Grace for President (Grace Series, 1) - Hardcover

Kelly DiPucchio has written several children's picture books includingBed Hogs, Liberty's Journey,and Mrs. McBloom, Clean Up Your Classroom!. A graduate of Michigan State University, Kelly lives in southern Michigan with her husband and three children.

LeUyen Pham has been illustrating picture books since leaving her job as a layout artist at Dreamworks. Her illustrations have appeared at the New York Society of Illustrators shows every year since 2000. Her first book,Can You Do This, Old Badger?by Eve Bunting, was chosen as an ABA Pick of the Lists and a Book-of-the-Month Club Selection, and was awarded an Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Award, as well. Her second book was selected as one ofChildmagazine's Best Books of the Year. Her other books includeHanukkah, Shmanukkah, by Esme Raji Codell andBig Sister, Little Sisterwhich she both wrote and illustrated. She lives with her husband in San Francisco. She is also illustrating FRECKLEFACE STRAWBERRY by Julianne Moore, with Bloomsbury, which is a big fall 07 title for that publisher and will raise Uyen's profile tremendously in time for the release of this book.

DiPucchio and Pham are game gals. Explaining the electoral system to adults isn’t easy, but  they make it understandable to kids. When Mrs. Barrington shows her class pictures of the presidents, energetic African American Grace asks, “Where are the girls?” Responding to Grace’s shock, Mrs. Barrington arranges for an election in which Grace runs against Tom, with each of the remaining students in the multiethnic class representing a state. It looks like popular Tom will win since the boys have the most electoral votes, so Tom just sits back while Grace advances campaign promises. When the votes are counted, Sam, representing Wyoming (where the first woman was elected to the House), throws the winning votes to Grace, because he “thought she was the best person for the job.”  The attractive paint-and-collage art captures the excitement of the race in layouts as diverse as the kids. However, there’s one big problem in the author’s note, which explains why individuals should vote even if they are not electing directly: “It’s those individual votes from regular people that add up to become the popular vote in each state.” The concept of larger versus smaller states isn’t really explained, leaving the idea that the winner of the popular vote will be president. As Al Gore knows, that’s not true. Grades 1-3. --Ilene Cooper