Vote for Isaiah!

January 1, 2009
K-Gr 2-In "Don't Forget"!, Sam has to care for the class rabbit, and, like many young students, he needs to work on attitude, planning, and follow-through. Complaining the whole time, he first tries to put off the feeding, and then performs the job sloppily. His persistent teacher and a friend teach him to embrace the responsibility. In "Vote", a somewhat weaker story, Suen answers questions about the electoral process and good choices through a series of conversations between the title character, who is running for student council, and his friend. The two talk a lot about what to put on campaign posters and how to deal with an opponent, but not much about what it means to serve. The characters and situations in both books unfold realistically, and Ebbeler's illustrations, showing multicultural students in a familiar school environment, fill in the details. The result is dialogue-driven character-education stories that meet readers at their own level. Comprehension and inference questions and a set of relevant school rules provide extensions for classroom use. The dialogic narrative invites use as reader's theater."Lisa Egly Lehmuller, St. Patrick's Catholic School, Charlotte, NC"

Copyright 2009 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 15, 2008
Grades K-2 Student council elections are always of interest to young readers.Enter Isaiah, an earnest kid who wants to run for third-grade student council. (Its not exactly clear why Isaiah wants to run, but a fantasy bubble of him standing at a podium in a sharp suit may have something to do with it.) His friend Omar offers to lend his art skills to jazz up Isaiahs campaign poster, but Omar goes too far when he suggests tearing down Isaiahs opponents poster. The book is meant to be used in a teaching environment: in place of a satisfying conclusion, readers are faced with a glossary and questions, including What doyou think about Omars advice to take down the sign? However, the clear narrative and appealing artworknot to mention the welcome introduction of two minority protagonistswill resonate with anyone whos ever hoped to win a vote.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2009
In [cf2]Vote[cf1], Isaiah struggles with whether or not to rip down his opponent's election posters. In [cf2]Forget[cf1], Sam has problems keeping up with his class pet-feeding responsibilities. Readers won't be fooled into thinking that these bland texts are anything but teaching tools. A few questions at the end of each book promote discussion. Muted illustrations show children of different ethnicities. Glos.

(Copyright 2009 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)