Duck for President

Cronin, Doreen. (2004). Duck for President. New York: Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division.

If you are searching for a picture book to introduce your government unit, look no further because Duck for President is a great choice!  This book is in the Fantasy genre category since the majority of the characters are talking animals.  However, the concepts they are discussing are government related. 

As you can tell by the illustrations on the cover, the plot of the story is hilariously told because Duck doesn’t like his life on the farm and he is searching for a better life. Therefore, he tries new career paths including being in charge of the farm, becoming governor, and finally running for the president of the United States of America.  Duck finally thought he knew what he wanted to do in life until one day he read the help-wanted ads.  I would have never dreamed the course he chose, so you’ll have to read the book to determine what path he ended up choosing. 

I thought this book would be a great introduction for a government unit because it mentions aspects of local, state, and national government levels.  Another reason I would choose this book to teach government is because of the vocabulary terms used, such as, election, voters, campaign, ballots, governor, state, presidential election, president, country, speeches, parades, and Secret Service Agents.   

The illustrator, Betsy Lewin, a Caldecott Honor, did an awesome job enriching the mood of the text because of the character’s facial expressions and color palette she chose. 

If you choose this book, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!