Children's

Read the Vote: Children’s Books about Voting and the Presidential Election

Books to read with your kids about voting rights and democracy!

Elizabeth Allen Oct 12, 2016

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Elizabeth Allen

Staff Writer

Lifelong book lover, Elizabeth Allen managed to get a degree in something completely unrelated that she never intends to use. She’s a proud Connecticut native who lives in a picturesque small town with her black olive-obsessed toddler daughter, her prom date-turned-husband, and her two dim-witted cats Penny Lane and Gretchen Wieners. She spends her days trying to find a way to be paid to read while drinking copious amounts of coffee, watching episodes of Gilmore girls until the DVDs fail, waiting for her husband to feed her, and being obnoxiously vain about her hair. Elizabeth’s work can be found at www.blackwhitereadbooks.com, where she is currently reading and reviewing all of the books referenced in Gilmore girls. She is also the cohost of two podcasts discussing the work of Amy Sherman-Palladino (“Under the Floorboards” and “Stumbling Ballerinas”). Basically, her entire goal in life is to be a bookish Lorelai Gilmore. She clearly dreams big. Twitter: @BWRBooks

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When My Ántonia was published (1918), Willa Cather did not yet have the right to vote. When Invisible Man was published (1952), Ralph Ellison was not yet fully able to have a say in the leader of the country in which he lived and wrote.

Women have had the right to vote for less than one hundred years. African-Americans have had the right to vote for half of that. In the middle of a rather controversial and racially charged presidential race, it has never been more apparent to me how important it is to exercise your right to vote. We feel powerless so much of the time; we worry about living under a president that sees us as lesser than because of the anatomy we possess or the color of our skin. We, rightfully so, worry about how that will impact our every day civil liberties. We want our voices to be heard, but so many people have lost all faith in the system, some out of ignorance of the process, some out of simple disillusionment.

The selection of the 45th President of the United States of America proves just how important it is to vote. And, in my mind, it’s never too early to educate children on the crucial and essential nature of this imperative civic duty.

So begin speaking with your children now about the election process. I’m not suggesting you force a three year old to listen to some out-of-touch dude talking about how “massive” a 160 lb woman is. I’m not even suggesting you utter the words “Benghazi” to them. But the right to vote is a privilege that, in 2016, not all citizens retain. So to disregard it as yet another unimportant errand one can ignore is to disregard all the work that was done on our behalf to gift us with that right.

Here are some children’s books that will not only inform kids of the election process, but might spark in them a lifelong understanding of how crucial this process is to living under a fair and civil democracy.