few of his reforms:

"I promise to make life fair."
"I promise that if I'm elected President, you'll only have to do homework when you want to."
"I promise that if I'm elected President, you'll be able to eat dessert any time of the day and go to sleep as late as you want to."

As one might imagine, the elementary school kids go wild. But how will this play nationally and how will he get that all-important campaign financing?

Luke and his dog Lilly (oh, this improbable ticket includes Lilly as the VP nominee), solicit pennies for Pennebaker, and tour nationally: A mountaintop in Colorado, "the beach at the Jersey shore," even a dog show in Detroit! Luke, who declares himself a candidate on the "Birthday Party," gets a uniformly warm reception, even though his kid-oriented promises probably wouldn't go over too well with adults: "...kids get treated like everyday is their birthday. They get to eat cake and ice cream and open presents every morning... They can flood the bathroom when they take a bath and keep their room as messy as they want to." (I'm not sure if--even on birthdays--these are generally ok'd by parents!).

A little more implausible (but fun) narrative turns follow: Apparently Luke can run for President, but a cop keeps him from voting because of his age. However, Luke "Fair" message impresses enough votes to win the election! Unfortunately, Luke learns that Fair Play is not all fun and games. In the spirit of the "Birthday Party," his gifts backfire (for example, while every citizen gets free ice cream, "a senator in Maine was allergic to ice cream, And the governor of California wouldn't eat anything with sugar in it." Furthermore, people are constantly calling and asking for things.

After all his efforts, Luke can't do the things he really wants to do. The only fair thing to do, he decides, is to resign. "I want to do what's fair," he said. I'm not really sure why this isn't plain old self-interest rather than being fair, but it's another tiny piece of illogic in the book. Luke resigns after a week, and, on accordance with the Constitution, the Vice President Lilly (his dog) ascends to the Presidency.

I'm also not sure what a young reader takes away from the book. I suppose there's something here about freedom and power conferring responsibility, and it's a little too much to expect that people and circumstance will always be fair. His dad certainly isn't, and his constituents are fair but demanding. However, the book's focus is on entertainment rather than instruction. The journey from elementary school to White House increases in scope and complexity, and Feiffer and illustrator Diane Goode provide some wry visual humor along the way.

Goode's airy watercolors are the most outstanding feature here. Although the book seems set sometime in the late 1940's, the drawing style has the feeling of a comic strip of the 1930's. Luke and his father, for example, sport Dagwood haircuts from the "Blondie" strip, and casual line drawings, animated pictures, and period objects (an old telephone, radio microphones, vintage autos, and sensation-packed newspapers) help the reader buy into this tall tale of mythic America. While Luke's resignation seems a little forced, and we're left wondering whether things will become fairer for him, it's best to treat this as a light story (with superb illustrations on wonderful thick glossy paper) that's entertaining if not compelling.

Luke Pennybaker was fed up of things being so unfair. He decided to do something about it. This head strong kid runs for president using funds of pennies raised for Pennybaker. He even enlists the help of a trustworthy VP, his dog. This is a fun and entertaining story with interesting and colorful retro illustrations. I enjoyed reading the story in the midst of election time.

I enjoyed this book and so did my 8 year old daughter. The concept is cute; Luke thinks life is unfair based on the treatment he received from his father (not allowed to watch TV). Luke's answer to the problem is to run for president, because afterall the president controls everything.

The best part of this book is how the author takes the reader through the election process. I think it gives young readers some insight, on their level, on what it takes to run a presidential campaign.

The downside for me was that the story seemed short. There did not seem to be much dialogue. There are a couple of other kids books dealing with the presidency (they are probably listed below) and I like them better.

One gauge I use when reviewing kids books is how often my daughter wants to read it. She read this book in about 10 mins. and has not wanted to read it again. That is rare.

I judge how good a book is based on the feedback I get from my 2 kids; a 6 year old girl and 7 year old boy. They say they like this book, but it does not cause the kind of excitement I've seen from them from other books. For example, they don't specifically ask for me to read it. It might help kids learn a little about how people run for office and get elected. I think for the kids the story moves along and has some odd stuff they focus on. For me, as an adult, I feel some of the story is filler and I don't understand the use of time shifting graphics (includes TVs, phones from the 20s, cars from the 30s and fashions from the 40s). Overall, I think it is hard to write a good children's book, but this one tries hard and succeeds most of the time.

Luke is running for president because he wants to change things. He wants everything his way. What kid doesn't?

It's a cute story, but nothing exceptional. I think kids will find it entertaining, and it should lead to discussions about voting and running for president. This simple story also teaches some valuable lessons, such as you can't have everything your way and you can't please everyone.