Duck for President by Doreen Cronin

Book Genre: Fiction

Publishing Info: Scholastic, Inc. (40 pages)

Awards or Honors: Arkansas Diamond Primary Book Award Master List, Book Sense Book of the Year Winner, Capitol Choices List (DC), CCBC Choices (Cooperative Children's Book Council), Colorado Children's Book Award Master List, IRA/CBC Children's Choices, Kansas State Reading Circle Primary Titles, Kentucky Bluegrass Award Master List, NAPPA Honors Award Winner, New York Times Best Illustrated Books, Parenting Magazine's Best Books of the Year,
Parents' Choice Approved Award Winner, School Library Journal Best Books of the Year, South Carolina Book Award Nominee, SSLI Book Award Honor Book

Summary: This is a humorous book about a duck who is unhappy with his current chores that he has to do on the farm. He decides to hold elections to find a new person to be in charge. He makes posters and rules for the election. When Election Day comes all the animals on the farm vote and Duck wins. However, he quickly learns that being in charge of a farm is hard work and no fun. He doesn't like to do the work, so he decides to run for governor. He makes posters and gives the farm back to farmer to hit the campaign trail. When this Election Day comes, Duck once again wins. But just as before he doesn't like all the work the governor has to do. Duck decides to run for President. Just as before he makes posters, gives speeches, kisses babies, rides in parades, and appears on television. Election Day once again puts Duck in complete charge. This time he is president. He quickly finds out that running the country is hard work and not fun either. So, he leaves the vice president in charge and returns to the farm after reading an ad in the paper for "Duck Needed".

Personal Rating: ****Great! This is a very enjoyable book that teaches children a small amount about basic government and the election process. I love the humor and illustrations used throughout the story. The story is fun to read and the illustrations are vivid and entertaining. Children can't help pulling for Duck and wanting him to win.

Reading Level: K-3 (3.9 AR)

Interest Level: ages 4-8 years

Possible Uses: This book could be used many ways especially during November in an election year.
Writing: A Tree Map and a Flow Map could be made by students from the story. They could list the title and the various jobs had by Duck on the Tree Map. The Flow Map could be used to show the sequence of events during the story.
Art: The students could illustrate their favorite part of the book. They could also create election posters for Duck and put them up around the classroom or school.
Math: The teacher could lead the class in an election process in the class. They could vote and then count the ballots. After the ballots are tallied they could create graphs to show who won the classroom elections.
Social Studies: Discussions could be held on the differences of the jobs that Duck held and the places that he visited. This would also give a great chance to talk about citizenship in the classroom, school, and community. Roles of a responsible citizen could be addressed.

Potential Problems or Difficulties: Because of the level of vocabulary, this would have to be a read aloud for lower grades (K-1).