'Vote!' among books dealing with election

When is a "party" not a party with candles and birthday cake?

Why can't you hang a flag on a "poll"?

Who can be a candidate and run for president?

You'd be surprised at the questions young children ask as they hear and watch the media surrounding Tuesday's election. Most of these questions can be answered with Eileen Christelow's "Vote!" (paperback, Clarion, $4.99), which tells of the local election of a new mayor.

With cartoon illustrations and simple text, campaigns begin and opinions run rampant using media blitzes and rallies surrounding political issues. Throughout the main story dogs appear in the sidelines wondering why they can't vote and explain what it means to "sign in" and prepare for a "recount."

The author has included a simple glossary, timeline of voting rights and additional resources to make research available to the youngest someday-to-be-voter.

Two short picture book biographies of the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates are available for first-through fourth-grade readers.

"My Dad, John McCain," by Meghan McCain and illustrated by Dan Andreasen (Aladdin, $16.99), is a tribute to a father who "loves his country," has served in the military and would be a faithful leader of a government. Photographs and cross-hatched pictures resemble a family picture album that a loving daughter would naturally put together. It was obviously conceived quickly to satisfy a publisher who wanted to be represented during November 2008, but it won't last past that date. There's too little meat here for a worthy autobiography of a political figure.

"Barack Obama: Son of Promise, Child of Hope," by Nikki Grimes and illustrated by Bryan Collier (Simon, $16.99), leads with a want-to-be objective attitude toward race. But it doesn't succeed. Calling Barack's mother "white as whipped cream" and his father "black as ink" dips into a tenor that pleads leniency for a boy who runs with hope and talks with God.

Obama's qualifications as an activist are pushed aside to tug at heartstrings, especially when the art portrays a young Obama with tears running down his face. The illustrations are interesting, but together with Grimes' slanted poetic text, they don't give the feel of a man who could be powerful enough to run the government.