Stating that “democracy is a messy business and it’s our job to sort it out,” Goodman takes a simplified route through the electoral process in this country, with special reference to presidential elections. Her anecdotal history starts with ancient Athens, closes with ways that readers too young to vote (in national elections, at least) can become politically involved and in between covers styles of campaigning, vice presidents, assassinations, dirty tricks, the Electoral College, hanging chads and related topics. Smith’s cartoon illustrations crank up the presentation’s light tone with comical views of candidates and voters, along with free-association riffs on donkeys vs. elephants, Congress, campaign financing and more. All in all, the team that produced The Truth About Poop (2007) and Gee Whiz! All About Pee (2006) treat their timely and (more or less) new topic with the same engaging informality. Readers will come away a little more informed about how elections work, and perhaps motivated to make their own voices heard. (resource list, index) (Nonfiction. 9-11)
Pub Date: May 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-1-59990-285-2
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2008
Whirls of tiny, brightly dressed people’some with wings—fill Kleven’s kaleidoscopic portraits of sun-drenched Los Angeles neighborhoods and landmarks; the Los Angeles—based authors supply equally colorful accounts of the city’s growth, festivals, and citizens, using an appended chronology to squeeze in a few more anecdotes. As does Kathy Jakobsen’s My New York (1998), Jaskol and Lewis’s book captures a vivid sense of a major urban area’s bustle, diversity, and distinctive character; young Angelenos will get a hearty dose of civic pride, and children everywhere will find new details in the vibrant illustrations at every pass. (Picture book/nonfiction. 7-10)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-525-46214-7
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1999
Koller (Bouncing on the Bed, p. 143, etc.) portrays a Narragansett nickommoh, or celebratory gathering, from which it is very likely the tradition of Thanksgiving was drawn. As explained in an exemplary note—brief, clear, interesting—at the end of the book, these gatherings occurred 13 times a year, once each lunar month. The harvest gathering is one of the larger gatherings: a great lodge was built, copious food was prepared, and music and dance extended deep into the night. Koller laces the text with a good selection of Narragansett words, found in the glossary (although there is no key to pronunciation, even for words such as Taqountikeeswush and Puttuckquapuonck). The text is written as a chanted prose poem, with much repetition, which can be both incantatory and hackneyed, as when “frost lies thick on the fields at dawn, and the winged ones pass overhead in great numbers.” Mostly the phrases are stirring—as are Sewall’s scratchboard evocations—and often inspirational—for this nickommoh puts to shame what has become known as the day before the launch of the holiday shopping season. (Picture book. 6-9)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-689-81094-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1999
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