5 Picture Books for Presidents' Day

Here are a collection of picture books about presidents, the presidency, and extraordinary Americans they choose to recognize. Some are funny, some are fictional, all are somewhat factual.

1. Duck for President by Doreen Cronin. Duck is ambitious. No farm can hold his dreams. In fact, he's so ambitious, he works his way up through the barnyard until he reaches the White House. And once he's there, he realizes it's too much work and pulls a George Washington -- he heads back to the farm. Of course, unlike Washington, he never finishes a single term. Fans of Duck will love his rolling term as the fowl in charge, while adults get the references to the way politics really works.
2. Otto Runs for President by Rosemary Wells. Otto's the good kid in school who turns the run for president into a three-way race against the popular girl and the school jock. Against all odds he shows that the key to winning is listening to the people (well. dogs) -- not beauty, not money (OK, it's a kid's book -- you have to allow some suspension of disbelief!), not bribery, not bullying, and not dirty campaigns. Otto pulls off an upset and becomes top dog!   
3. John,Paul, George & Ben by Lane Smith. OK, only one of them is president, and that's the honest one -- George. George Washington is joined by John Hancock, Paul Revere, and Ben Franklin, plus a surprise visit by the fifth Beatle, err, Founding Father, Thomas Jefferson (who went on to do quite well as our third president). Lane Smith is as funny as ever with imitation woodcuts that provide plenty of action as George chops down a cherry tree, John displays wonderful penmanship, Paul can't use his indoor voice, and Ben just doesn't know when to SHUT UP!
4. Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters by Barack Obama. Most picture books are about presidents; this one is by a president, and while most presidents choose to write books after leaving office, this one is the current occupant.  Barack Obama honors an odd mixture of Americans, including the two presidents most associated with President's Day -- Washington & Abraham Lincoln, but also great Americans from history, sports, and entertainment.
5. So You Want to Be President? by Judith St. George. Sure, most authors can take on one or two presidents, but St. George writes about them all. This entertaining book, highlighted by the Caldecott Award-winning artwork of David Small, presents entertaining facts about all our past presidents. That's no small task, but she manages (somehow) to fit it all into one picture book. I guess William Henry Harrison and Millard Fillmore get short-shrift again.  

Well, we've covered books by and about presidents, but here's a bonus selection, a picture book CHOSEN by a president. When he was running for office in 2000, George W. Bush was asked to list his 10 favorite books. On that list? The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. He said he enjoyed reading it to his daughters. Very sweet. And he learned his colors.

Hope you enjoyed this list of presidential picture books. MUNCH!

HAPPY PRESIDENT'S DAY!

*check out a sample from my The Spaghettisburg Address (in honor of Abraham Lincoln).

A Pair of Picture Books on an Editor's Desk

A few days ago, an editor at Scholastic Press requested I submit a picture book she and I discussed in passing back in June. I am amazed at her memory and her notes.

 

But I’m even more amazed that just two weeks before that, she requested an entirely different manuscript that she had expressed strong interest in at the same June conference.The one she was paid to critique.

So two weeks, two picture book requests from the same editor. 

 

I don’t know what to make of this new request, but I’m taking it as a good thing. In my experience, and say that of a few thousand other writers, if editors aren’t interested in your work, they don’t request a second manuscript. They simply say “Thanks, not for us. You have talent, but we can’t use it.” (Rejection letters let you down easy; critiques are a slap in the face).

I rewrote this second story, too, just a bit, to make sure it was right to send to her. I didn't quite agonize over it the way I did The Spaghettisburg Address because an editor at Cartwheel (an imprint of Scholastic) had once expressed interest in it and had taken to offering her thoughts on revision. Between her notes and an agent's thoughts on the project, I felt relatively comfortable sending it out. Now I'm in the waiting and hoping game, hoping not only that it gets signed, but that I don't have to wait too long to find out.

And then I'm hoping that one other thing she said in passing also comes true -- that she could see me doing an entire series of these books. Now that's worth waiting for!