This book could be used for a 2nd-4th grade class.
So You Want to be President by Judith St. George is about all the different presidents and some fun facts about being a president. It starts out by saying how there are good things about being president and bad things about being president. It goes through each president and what they liked about being president and what they didn’t like. For example, something that George Bush liked was having a bowling alley in his house. William McKinley didn’t like that he always had to dress up. So many fun facts are presented throughout the book, like how you might be able to become president if your name is James because there has been six presidents named James. It is a very informative historical picture book that would be a fun way to teach students about all the presidents. In the back of the book, it lists the order of the presidents, where they were born and when they died, and what their accomplishments were while they were presidents.
I feel like this book would be great to use in a classroom. It is very engaging and it definitely can grasp students attention. The illustrations help add character to a book that you wouldn’t realize right away as being very factual. As a teacher, I would present this book maybe during the elections, or even before Presidents Day. It’s a history lesson without all the textbooks and the notes which is a fun concept. This book could be used as a mentor text to get students so start to understand the meaning behind being a president. According to Tompkins, “Teachers often use mentor texts as they teach students to listen and talk more effectively. Many stories and informational books that teachers read aloud, for example, encourage critical thinking”(p. 137). This informational book could encourage critical thinking by making the students think about the different requirements it takes to become a president and some of the perks that come along with it. Overall, I think it is a very fun and entertaining book to read to children who are just first learning about presidents of the United States.
George, Judith St., and David Small. So You Want to Be President? New York: Philomel, 2004. Print.
Tompkins, G.E. (2013). Language arts: Patterns of practice. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Teaching with Children's Literature 