MADAM PRESIDENT, The Extraordinary, True (and Evolving) Story of Women in Politics
By Catherine Thimmesh
Illustrated by Douglas B. Jones
Houghton Mifflin, 2004
Category: Middle Grade Nonfiction
A super book for Super Tuesday …
I met with the one and only Erica Zappy yesterday so that we could hammer out a presentation we are giving together at the Cambridge Science Festival in May. (Details on that soon.) I came away, as I always do, wowed by Erica’s passion for her work. I also came away with a pile of great books (Thank You, Erica!) … including MADAM PRESIDENT.
“Revised and Updated” since its 2004 publication, the book is a compendium of the history of women in politics. Author and illustrator use a clever frame to organize their profiles of twenty-two female political pioneers: a sassy, contemporary young lady who declares in the book’s opening spread,
“When I grow up, I’m going to be the president of the United States.”
“You …?” she’s asked, “a … GIRL? Well, maybe you could marry a president …”
And so we meet first ladies with passion and grit: Abigail Adams, Edith Bolling Wilson, Eleanor Roosevelt, Ladybird Johnson, Rosalyn Carter, and Hilary Rodham Clinton.
“And, of course, when you’re eighteen you can at least vote for the president …”
And we meet women who fought for our right to vote: Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Charlotte Woodward, Susan B. Anthony, Sara Bard Field, Mrs. J.L. Burn.
Thimmesh and Jones go on to introduce Congresswomen, Cabinet women, female political candidates, and international leaders, each with the perfect amount of detail. I learned new things about women I admire, met women I had not known before, and was inspired by the sassy heroine and the brilliant final art spread (a photomosaic of the White House composed entirely from images of women) to wonder about my own place in women’s history.
So, Dear Readers, go forth today and read about amazing women.
Go forth today and vote.
And if you really want to make my day, go forth today and vote for an amazing woman:
