rhyming picture books for election time

I can't imagine that there's a grown-up in the USA who isn't aware it's election time! But for young children, it all might be a bit bewildering. Books to the rescue!

These two picture books in rhyme are perfect read-alouds for election season.

SOFIA VALDEZ, FUTURE PREZ by Andrea Beaty and David Roberts (Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2019) is part of "The Questioneers" series. The character-driven story features second-grader Sofia, who loves to help people. When her Abuelo gets hurt at the local landfill, Sofia wonders what can be done with that mess (introduction of the problem).

This book and the other Questioneers books, is written mostly in couplets (every two lines rhyme), and the meter most often uses an anapest foot. An anapest rhythm repeats the pattern of two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed syllable. The lines in this book feature four stressed beats. da-da-DUM-da-da-DUM-da-da-DUM-da-da-DUM. There's a nice use of L alliteration in the second line -- leftover/local/landfill. And the onomatopoeia "CRASH!" at the end of the fourth line gives a nice punch at the end of this page.
(In isolation, the first line tripped me up a bit because I want to stress the word UP. But when read as part of the whole book, the line reads more smoothly due to the strong rhythm set up by Andrea Beaty from the start.)

When Sofia comes up with the idea of replacing the landfill with a park, it means gathering up the courage to present her idea to the government of her town:

On this page, Andrea Beaty varies the pattern of her verse by using three rhyming lines (a triplet) instead of two. This adds interest and variety for the reader. 
I love all of the C sounds in the line "The crowd leaned in closer. Sofia leaned back."

Sofia's explanation and enthusiasm gets the support of the mayor and the rest of the community:

Note the multi-syllable words on this page that make up the rhyming pair (petition/commission). Although you need to keep the age of your reader in mind, don't shy away from occasionally using more complex words if they are appropriate to the story! 

In the end, the community pulls together and Citizens' Park gets built. Hooray for Sofia for bringing change to her community!

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ROCK THAT VOTE by Meg Fleming and Lucy Ruth Cummins (Dial Books for Young Readers, 2022) is a wonderful, accessible introduction to the idea of voting. The need for a vote is set up from the very first page:

The class is getting a new pet, but which one? The author has chosen to tell the story in "terse verse" (clipped, punchy text) which lends itself to chanting on many of the pages.

Here you see the students making campaign posters for the pet of their choice. The meter of the two lines on the left page uses a trochee foot -- a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable -- with an eliminated unstressed syllable at the end of the lines. DUM-da-DUM-da-DUM-da-DUM. The right page is slightly different, but it feels trochee because most readers will add a little pause or breath after the one-syllable words before moving on to the two syllable words:
DUCK. (pause) TUR-tle. FISH. (pause) FER-ret.
SNAIL. (pause) GER-bil. FROG. (pause) PAR-rot.
It's a very fun, driving beat!

Let the voting commence! "ROCK THAT VOTE!" is a rhyme that carries over from the previous page, which uses an ellipsis (...) to encourage the page turn. Great illustration showing the students casting their votes! And a wonderful introduction for kids of what a ballot box is.
A second pet is chosen, then students vote again to name the pets. 

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I hope you have a chance to check out both of these rhyming picture books. Which one gets your vote as the best?

​~ Patricia Toht