The Kid Who Ran for President (Kid Who (Paperback))

Adults have tried long enough to clean up the problems of the world. It's time to give kids a chance, so Judson Moon, a funny and irreverent twelve year old in Madison, Wisconsin, is running for president of the United States. His friend, Lane Brainard, is his campaign manager. Lane knows quite a lot about running for president. Moon knows almost nothing. Wisely, he agrees to let Lane make all his decisions from the moment he announces his candidacy until the end of the campaign. June Syers, a surrogate grandmother to Moon, is his running mate, and Chelsea Daniels, one of the best looking girls in his class, is his "First Babe."Lane plants a story about Moon's candidacy which is picked up by news outlets. Soon Moon is constantly followed by reporters. Kids all over the country get involved in the "lemonade party," so called because they raise money for Moon by selling lemonade. They also talk their parents into voting for Moon.In the course of the campaign, Moon finds out what it's like to be center of attention, how one goes about changing the Constitution (so kids can be president), what a presidential debate is like, and what it's like to watch the returns on election night. He has a great time. Whenever the campaign gets too serious he reminds himself that he's just doing this "as a goof." When Lane gets too serious, Moon begins joking.The timing of this revised edition couldn't be better. The book is funny and fun and a completely painless way to learn about not only a presidential election but how to make a change to the Constitution.

I read somewhere recently that "The Kid Who Ran for President" is a perfect book for upper elementary/middle school students to read to understand the election process. Whoever made that comment is totally right. I learned a few things myself.In creating this unlikely scenario, Dan Gutman has threaded civics lessons through the warp and woof of the story of a 12-year-old running for president. Judson Moon and Lane Brainard (the names are intentionally derived by Gutman) decide that a kid needs to wage a campaign since the two presidential candidates set to run are so unsatisfactory.Lane is the brains of the two (get the pun?) and Judson the quick thinker on this feet. I must share this one part of the story. First, they need a slogan. Can't think of a good one. Decide VP--it's June Syers, an old African-American woman whom Judd loves as a grandmother. Do you see the slogan coming? It's Moon and June for office! Next, which party? Neither. Let's make a new one: the Lemonade Party. Who will be First Babe? And so on.The campaign develops its own life, especially with the machinations of Lane's braininess. They need twenty million to run a campaign. What Lane uses is brilliant and works (of course with a little help from the author). Everything they do snowballs for their benefit.That's all I will say, except that I thoroughly enjoyed this book for ages 9-12. It is fun, educational in a tricky way, and just plain ol' good reading. During the unwinding of the plot, several provocative questions are raised, leading to great class discussions!Do Judson Moon and June Syers win? The sequel is "The Kid Who Became President," yet the fun of the book is the journey, not the end. This book is highly recommended for class readings and discussion.

My son is 10, in 4th grade, on the autism spectrum and a reluctant reader. We are homeschooling this year and got this for an independent reading book to tie in to our unit on the election. My son loves this book. Not only would he willingly read it, but he’s laughing out loud at it and constantly reading me things he found interesting or funny. He’s asked for the sequel to it and we’ll likely start that after the new year to tie in with the inauguration. I highly recommend this book, especially if your child is a bit of a reluctant reader. It will draw them in and crack then up!

When Dan Gutman is in the zone, his prose is funny as heck and you learn something to boot! And, in this book, Dan Gutman is on! The answers our hero gives at a news conference are hilarious, and, especially in this campaign season, make me wish for something similar to happen on national TV. (I don't think it will.) And, sure, you have to suspend a bit of disbelief to get the story here, but so what? Some English girl really fell down a rabbit hole and had tea with a mouse? Right. It's funny, it teaches some stuff about political campaigns, and it doesn't cost much. What the heck more do you want, huh? The Kid Who Ran for President (Kid Who (Paperback))

In this crazy election year, I am definitely going to be reading this to my 3rd and 4th grade students.Judson Moon likes to do crazy things. With the help of his friend as his campaign manager, He decides to run for president. What I love about this book is it goes though the whole process from getting on the ballot to the election in a way that makes it understandable for the 3rd grader on up. Not going to be a case study in process for middle or high schoolers, but I think it is a great introduction to the process for younger students.Aside from being a nice introduction into the political election process, it is just fun and entertaining read.

