Caldecott Award "So You Want o Be President?"

St. George, Judith. So You Want to Be President? Philomel Books, 2000.

This book received the 2001 Caldecott Award for amazing illustrations created by David Small. Each page is illustrated in a detailed comic-like appearance. I have to admit that I gazed at each illustration for a long time after I read each page. It reminded me how a child usually studies and explores illustrations with a long gaze in between reading each page. I loved the detailed facial expressions used in each illustration!

This is a wonderful book that teaches children about presidents from the past. It is packed with fun facts, characteristics, biographical information, family ties, notable achievements, and embarrassing moments of our past presidents. The book definitely helps children become familiar enough with our presidents to be able to compare and contrast them. I was pleased to find a page in the back that lists the names of each president in each illustration. There were also four pages at the end that provided a presidential timeline for readers. It included the name of the president, years they served, birthplace, death year, and notable accomplishments made during presidency.

My only fault is that the book is slightly dated because it only runs through President Clinton. One has to keep in mind though that it was written in 2000 and you could also encourage your students to do their own "updating" of the book for our last two presidents.

I have always enjoyed learning interesting and fun facts about each president, which made this book right up my alley! My favorites were about the pony that Teddy Roosevelt's children brought into the White House elevator and that William Harrison journeyed to the market each morning to do his own shopping. I think children will definitely get a kick out of reading about William Howard Taft's specially designed bathtub that could hold four men!

I have never read any other works of Judith St. George or from the illustrator, David Small. Both did an excellent job at combining their talents to create a great storybook that is entertaining and educational. I definitely want to check out some more of their work! This book helped me realize how important illustrations are to the overall effectiveness of story. The detailed, but comic-like illustrations helped create a storybook that had pictures that would appeal to a child and correlate smoothly with the story.