In March I attended the Missouri SCBWI Agents Day.  One of the agents praised Dan Yaccarino’s The Fantastic Undersea Life of Jacques Cousteau (Knopf, 2009) and sure enough, this is a fantastic picture book–biography, science, and nature all rolled up with wonderful text and artwork.  Check out this trailer.

“What do you want to be when you grow up?”  A fire fighter, an Olympic speed skater, a veterinarian, maybe president of the United  States?   So You Want to be President? written by Judith St. George and illustrated by David Small (Penguin) gives the real scoop about being president. 

There are good things about being president:  a big white mansion, a swimming pool, a bowling alley, and a movie theatre in your house.  There are bad things about being president too: dressing up all the time, having people throw cabbages at you (ask William Howard Taft about that one), and nonstop homework.  

“Lots of people want to be President.  If you want to be President, it might help if your name is James.  Six presidents were named James.”  It also might help if you live in a log cabin.  “People are crazy about log-cabin Presidents” (there have been eight).

This fun, non-fiction picture book shares quirky, interesting facts and quotes from past presidents.  For instance, did you know that a female reporter once caught John Quincy Adams skinny-dipping in the Potomac and she “snatched his clothes and sat on them until he gave her an interview?”  John Quincy Adams also said being president was “the four most miserable years of my life” (perhaps because he couldn’t skinny-dip without paparrazi on his tail). 

So You Want to be President? is the perfect book for that kid who loves trivia and random facts.  You know, the kid who remembers obscure details about Albus Dumbledore’s family tree and would be a natural on the TV game show Jeopardy.

David Small’s Caldecott-winning caricatures of the presidents add an extra layer of humor.  Richard Nixon scowls as Warren Harding wins a presidential beauty contest and George H.W. Bush sits backstage green with envy (literally) as Ronald Reagan gets wild applause. 

Originally published in 2000, So You Want to be President?  was updated in 2004:  three presidents were now named George instead of just two and there was another father/son presidential duo.  With Barak Obama’s election, author Judith St. George will need to update the book again.  This time she’ll need to make an even bigger change:  deleting the words “No person of color has been President.” 

So You Want to be President? gives you plenty of inside presidential buzz.  Because, after all, if you want to be president when you grow up, it’s never too early to start preparing.

Susan Beth Pfeffer’s the dead & the gone (Harcourt 2008) is a companion story to her previous YA novel Life as We Knew (Harcourt 2006).  The novel takes the same cataclysmic disaster, but this time tells the story from the perspective of Alex Morales, a seventeen-year-old boy living in New York City.

When a meteor hits the moon and pushes it closer to the Earth, the change in gravitational pull causes massive worldwide destruction.  Tides rise, magma surfaces, tectonic plates shift, and soon the earth is enveloped by natural is –tsunamis, volcanoes, earthquakes.  Volcanic ash darkens the sky, temperatures plummet, crops fail.  There are evacuations, power outages, food and fuel shortages, deadly epidemics.  Lines of communication shut down–no radio, internet, cell phones, tv. 

 Thousands of people are dead, and most of Alex’s family are among “the gone,” as Alex refers to them.  These include Alex’s older brother Carlos who is deployed with the Marines, Alex’s aunt and uncle who evacuate soon after the disaster, Alex’s mother who has never returned home from her shift at the hospital, and Alex’s dad who has never returned from a family funeral in Puerto Rico.  They are “the gone”–never confirmed dead but nonetheless absent.  Just like Alex’s aunt and uncle who evacuate NYC soon after the disaster. 

Thrust into the role of protector and provider for his two younger sisters, Alex second-guesses his decisions and struggles to come to terms with overwhelming responsibilities  (including a nightmarish visit to Yankee Stadium–now morgue–to look for the body of his mother).  Dreams of being elected senior class president and getting accepted to a good college are totally irrelevant   in a world where survival is the only goal.

 What is essential?  What is important?  If life all changed tomorrow,  what would really matter?  Author Susan Beth Pfeffer offers another great novel that makes you question your needs, your wants, and your priorities.