Your kids will want to learn about American Government. Why? Because two authors made it enjoyable!
For middle school or older elementary age:
Michael Townsend’s Where Do Presidents Come From may be one of the most genius ways to help kids understand a lot of American government and history. Written in comic book form, it has almost as much information as a textbook. With so many comedic breaks between information your child will want to keep reading.
Teaching Tip: Our brain remembers images and story lines better than a string of facts. This book is filled with pictures. If the brain remembers an image, it can also help recall information associated with the image. So unlike information dense textbooks with limited illustrations- the comic book style gives the brain more visual images to aid in understanding and recall of the information.
Not only is this book entertaining, it presents information in a way that our brain can makes sense of it. Although this book seems geared toward middle school kids, if a younger child seems interested and has the reading ability s/he may like this too. My son read this book in second grade and he has read it again several times- that’s how much he likes it! If you click on the picture of the book you can see some of the pages of the book and determine if the content is appropriate for your child.
For younger elementary age:
Bad Kitty For President by Nick Bruel really surprised me. I was just expecting it to be a funny story, but it was also packed full of information on elections. Bad Kitty was bothered by all of the stray cats coming around. Since Old Kitty was no longer going to be President of the Neighborhood Cat Club, the narrator suggests to Bad Kitty that he should run for office so that he can try to fix his neighborhood problem. As Bad Kitty begins his quest for Presidency, he has to win the primary election, campaign, try to get an endorsement from Old Kitty, and win the election. Along the way he even finds unflattering news about himself in the paper and on “VueTube”. I have to admit I was pretty impressed with how much election information was in this book. For older readers, there are sections that give more factual information. The funny nature of Bad Kitty and comedic illustrations hold the child’s interest while they also learn some basic ideas of an election. I can see this appealing to wide range of ages. Just like the previous book, the abundance of pictures is extremely helpful in the recall of information.
If you want to check out another other Micheal Townsend book, my son absolutely loved this one:
Please Note: If you are also interested in this book, you will definitely want to look through it first to make sure it is appropriate for your child.This book appears to be for middle school kids. My oldest read it in first grade, but it does have some cartoon violence and kissing since it is retelling Greek Myths. To help you determine if this book is appropriate for your family, I included a this link to goodreads. It will take you directly to the review of this book so you have more information
Happy Reading!
~Sheana