Book #20 - Duck for President

"VOTE DUCK! For a kinder, gentler farm!"

Title: Duck for President

Author: Doreen Cronin

Illustrator: Betsy Lewin

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Date of Publication: 2004

Genre: Fiction

Readability Lexile: 680L

Summary:
This is the story about one duck who doesn’t like his status or chores on the farm. He decided to hold farm election to get rid of Farmer Brown  and in place,  Duck will be the new farmer… if he can win the race. All the farm animals vote and its unanimous, Duck is the new farmer. After doing all of the farmer’s usual chores he decides that being a farmer is too hard and no fun. Duck decides to run for governor. He wins but decides that being governor is too much work and is not fun at all. Duck decides to run for president and after he wins, once again, he decides that he doesn’t like his new job. He puts a classified out in the newspaper for a duck to fill in his place as president and then goes make to the farm to write his autobiography.

Evaluation:
This is a funny and silly story about one duck’s quest for a better life on the farm and turns into so much more than that. Even thought this story is pretty unrealistic since farm animals can’t actually run for political office, the idea of campaigning, voting, and democracy is very realistic. The main character, Duck, must overcome some problems in this story. He decides that he doesn’t like his farm life and goes on to actually do something about it. He works hard to get votes and run the farm, state, and country. In the end Duck learns that the grass isn’t always greener on the other side.  The setting of this story is Farmer Brown’s farm, the campaign trail as Duck runs for office, and the Oval Office of the White House. The setting adds a lot to the story because it makes it silly and fun. I mean, who would ever think they would see a duck in the Oval Office running the country? The author does a nice job of keeping the main character’s actions and language relevant to his personality. This book would best be suited for kindergarten through  third grade students but the  political element could be used with other students as well.

Literary Elements:
1. Personification: The author uses personification to make this book engaging and funny for students to read. We all know that ducks can’t actually decide to quit working on a farm, kick out the farmer, run for political office, and eventually before the President of the United State of America. The author could have easily written this story about a human character but I think, by making the main character at fed up duck, students find it more interesting and silly.
2. Tone: This book is meant to be funny and the personification of the duck helps to make that happen. Even though this book has realistic topics, the use of a duck as the main character create a comical tone to the story. The illustrations also help to make this story lighthearted and silly.
3. Theme: As I said before, Duck learns that the grass isn’t always greener on the other side or that you don’t miss what you have until it is gone. Duck wants a different life but when he gets it he wishes he was back on the farm, doing his chores, and being covered with grass and Espresso beans.

Illustrations:
The illustrations in this book are created by using watercolors. They will draw in kids and parents alike wither their funny  portrayals of Duck, Farmer Brown, and the other farm animals and their clever use of secondary text to tell the story and spread meaning beyond the main text of the book. The illustrations also do a nice job of showing the emotions of Duck as he lives on the farm and eventually moves to the White House and everything in between.

Mini-Lesson Idea:
I would use this book to teach about campaigning, voting, and electing. I include these ideas in with literacy I would group students and have them develop they own class president campaign. Using Duck’s example from the book, students would decide what issues they would focus on and how they would want to present their campaign. What kind of things would they promise to the classroom public? What would get them elected? How would they keep those promises?