My jah. This book is great. I am reading to my 6th grade class around election time and it perfect. It is non-partisan, and points out the ridiculousness of our system while still praising eventual hope. It pins adults as the source of all problems and that a kid is the only one who can really fix the problems we face. I can't recommend this book enough.I have a question though. Was this book updated? There are references to twitter and tumbler and those weren't around in 1996. The rest seems prophetic, but some of the language feels updated.

My granddaughter and I read this book over the summer. It was fun for both of us and a good discussion starter. We both learned things about the presidency that we hadn't known before. It's very good especially in an election year to read with kids

Bought for a Christmas present for my nephew who loves it!

To be frank, I had not heard of this book till yesterday, notwithstanding the fact that it was released in 1996; thanks to an endorsement to the book from John Oliver during his show Last Week Tonight. The book is about a twelve year old kid from Wisconsin, Judson Moon, who decides to run for president following persuasion from his friend Lane. While Moon himself does not have any bright ideas nor is he aware of any of the issues faced by the country, Lane decides to be his spin doctor and manage his campaign, to make him attractive to the electorate; by selecting Moon's elderly neighbour, an African American woman as his running mate, selecting an attractive girl to be the First Lady (First Babe, as he had put it) and yes, push for the Constitutional Amendment removing age restrictions to become president.The book is very relevant today considering Donald Trump's campaign that has been going on. The author had very beautifully brought out how one could appealing to the electorate just by telling things they wish to hear, regardless of whether it is practical or not (I shall share some of the quotes from the book below). Moreover, I feel this book is a very good read for children across the world considering, kids love to see one of them outsmart the grown-ups (the theme of most Japanese anime) and particularly a good read for young Americans as it does broadly explain how the complex US electoral system works. An excellent thing the author has done is that he revised the book in 2012, to make it more relevant for today (removing references to archaic technology, for instance); I wondered at first as to how there were references to Barack Obama and also the 2000 election where George Bush became president despite Al Gore securing more votes but then, it was a good move to update the book with these incidents (especially, the 2000 election is an excellent example for explaining the electoral college system).'It's more important for you to look as if you know what you're talking about than it is for you to know what you're talking about.' - Page 27'To win this election I became everything I always hated. I turned into a liar, a fake, a fraud. The saddest part is, it worked.' - Judson Moon'Your candidacy is a joke! Your running mate is a grown-up, you hypocrite! You don't know anything about anything. You're going to make all kids look bad!' A group of boys jumped on Krantz and started punching him. - This is exactly what happens at a Trump rally when you criticise him or in social media; where any constructive criticism is met with abuse by pro-Trump people. Those who backed the leave campaign in the EU membership referendum in UK behaved pretty much the same way.Anyway, I would get back to the book rather than digressing. The biggest problem I had with the book was the character of Lane. While every other kid in the book actually behaved like a kid, Lane had the maturity to understand voters' psychology and in fact, would have made a proper spin doctor for a serious politician. It could have been much better if this character had been an adult, after all, this book wasn't devoid of adults, the running-mate was an adult, this character could've been an acquaintance too, like his father's friend or so. While I understand the whole story is satirical, I can't help but ignore, what kind of a school principal allows a student to make anti-homework statements in school and be proud of the student?Considering today's context, with Trump's joke of a campaign as background, this book has been thoroughly enjoyable, although I am unsure as to whether this book would be as enjoyable once this charade by Trump is over.Coming to rating the book, it was a light read (took me just ninety minutes to read) with a decent story livened up by the 2016 US election. I would award the book a rating of four on five. Thank you, John Oliver, for the suggestion.

Wow wow wow wow wow wow wow wow wow wow wow wow wow wow wow wow wow wow wow wow wow wow wow wow wow wow wow wow wow wow wow wow es increíble este libró. Alucinante

Loved the book it was so exiting I carnt believe he gave up right after he was elelcted to be the president awesome book

Super ouvrage en anglais, pour que les ados (13-15 ans) puissent pratiquer l'anglais tout en apprenant le système électoral américain. Assez facile et rapide à lire. De quoi aiguiser l'esprit critique et faire des parallèles avec l'actuel président américain.