July 15, 2024
The child of a newly elected House representative tours Congress with guides corporeal and spectral in this content-heavy paneled primer. Accompanying their mother to the Capitol in Washington, D.C., brown-skinned Alice voices frustration over how much the parent’s role requires. As Mom attends an event, Alice sets off solo, meeting a snarky spectral feline along with the ghost of James Madison, who explain the legislative branch’s history and function. Wandering the halls, Alice and the cat cross paths with the ghost of Senator Blanche Bruce and a fully alive Senate page, congressional committee staffer, lobbyist, and
Capitol Police officer, each of whom reveals more about governance and pivotal historical conflicts (the Civil War, the
January 6 U.S. Capitol attack). Begiraj’s basic illustrations have a paper-doll quality, with most characters depicted head-on, leaving ample room for dense, textbook-like speech balloons. Characters are portrayed with various skin tones. A glossary and additional info conclude. Ages 4–8.
September 1, 2024
A ghostly cat and other residents of the U.S. Capitol give a newly elected representative's young daughter an introduction to Congress. Left to her own devices while Mom takes care of official business, Alice finds a series of friendly tour guides--including the specters of a cat, James Madison, and Blanche Bruce, the first Black senator to serve a full term--who take her around the building and fill her in on the party and electoral systems, the jobs of each of the three branches as defined by the Constitution, and the legislative process. If Madison's assertions that "we don't put one person in charge of everything" and that only Congress makes laws "and even the president must follow them" will have ironic rings to readers up on current events (or, for that matter, U.S. history), such claims do at least indicate how the federal government is supposed to work. At times, though, the book offers a look at some harsher realities: A chart showing how bills become law includes some of the many ways a bill can die, Mihaly gives a nod toward the long struggle for equal voting rights for all, and the book provides a straightforward recap of the events of January 6, 2021. In the neatly drawn graphic panels, Alice (brown-skinned like her mother) encounters racially diverse groups of tourists, officials, and workers, including people who use wheelchairs. A timely, basic, and, at least in spots, refreshingly frank overview. (glossary, facts about Congress, congressional firsts)(Informational picture book. 7-9)
COPYRIGHT(2024) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
October 11, 2024
Grades K-3 In this fun, fact-filled overview of Congress, a girl whose mother has just been elected to the House of Representatives goes on a mostly ghostly tour of the U.S. Capitol. Initially, the girl is upset that her mother will spend so much time away from home. Enter the ghost of a cat (the spirit of one of the many cats originally kept in the Capitol to keep the rat population down), who offers to give the girl a tour through history. More ghosts appear. James Madison steps out of the famous painting depicting the signing of the Constitution and outlines the three branches of government. Senator Blanche Bruce, born into slavery, leaves his portrait to talk about the road to equality. Living guides, including a tour guide, a senate page, and a security guard (who talks about the January 6 Insurrection) follow. Although the text-heavy format may be too advanced for the youngest readers, the frame of guides, living and dead, is a great way to showcase useful and fascinating information.
COPYRIGHT(2024) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.