Title: “Woodrow for President”
Author: Peter W. Barnes
Illustrator: Cheryl Shaw Barnes
Publisher and Year: VSP Books 1999
Number of Pages: 27
Tags: Fiction, 2-3, 4-5, Stephanie Rudi
Genre: Non-Fiction
Analysis: This book is an educational summary of a mouse’s political career. “Woodrow for President” describes the political process in an easy to understand and unbiased way. It is very lighthearted and tries to get the reader interested in voting and performing their civic duty.
This book is a window into American politics and a healthy way of introducing the idea of politics to young readers. From our perception, the mouse, Woodrow, is making his way through a successful political career. Structurally, we see a mice drawn as though they are people and they do very people-y things, like running for president. In an ideological perspective, a whole political system is shown through animals to make it easier to understand, but it in real life politics are so much more complex. The book is trying to convince young readers to vote and to be involved, but it makes our American political process seem so easy and fun.
The picture book codes have Woodrow in the center of the page to show that he is most important throughout the story. An author’s note tells parents that they need to get their children excited to vote and perform their civic duty from a young age.