Tales from the Campaign Trail II: Otto Runs for President by Rosemary Wells

It's election time at Barkadelphia School, and Miss Kibbler exhorts all the young puppy politicians to qualify to run by turning in their fifty paw prints. The usual go-getters, Tiffany, a member of the "popular poodle" crowd, and Charles, a hefty bulldog jock, already have some solid financial backers lined up to bankroll their campaign.

"You're the most popular girl in fifth grade," said Tiffany's mother and father. "We'll help you win the election. No problem!"

"We're on your team!" said Charles' mom and dad. "We'll make sure it happens."

Tiffany and Charles definitely know how to get a buzz going with their bases. "AN EYEBROW PENCIL IN EVERY PENCIL KIT. VOTE TIFFANY!" and "MORE MIRRORS IN THE GIRLS' ROOM. VOTE TIFFANY!" say Tiffany's pink and purple bumper stickers. "SKATEBOARDS IN THE HALLS. VOTE CHARLES!" and "BARKALOUNGERS INSTEAD OF DESKS. VOTE CHARLES!" counter Charles' stickers. "VOTE CUTE!" "VOTE STRONG!" they shout. Tiffany's parents hire cheerleaders to pep up her supporters. Charles' folks rent a pseudo-Yalie glee club to serenade the Barkadelphia Bulldogs at the big game.

"Wow," said Otto. "I'm going to run for president!" He begins to ask his classmates what they really want to happen at Barkadelphia School. The results are as varied as his fellow citizens are: watermelon in the cafeteria, bigger towels in the gym showers, field trips to the Madison Square Garden Dog Show, and bongos in the orchestra.

While third-party Otto is surveying the undecided, Tiffany and Charles dig deeper into the dirty tricks manual. Their parents provide free burgers and pancakes. Each candidate starts a reactionary rumor mill accusing their opponent of cheating and expropriating public funds. The campaigns have definitely gone negative!

But when the votes are counted, it appears that smear tactics have not nailed the presidency for Tiffany OR Charles. Instead, it's ordinary Otto, the mutt with the mostest, whose paw on the pulse of the public wins over the electorate.

Known for her popular Max and Ruby books, best-selling author Rosemary Wells' Otto Runs For President covers the basics of electioneering for the younger picture book set with plenty of good humor and appealing politico pups as characters. For a somewhat more realistic view of campaigning for classroom votes (and a bit of a primer on the electoral college), see my review of Kelly DiPucchio's Grace for President, posted on June 19, 2008.

Tales from the Campaign Trail: President Pennybaker by Kate Feiffer

It all started with a simple request from young Luke Pennybaker:

"Dad, can I watch TV?"

"Did you clean your room? Did you brush your teeth this morning? Did you feed the fish? Did you ask your mother if she needs help with anything?"

Now Luke is a normal kid. He hasn't done any of this stuff, but he willingly sets out to make things right with his dad. But when he reports back and asks again if he can watch TV, he gets a maddening response:

"No."

The unfairness of it all calls for some deep thought, and out of that reflection Luke Pennybaker decides that the only remedy for the unfairness of life is to run for president. A hot slogan, "Pennies for Pennybaker," gets the donations rolling in, and soon Luke, with Lily, his dog and running mate, hits the campaign trail. "I promise to make life fair!" he says grandly. "Are you in the Democratic or the Republican party?" journalists ask. "I'm in the Birthday Party!" Luke responds.

The voters rally to his call for fairness, and although he and Lily are turned away from casting their votes for themselves, the grownups respond with a landslide of votes for the fairness ticket and Luke soon finds himself in the White House.

But when Luke puts his platform into action, he runs into immediate problems. Birthday presents for everyone? But the mayor of New York doesn't like hers. A senator is allergic to the free ice cream. The Governor of California doesn't eat chocolate, and the dog belonging to a Cincinnati councilman turns up his nose at the free bones. Everybody has a problem and everybody wants President Pennybaker to fix it.

It wasn't fair! President Pennybaker decides to resign, leaving his canine vice president to deal with the problems of the presidency. Lily waves to the departing prez from her desk in the Oval Office as Luke heads for home, happy at the thought of feeding the fish.

In her President Pennybaker (Paula Wiseman Books), Feiffer's tongue-in-cheek text and noted illustrator Diane Goode's appealing drawings keep this light-hearted political story bouncing along to its predicable ending. Pair this one with Doreen Cronin's jolly Duck for President, for plenty of pre-election fun.