Saturday, January 05, 2008

Election Fever!

The Pheonix officially trashed my entire state this week. Not Rhode Island. My real state. I especially like this part:
[C]redit New Hampshire and Iowa for an almost pathological determination to take any steps necessary to maintain their privileged role. “This is their life,” says University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato. "They’ll hold their contests right after July 4 the year before the election if they have to — they don’t care, as long as they’re first."
The article suggests it would be more fair to let other states have a crack at being first. But my point is: nothing short of total revolution will make this country's political process more fair. Who are we kidding? So why call off the carnival?

Anyway, mulling over carnivals and revolutions reminded me that there are a surprising number of books about kids running for president. My favorites are probably Tashijan's Vote for Larry, and Gutman's The Kid Who Ran for President.

And then there's the whole YA obsession with presidential offspring. Personally, I think it's all about the body guards. The uncontested champion in that arena is Ellen Emerson White's trilogy, but there's also First Boy, by Gary Schmidt, and First Daughter: Extreme American Makeover, by Mitali Perkins.

OK, I'm starting to feel a display here. For books that are about the political process in the grass roots sense of the word, I like Amy Timberlake's That Lucy Moon Girl (there was a spiffy review of it on A Chair, A Fireplace, and a Tea Cozy) and my old fave, E.L. Konigburg's T-Back, T-shirt, Coat, and Suit.

And then when I throw in all the books about high school elections, not to mention the non-fiction books about actual elections, I think I could probably fill all my display areas. Yes! As long as I don't end up taking all the books home to see if they talk about the New Hampshire primary ...

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